Lucky

“Lucky is framed as a rock’n’roll novel, but it’s a tricky and surprising one. Smiley seems determined to upend the conventions of the genre . . . What emerges instead in Lucky is a simple yet provocative idea—what if a woman protagonist were allowed to live independently on her own terms, not tied down by typically novelistic men or the bad blood that infects family life? . . . The novel’s title, upbeat on the surface, is darkened by the notion of how rare such a character is . . . Life and death flow in and out, and Smiley observes it clearly but empathetically. (Not for nothing is Dickens among her favorite writers.) . . . There’s no signal that Lucky is Smiley’s final book, but if it were, it would make for an admirable summing up—the story of a well-traveled, keen-eyed writer who’s spent decades making sense of the world in words, and taking pleasure in it for its own sake. A lucky way to make a living.” —Mark Athitakis, Los Angeles Times
 
“A robust, atmospheric coming-of-age story.” —People

“I suspect Lucky will be polarizing, which may well make it the book club pick of the year.” —Maren Longbella, Minneapolis Star Tribune
 
“A delightful trip through the 20th century’s greatest hits . . . This is life as a lesson in how to live, for which you must write your own instructions as you go along . . . Luckily, this is Jane Smiley, so the details, the insights, the songs—those she writes, and the dizzying assortment she mentions—are entertaining.” —Ellen Akins, Washington Post

“Spellbinding . . . Smiley neatly reverses the usual story of a 1970s singer [and then] orchestrates a seismic twist of staggering magnitude . . . Every novel by Smiley is a surprise.” —Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred)