Golden Age

Golden Age by Jane Smilley
443 Pages

"Golden Age, the final installment, of the Langdon Family trilogy opens in 1987. Michael and Richie, the rivalrous twin sons of World War II hero Frank, work in the high-stakes world of government and finance in Washington and New York, but they soon realize that one's fiercest enemies can be closest to home; Charlie, the charming, recently found scion, struggles with whether he wishes to make a mark on the world; and Guthrie, once poised to take over the Langdons' Iowa farm, is instead deployed to Iraq, leaving the land--ever the heart of this compelling saga--in the capable hands of his younger sister. Determined to evade disaster, for the planet and her family, Felicity worries that the farm's once-bountiful soil may be permanently imperiled, by more than the extremes of climate change. And as they enter deeper into the twenty-first century, all the Langdon women--wives, mothers, daughters--find themselves charged with carrying their storied past into an uncertain future."

I was happy to read the final book and was not disappointed with Smiley's writing.  The only detraction from my enjoyment was the difficulty of keeping track of all the characters because as the trilogy evolved the number of characters increased tremendously.