Early Warning

As I stood in line at the self checkout to borrow Early Warning by Jane Smiley, the librarian called me over to shorten my wait and give me personal service.  "This is the second of a series," she told me.  "What?!" I said with grace and poise, "I'm checking it out anyway."  So this is the second of a triple feature about a farm family in Iowa.  This book covers 1960 to 2000.  The first book is about the family from 1920 to 1960.  The third in the series covers 2000 to 2020.  All in all the family history is covered for 100 years. And I started in the middle!  I liked it though and I've already started on the first of the series.  As the family spreads out from Iowa to Manhattan to San Francisco, Jane Smiley informs us about the culture of the time.  Jimmy Carter and the grain embargo. Rev. Jones in Guyana, the trickle down economics of the Reagen era, farm prices and the ag bills and James Watt; the story is fascinating because I lived through most of it.  I learned a lot from this book.  One of the main characters is named Frank.  Frank doesn't stay on the family farm but settles on the east coast instead.  Frank is fairly estranged from his wife and family but still married.  He has issues. When Frank can't sleep, he counts backwards from 1000 by fives.  I tried that last night and it didn't work.  I mean, I didn't get to sleep. I did, however, get pretty good at counting backward by 5's.  I love Jane Smiley's writing and can't wait to read about Frank's parents,