Author Jane Smiley opened her “The Last Hundred Years Trilogy” with the novel “Some Luck.”

She introduced the Langdons, a Midwestern farm family, focusing on the young couple Walter and Rosanna and their eldest child, the baby Frank. It was 1920. Each chapter was a new year. Chapter by chapter, Walter and Rosanna had more children, raised them, watched their world become less isolated, watched their relatives and children leave the farmland to venture out into the world.

“Some Luck” ended in the early 1950s.

“Early Warning,” the second novel in the trilogy, picks up in 1953, the year after where “Some Luck” ended.

Again, each chapter represents a year. The Langdons age and replenish with the children having children. The book takes the family into the 1980s. The world grows smaller as it presses on the family’s lives and as the family moves in increasingly larger circles.

As the world both expands and contracts, Smiley embroils the family in national and world events: the Cold War, the Kennedys, Vietnam, Nixon, etc. 

While World War II was a global conflict, it really only affected eldest son Frank Langdon in “Some Luck.” In “Early Warning,” the headlines threaten to swamp the entire family.

Smiley writes in the same manner, a simultaneously sweeping and intimate style that is enthralling. Her characterizations are rich and vital. 

Nonetheless, if reading one book after another in the trilogy, readers should easily keep track of the large and growing cast of characters. If reading “Some Luck” then reading several other books before picking up “Early Warning,” some readers may need a few chapters to get reacquainted with everyone. 

Luckily, Smiley provides a family tree at the front of each book. Remember its location. Even if you love these characters and these books, the chart comes in handy.