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Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML:From the Pulitzer Prize-winner: the second installment, following Some Luck, of her widely acclaimed, best-selling American trilogy, which brings the journey of a remarkable family with roots in the Iowa heartland into mid-century America Early Warning opens in 1953 with the Langdon family at a crossroads. Their stalwart patriarch, Walter, who with his wife, Rosanna, sustained their farm for three decades, has suddenly died, leaving their five children, now adults, looking to the future. Only one will remain in Iowa to work the land, while the others scatter to Washington, D.C., California, and everywhere in between. As the country moves out of post�??World War II optimism through the darker landscape of the Cold War and the social and sexual revolutions of the 1960s and �??70s, and then into the unprecedented wealth�??for some�??of the early 1980s, the Langdon children each follow a different path in a rapidly changing world. And they now have children of their own: twin boys who are best friends and vicious rivals; a girl whose rebellious spirit takes her to the notorious Peoples Temple in San Francisco; and a golden boy who drops out of college to fight in Vietnam�??leaving behind a secret legacy that will send shock waves through the Langdon family into the next generation. Capturing a transformative period through richly drawn characters we come to know and care deeply for, Early Warning continues Smiley�??s extraordinary epic trilogy, a gorgeously told saga that began with Some Luck and will span a century in America. But it also stands entirely on its own as an engrossing story of the challenges�??and rewards�??of family and home, even in the most turbulent of times, all while showcasing a beloved writer at the height of her cons… (more)
User reviews
The Langdons ruined me for any other family saga after I finished Some Luck. I wasn't interested in reading about any other family -- luckily I was able to snag a digital review copy of this one!
The same thing I said about Some Luck remains here -- if you're looking
However, still a good read and I can't wait to spend another 30 years with this family.
I was frustrated. Very frustrated.
It didn't help that some of the characters were quite unlikable. Ones who were not likable but tolerable in the first book became worse.
But I persevered, and in the end, I liked the book. I grew to know the characters, and they were definitely not caricatures; all were interesting in their different ways. I especially liked the way the history of the time, especially the fear of communism and war, the psychoanalysis that was almost a fad, was integrated into the story. Ms. Smiley's writing, as always, is lovely.
I'll read the third book when it is available. I loved the first, liked the second, and have great hope for the third. But, although some trilogies can be read as stand-alone novels, I strongly suggest you read the first if you want to jump into this one.
When it begins, the family is at the funeral of Rosanna’s husband, Walter Langdon, and when it ends, we have witnessed several more funerals, the last of which is Lillian Langdon’s. New beginnings await the family as a young man named Charles enters their lives, unexpectedly bringing tears to the eyes of the new widower, Arthur, and confusion to his surviving siblings.
Because of the numerous family members and their friends and extended families, the details sometimes become tedious and repetitive. Every societal ill is visited upon the family at one time or another, and the reader is subjected to a play by play description as the story plays out. Of course, children are born, the elderly die, relatives grow ill, sibling rivalry causes turmoil. There are clashes of philosophies as children grow older and disagree with their parent’s perspectives. All of the ordinary incidents of life, and then some, occur. Nothing is left out as the family moves through the years, travels to various locations, takes up diverse occupations and styles of life.
Some members join the military, some work for the government, some sell weapons, some enter the publishing field, some farm, some entertain, and some join cults. Infidelity is common as is divorce. The mental state of some of the family members leaves a lot to be desired. There is alcoholism, lying, and infidelity as well as divorce, bank failures and bankruptcies. All of society’s ills in those three decades are manifested in one way or another.
Across the pages we watch the soldiers march off to the Viet Nam War, we witness Nixon’s disgrace, the assassination of JFK, MLK and Robert Kennedy, the mass suicide in Guyana instigated by Reverend Jones who created Jonestown and the People‘s Temple. We follow Reagan’s election, Mao Tse Tung, Stalin, Patty Hearst, Jerry Brown and Angela Davis, also the workings of Un-American Committees looking for Communists. We read about itinerant workers, prostitution, socialism, funerals with their heartrending eulogies paying homage to the dead, family breakdowns, marriages torn asunder, college dropouts, tapped phones, police brutality, Kent State, cancer, and even childbirth in a bathtub. There is homophobia, homosexuality, racism, multiple births, drugs, protests, suicide, murder, domestic violence, intermarriage, religious bias, cross dressing and sex between patient and analyst, and of course, there are varied political points of view. Have I missed anything? Don’t worry, it will surely appear between the pages of the book. Just think, all of this happened in just three decades! What awaits us in the final installment of the book which will take us to the present day? One can only imagine.
