Golden Age is the third and final novel in Jane Smiley's Hundred Years Trilogy. The first book began in 1919 and was called Some Luck. I reviewed it in January. The second book was called Early Warning and I reviewed it in March. The trilogy is about an Iowa farm family and it centers around the farm even though the family member's experiences branch out across the country and even the globe. In this final book the time frame covered is 1987 - 2019 and so most of the events experienced by the family are things that I remember happening. Smiley places one family member on the place that hit the pentagon on 911, one young man comes home from the Iraq War with PTSD, one man is in congress while Cinton and then Bush are in office. It is interesting how the author has different branches of the family on different sides of the political spectrum and how she deals with issues such as the 2008 financial crisis. It is eerie as she moves the book and family into the future of a farm lost to illegal foreclosure and the country turning into a dust bowl. At the end one of the great grand daughters visits the farm land in Iowa that the family no longer owns and measures the top soil. In 1919 the top soil was 14 inches deep and dark and rich but in 2019 she finds 2 inches of thin, dusty top soil. I really liked this trilogy and will read more of Jane Smiley's work. I highly recommend these three novels to others. Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow the links to learn more and enjoy the video that follows.
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