![]() But the Langdons never live outside of American history. In fact, her humanely realized characters are what make these novels so addictive. ![]() These problematic familial relationships are explored with biting intelligence, great narrative skill, good humor and generosity of spirit. A long-alienated husband and wife find a surprising, loving accommodation late in their marriage, for example, and the love-hate relationship of twin brothers Michael, a high-flying venture capitalist, and Richie, a well-intentioned congressman, goes completely off the rails. These ups and downs only proliferate as the story unfolds, until this final episode concludes in 2019. By this point, readers know intimately many of these characters and are familiar with the affections and antagonisms that bind and separate parents and children, aunts and uncles, husband and wives, brothers, sisters and cousins. Gathered are the surviving children and a number of grandchildren of Walter and Rosanna Langdon, the progenitors and subject of the trilogy’s first volume, Some Luck, which began in 1923. ![]() ![]() Golden Age, the third and final volume of Jane Smiley’s splendid The Last Hundred Years trilogy, opens during a 1987 family reunion at the Langdon family farm in Iowa. ![]()
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