Every year between 1953 and 1985 is a chapter. Throughout, the focus is on the impact of current events on the entire Langdon clan and especially on two married couples, Arthur and Lillian and Frank and Andy (Andrea). Arthur and Frank are brothers and Arthur is with the CIA from pre-JFK. Two of their children are also prominent - Janny, who joins the Rev Jim Jones and almost drinks the KoolAid, and Timmy, who is killed in Vietnam. Other memorable characters are twins Michael and Richie, sons of Frank and Andy, whose rivalry in all areas of their lives is both vaguely psychotic but also hilarious.
And there are still some scions who are farming. Their struggle to finally pay off the farm and stay solvent during setback after setback stays in the background until the sale of acreage impacts those family members who've left the rural life far behind them.
It's tough getting through the decades and the many pages, and I wish Smiley had made this a set of four (but "trilogy" does have a much better ring to it). I'm really looking forward to the third book. After I've read it, I'll gather together the whole set and reread them all in sequence. It will be a most pleasurable endeavor.
Smiley still remains one of my favorite authors, for her constant insights into what our hearts are hiding.
This books sees the death of Walter, Rosanna taking driving lessons, and the turning over of the farm to Joe. (Although I expected a family feud about who owned what, that transfer was settled pretty easily in light of the high rise in farm land prices). The book is more about the children of the Langdon kids: Janet (who can't stand her father Frank), and Frank's twin sons, Richie and Michael who are also bullies and wild and marry girls from different ends of the political spectrum. Lillian's son, Tim, is killed in the Middle East.
This book is not as interesting as "Some Luck" because there are just too many characters to keep track of - brothers, sister, and cousins. Although there is a family tree in the front which helps. Life is very different for these cousins from the life on the farm for Rosanna and Walter. Perhaps too different at times: the social evolution of some of the children seem to move too fast. For example, Eloise, Rosanna, is a Communist in California and Frank's association with Washington big wigs.
Not sure I will read the third book - right now just kind of tired of the Langdon family.
I read Some Luck 7 months ago, and definitely had some trouble picking up on who was who again. And I will certainly be reading number 3 when it comes out, though I imagine I will have the same problem again.
Opening at the funeral of Walter in Iowa, the Langdons are now scattered across the country. Their families are growing and we are meeting the second and third generations in this multi-generational saga. You will want to start with Some Luck for a sense of continuity and in order to follow the characters in Early Warning. The series is as much a social history of the USA as it is of the Langdon family. There are a lot of characters and changes to keep track of along with all the social changes of the times.
Smiley's continues to carefully craft her story while placing her characters firmly in the time period. She covers the decades and the historical events that happened during that time. Her writing continues to be excellent as is her ability to tell the story of various family members while keeping to her organization of by-the-year chapters.
Early Warning does suffer a little from the second-book-in-a-trilogy syndrome. It is good, but you want the stories to continue immediately rather than waiting for the next installment.
Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Knopf Doubleday for review purposes.
AS Walter and Rosanna's children marry and have children of their own, the country passesd from the prosperous post-war 1960's to the turbulent q960's and '70's and tehn into the showy, splashy 1980's. Throughout it all, the family manages to hold onto the threads that bind it together and the reader gets to relive the Vietnam war, student protests, the sxual revolution, women's liberation, the People's Temple in San Francisco, the Reagon revoltion and finally the collapse of farm prices and the S&L loan scandal
Smiley not only gives us a panoramic view of mid-century life, but also a cast of characters that readers should grow to care about.
Covering the next 30 years, from the 1950s to the 1980s, Smiley continues her aga saga, centred around the Langdon family of Iowa. I didn't even properly recall all the first generation of characters after five years, but sure as hell wasn't about to go back to the beginning for a recap! (And I was very glad of the family tree in the front of the book.) None of the second generation are really very sympathetic or appealing - most come across as sociopathic, to be honest. And all the women do, even into the 80s, is stay in unhealthy relationships and breastfeed.
In the best tradition of Austen, nothing really happens. Families fight, parents - and sometimes children - die, a new generation comes along. The one subplot even close to being suspenseful was telegraphed too clearly and too early to make a ripple in the pond. I did like a line of dialogue from the final page (ha!), which made me think: 'Who you are shapes how you are loved.'
I love character-driven stories, especially about families, but this took me far too long to read - I kept nodding off after a couple of pages! Not sure about finishing the trilogy - maybe after another five year break!