I desperately wanted to enjoy this book. I love Jane Smiley. She’s a trusted, go to author and I tried so hard with this. At 3/4 of the way through I was ready to give up. But I read reviews that said there was a big plot twist in the epilogue (an enormous pet peeve of mine btw—that’s not what an epilogue is for). But I kept going. 

I desperately wanted our main character to explore her luck or examine her privilege—especially when she goes on and on about how safe St. Louis is. Completely forgetting the shooting of Michael Brown and subsequent protests-turned-riots in Ferguson. 

This book never answered my question which was: what is the point? Why would she write this? 

I found an article that described this as a fictionalization of Jane Smileys own biography. Only as a musician instead of an author. That answered my question enough but left me disappointed. The worst thing that ever happened to our main character was climate change.

This is a long, boring book about a privileged, white boomer with no capacity for honest self-reflection, just navel gazing.