Golden Age
Authors: Jane Smiley
ALSO BY JANE SMILEY
Fiction
Early Warning
Some Luck
Private Life
Ten Days in the Hills
Good Faith
Horse Heaven
The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton
Moo
A Thousand Acres
Ordinary Love and Good Will
The Greenlanders
The Age of Grief
Duplicate Keys
At Paradise Gate
Barn Blind
Nonfiction
The Man Who Invented the Computer
Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel
A Year at the Races
Charles Dickens
Catskill Crafts
For Young Adults
Gee Whiz
Pie in the Sky
True Blue
A Good Horse
The Georges and the Jewels
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
Copyright © 2015 by Jane Smiley
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Ltd., Toronto.
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smiley, Jane.
Golden age : a novel / Jane Smiley. — First edition.
pages ; cm — (Last hundred years trilogy; 3)
“This is a Borzoi book.”
ISBN
978-0-307-70034-6 (hardcover) —
ISBN
978-0-385-35244-4 (eBook) 1. Rural families—Iowa—Fiction. 2. Social change—United States—History—20th century—Fiction. 3. Domestic fiction. I. Title.
PS
3569.
M
39
G
65 2015
813′.54—dc23 2015016461
eBook ISBN 9780385352444
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover photograph by David Paterson/Photographer’s Choice/Getty Images
Cover design by Kelly Blair
v4.1
a
This trilogy is dedicated to John Whiston, Bill Silag, Steve Mortensen, and Jack Canning, with many thanks for decades of patience, laughter, insight, information, and assistance
.
Contents
Cover
Also by Jane Smiley
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Family Tree
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
Acknowledgments
A Note About the Author
The Langdons
Walter Langdon (1895)
Wilmer Langdon—Walter’s father
Elizabeth Chick—Walter’s mother
Ruth Cheek and Lester Chick—Walter’s maternal grandparents
Etta Cheek—mother of Ruth Cheek
Lester and Howard—Walter’s brothers
Rosanna Vogel Langdon (1900)—
Walter’s wife
Otto Vogel—Rosanna’s father
Mary Augsberger—Rosanna’s mother
Charlotta Kleinfelder—Otto’s mother
Herman and Augustina Augsberger (“Opa” and “Oma”)—Rosanna’s maternal grandparents
Rolf, Eloise, John, Gus, and Kurt—Rosanna’s siblings
Julius Silber—Eloise’s husband
Rosa—Eloise and Julius’s daughter
Elton Jackman—Rosa’s first husband, Lacey’s father
Lacey—Rosa and Elton’s daughter
Ross—Eloise’s second husband
Shelia—John’s wife
Gary, Buddy, Jimmy—John and Sheila’s sons
Angela—Gus’s wife
Francis “Frank” Langdon
—first child of Walter and Rosanna
Hildegarde Andrea Bergstrom “Andy”—Frank’s wife
Janet—Frank and Andy’s eldest daughter
Jared Nelson—Janet’s husband
Emily and Jared—Janet and Jared’s children
Richard “Richie” & Michael—Frank and Andy’s twin sons
Ivy—Richie’s wife
Leonard “Leo”—Richie and Ivy’s son
Britt—Leo’s wife
Mona—Leo and Britt’s daughter
Jack—Britt’s son
Loretta Perroni—Michael’s wife
Chance, Tia, Beatrice “Binky”—Michael and Loretta’s children
Delilah Rankin—Chance’s wife
Raymond Chandler—Chance and Delilah’s son
Emile—Tia’s husband
Chris—Binky’s husband
Joseph “Joe” Langdon
—second child of Walter and Rosanna
Lois Frederick—Joe’s wife
Roland and Lorena Frederick—Lois’s parents
Minnie—Lois’s sister
Ann “Annie” and Joseph “Jesse”—Joe and Lois’s children
Jennifer Guthrie—Jesse’s wife
Joseph “Guthrie,” Franklin Perkins “Perky,” and Felicity—Jesse and Jennifer’s children
Ezra Newmark—Felicity’s husband
Mary Elizabeth Langdon
—third child of Walter and Rosanna
Lillian Elizabeth Langdon
—fourth child of Walter and Rosanna
Arthur Brinks Manning—Lillian’s husband
Sarah Cole DeRocher and Colonel Brinks Manning—Arthur’s parents
Timothy “Tim,” Deborah “Debbie,” Dean Henry, and Christina Eloise “Tina”—Lillian and Arthur’s children
Charlie Wickett—Tim’s son
Fiona McCorkle—Charlie’s mother
Riley Calhoun—Charlie’s wife
Alexis—Tim and Riley’s daughter
Hugh—Debbie’s husband
Carlie and Kevin “Kevvie”—Debbie and Hugh’s children
Linda—Dean’s wife
Eric—Dean and Linda’s son
Cheryl—Linda’s daughter
Henry
—fifth child of Walter and Rosanna
Claire
—sixth child of Walter and Rosanna
Paul Darnell—Claire’s first husband
Grayson and Bradley—Claire and Paul’s sons
Lisa—Grayson’s wife
Dustin—Grayson and Lisa’s son
Samantha—Bradley’s wife
Laure and Ned—Bradley and Samantha’s children
Carl—Claire’s second husband
Angie—Carl’s daughter
Doug Schmidt—Angie’s husband
Peter, Rhea, and Dash—Angie and Doug’s children
1987
I
T WAS FRIDAY
. Everyone was somewhere else, doing last-minute chores. The tall young man got out of his little green station wagon, stretched, looked around, took off his sunglasses, and started up the walk. Minnie Frederick, who saw him through her bedroom window, dropped the stack of sheets she was carrying and ran down the stairs. But he was not at the door, and when she went out onto the porch, he was nowhere to be seen. Back in the house, through the kitchen, out onto the stoop. Still nothing, apart from Jesse, her nephew, a noisy dot, cultivating the bean field east of the Osage-orange hedge. She walked around the house to the front porch. The car was still there. She crossed to it and looked in the window. A pair of fancy boots in the foot well of the passenger’s seat, two wadded-up pieces of waxed paper, a soda can. She stood beside the green car for a long moment, then touched the hood. It was warm. It was real. She was not imagining things, sixty-seven years old, she who came from a long line of crazy people on all sides, who was both happy and relieved to have chosen long ago not to reproduce. What, she thought, was the not-crazy thing to do? It was to make a glass of iced tea and see if her sister, Lois, had left any shortbread in the cookie jar.