Golden Age

A Novel

By: Jane Smiley

Narrated by: Lorelei King

Length: 17 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

From the winner of the Pulitzer Prize: the much-anticipated final volume, following Some Luck and Early Warning, of her acclaimed American trilogy—a richly absorbing new novel that brings the remarkable Langdon family into our present times and beyond

A lot can happen in one hundred years, as Jane Smiley shows to dazzling effect in her Last Hundred Years trilogy. But as Golden Age, its final installment, opens in 1987, the next generation of Langdons face economic, social, political—and personal—challenges unlike anything their ancestors have encountered before.

Michael and Richie, the rivalrous twin sons of World War II hero Frank, work in the high-stakes world of government and finance in Washington and New York, but they soon realize that one’s fiercest enemies can be closest to home; Charlie, the charming, recently found scion, struggles with whether he wishes to make a mark on the world; and Guthrie, once poised to take over the Langdons’ Iowa farm, is instead deployed to Iraq, leaving the land—ever the heart of this compelling saga—in the capable hands of his younger sister.

Determined to evade disaster, for the planet and her family, Felicity worries that the farm’s once-bountiful soil may be permanently imperiled, by more than the extremes of climate change. And as they enter deeper into the twenty-first century, all the Langdon women—wives, mothers, daughters—find themselves charged with carrying their storied past into an uncertain future.

Combining intimate drama, emotional suspense, and a full command of history, Golden Age brings to a magnificent conclusion the century-spanning portrait of this unforgettable family—and the dynamic times in which they’ve loved, lived, and died: a crowning literary achievement from a beloved master of American storytelling.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2015 Jane Smiley (P)2015 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“The thought of writing a series that spans a century with each chapter representing a year might sound daunting to some authors. Jane Smiley, however, is not just any author . . . Golden Age takes readers from 1987 up to 2020, lending a prophetic eye to the world beyond the pages. There’s much to admire: Smiley’s attention to detail in each and every year; her knowledge of politics, environmentalism, and genetics; her humor; her stripped back prose. On the farm, descriptions of the land put you right in the heart of a place that is rapidly disappearing . . . Smiley chronicles 20th-century life like few have, with the same scope and fastidiousness of Phillip Roth, Saul Bellow, and John Updike. After reading about five generations of a family, wars, financial crises, global warming, and the rise of the technological age, it makes you stop and think about how much has changed—and yet how little has changed at the same time [in] this place we call the US.” —Dana De Greff, Miami New Times

“[In] Smiley’s ambitious project of covering 100 years in the life of an Iowa family, the Langdon offspring travel across the country, across the world, even. Members of three different generations find themselves fighting in wars overseas. There are marriages that last and unions that fail. There are sublime moments of peace and contentment and sudden tragedies that knock the survivors (and readers) back a step. But death in a family is inevitable, especially over the lifetimes of many characters . . . The power of memory and nostalgia fuels the trilogy.” —Connie Ogle, Miami Herald

“Jane Smiley has such a clear, strong, American voice, there is no mistaking her work for any other. She’s my favorite kind of writer, mingling vivid plots with ingenious characters with subtle, nuanced interiority. She writes with such generous heaps of humor and grief, you feel a little richer and keener for reading her books.” —Diana Abu-Jaber [as quoted in the Miami Herald]

brilliant and moving masterpiece

The whole trilogy gives a brilliant, incisive, sympathetic, unflinching, and amazingly complex picture of white middle class America from 1920 to 2020. The characters are fully drawn and engaging. The personal lives and varied journeys of four generations of a family starting on an Iowa farm present a panoramic and developmental account of social, economic, political, and cultural history. The story ends just a little farther down the road than we are now, brilliantly detailing how we arrived at our current economic, political, and environmental peril. At the same time the exquisitely sensitive descriptions of life stages -- infancy, adolescence, marriage, work, and old age -- are deeply moving. This is trilogy makes me wish I was still a teacher. I would love to teach a full-year course on the history of the last 100 years using this as the main text with student reports on what she left out (mainly the experiences of people of color and working class, also a little of conventional "history" thrown in). I can't remember reading anything I thought was this great, at least not for a long time

excellent read

Excellent read from Jane Smiley. Finishes her trilogy. You do need to read/listen to the first two volumes. The cast of characters is very large in this volume. We listened to the audio book for all three volumes. The reader was excellent.

Little hard to follow all the characters.

Where does Golden Age rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I would rank it near the middle 50%. Perhaps if I had listened to the earlier works, it would have been easier to follow.

Would you recommend Golden Age to your friends? Why or why not?

I would recommend reading the book, rather than just listening to it. There are so many characters, I needed to draw up my own family chart.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, this is a really long saga. I listened to it over about 10 days.

Epic storytelling.

I binge-listened to Jane Smiley's trilogy, beginning with "Some Luck." I feel as if I lived with her finely wrought characters and will miss them very much. What an accomplishment, to write a family saga that is both vast and intimate.

Borin

What disappointed you about Golden Age?

I really did try to like this book because I did like the first two in the series. However, after listening to it for over 2 hours, I could take it no more. The story was disjointed, boring, tedious.

What could Jane Smiley have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Written a more entertaining story.

How could the performance have been better?

Learn how to pronounce cities (Peshtigo), names (Alicia) etc. Stop reading the book and give some life to the performance. Be spontaneous. Add some life to your voice.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No.

Any additional comments?

Would like my money back. Very disappointing. I've only returned 1 book in many years of listenership. This is the 2nd one.