Early Warning (Last Hundred Year Trilogy, 2)
Jane Smiley, 2015
496 pp.

Book Review by Molly Lundquist
June, 2015
Much of Jane Smiley's power as a writer lies in her remarkable ability to place readers smack in the middle of a circle of characters and make us feel intimately connected. Her latest novel showcases that talent, engaging us in the minutiae of her characters' lives—all the while carrying us along in an epic sweep of 20th-century history.

With this second installment of her "Last Hundred Years" trilogy, Smiley continues the trajectory of the Langdons—an Iowa farm family—picking up with them after World War II. Like the first volume Some Luck (2014), each chapter covers a single year, taking us from 1953 to 1986.

Now adults, the Langdon siblings cope with the vicissitudes of the mid- to late-1900s. There's Frank, the handsome eldest son, who lives a life of hollow luxury in New York; Joe the second who continues on the farm, a narrowly defined but deeply rooted existence; Lillian, now a devoted mother and wife of a CIA operative; Henry the bachelor academic; and Claire the youngest, shyest, and perhaps least fleshed-out of the Langdon siblings.

Despite their different lives and personalities, the five are bound to one another by their shared childhood—and by their strong-willed, no-nonsense mother Rosanna.

If the book lacks the grand scope of the first volume, perhaps it's because the great struggles of the 1930s and 40s—the Dust Bowl, Great Depression, and World War—have passed. The era's new troubles seem smaller in comparison, lacking the desperate urgency of the previous book.

Nonetheless, we're present, in a Forest Gumpish way, for the major touchstones of post-war era—the Mid-East, emerging gay life, Vietnam, and Watergate. All of it touches various members of the Langdon family in some fashion.

Smiley's characters are beautifully rendered, all portrayed with a sensitivity and generosity that never gush over into sentimentality. At times little seems to happen, but the slow accretion of details as individual lives unfold makes this a sumptuous—and highly rewarding—read.

See our Reading Guide for Early Warning.