Some Luck

I loved, loved, loved Some Luck by Jane Smiley.  This is the first of a trilogy of an Iowan farm family spanning 100 years from 1920.  I read the middle book first.  Then I read the beginning.  As soon as I finished the last page, I requested the third book which I can hardly wait to begin.  In this story the family patriarch, Walter Langdon gets married and buys a farm and proceeds to make a family.  Over the years his horses are replace by a tractor.  Initially resistant to the dangers involved, he eventually starts using ammonia fertilizer instead of just manure.  He manages to keep his family going through the depression by deciding how much of his land to plant in oats, corn and soybeans.  Farmers have to be able to adapt and Walter is good at adapting although he would prefer to do things the same way year after year.  I really enjoyed getting to know Frank and Joey, Lillian and Clare and Henry as children.  Joey becomes a farmer too.  In this age before genetically modified seed that can't be saved as seed for the next year, Joey breeds his own brand of corn by planting 4 rows of one kind and two rows of another kind and cutting the tassels off of some rows.  Walter scoffs at Joey's efforts until he realizes that Joey is getting better yields than he is. Jane Smiley is a good writer.  I like the way she weaves between and among the characters.  She illustrates her points about their character by adding descriptions or snippets of their behavior.  I look forward to the last third.