The first volume in The Last Hundred Years Trilogy (which seems to truly be one long novel, but more on that as I actually read the trio of books), by Jane Smiley, is Some Luck. Each of the three books follows the Langdon family, year by year (each chapter represents a single year) and the tale begins with 1920.
1922
In year number three, while there is the addition of a family member, there's less about the new addition than about the Langdon family and life on the farm. Smiley allows for Walter to internalize some of this thoughts on farming. She does this by allowing for 1922 to be a year that is spent mainly on harvest season. Numerous families from the area help each other out, going from farm to farm and harvesting crops. When they get to the Langdon farm, we find out that a main crop being harvested is oats and get to dip into Walter's head to find out his thoughts on various crops, various animal raising ideas, and how he expects to make money--while also finding out that he can't imagine making enough money to not only pay your mortgage, but also to own a car.
It's interesting learning more about the farming process and some of the other families in the area. Smiley also introduces Joey, Frank's little brother, and we find out that the pregnancy, birth and post-pregnancy were far from easy for Rosanna. Through this we also learn that Eloise was her own mother's most difficult child. We also learn that with Rosanna sick and tired for so much of the year, that Eloise has become almost indispensable to the Langdon's. And in keeping up with the early star of the novel, Frank has grown quite large for his age, and is a boy's boy--roughhousing, pushing back against his father bit by bit, and, once Joey was born, losing some of that very tight mother-son bond he'd had with Rosanna.
Another enjoyable chapter that seemed to both flush out some aspects of the Langdon family, while bringing us another member to look forward to learning about.
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