Early Warning: A novel
By: Jane Smiley
Rating: 4 of 5
“Early Warning” is the second book of a trilogy. I high recommend that you read “Some Luck”, the first in the trilogy before reading this book. The set of books is about a family that start out as farmers and how and where they end up. The end of the first book is 1953 – which is also where the second book picks up.
Where the first book focused on a little more than a handful of characters – telling the story via each of their standpoints (from third person narrative), the second book covers many more people from the same sort of point of view. I found myself constantly referring to the genealogy listed at the beginning of the book to try to keep track of how each of them were related. Without having read the first book, I really would have felt lost.
The second book covers the period from 1953 to 1986. I presume that the third of the trilogy will pick up at 1986 and continue to the present. While the title implies a focus on nuclear war, there wasn’t really that much to do with it. Perhaps it is really more to do with the years being roughly coinciding with the years of the Cold War (a little early at the beginning and not quite far enough on the later date.)
There are births and deaths, some of which were more tragic to me than others. While it is a bit of a slice of life, the one element missing was that of joyful occurrences. I would have liked to see a little bit of happiness mixed in with the dissatisfaction and unhappiness that is the mainstay of the story.
Apart from the slightly confusing amount of characters and a wish for a little happiness, I found the book to be a compelling read. When the one character who I felt closest to passed away, I actually found myself in tears for the remaining family. I laughed at the bathtub birth scene – both at what happened and how the characters reacted. I look forward to the final book in the saga.
I received a complimentary copy of this book via the publisher.
“Early Warning” is the second book of a trilogy. I high recommend that you read “Some Luck”, the first in the trilogy before reading this book. The set of books is about a family that start out as farmers and how and where they end up. The end of the first book is 1953 – which is also where the second book picks up.