Golden Age (Smiley)

Book Reviews
As the book opens in 1987, family members are back at the Iowa farmstead.... The title, readers come to suspect, is an ironic reference to the Gilded Age, another era of boom, bust, and shady dealings.... What lingers...aren’t the encounters with marquee historical events...but Smiley’s detailed depiction of the kaleidoscopic geometries of family.
Publishers Weekly


Centering on...the children of family pillar Frank Langdon.... Smiley is most successful in relaying historical fiction; chapters set in the future often seem extraneous. Yet the boon of Smiley's writing is her unforgettable characters and unexpected relationships.... A fitting conclusion to the trilogy —Stephanie Sendaula
Library Journal


(Starred review.) Smiley sustains an enthralling narrative velocity and buoyancy, punctuated with ricocheting dialogue...[with] precisely calibrated prose, abiding connection to the terrain she maps, fascination with her characters, and command of the nuances of the predicaments.... Readers will be reading, and rereading, Smiley’s Last Hundred Years far into the next.  —Donna Seaman
Booklist


The title is decidedly sardonic, given the number of deaths and disasters Smiley inflicts on the Langdon family and kin in the final volume of her Last Hundred Years trilogy.... Despite all the dire events, the narrative energy of masterfully interwoven plotlines always conveys a sense of life as an adventure worth pursuing.
Kirkus Reviews