The song lyrics present throughout this made me very excited to try this on audio - I think that might be the best way to injest Lucky as I had some difficulties on the page.

Such a hard book to rate. The main character’s life is detailed from childhood to about age 70. She is a singer/songwriter so there is lots of name dropping of performers from the 60s, 70s and 80s. The novel is really the minutiae that makes up her life—as it is for most of us. But the epilogue really surprised and saddened me as the author ventured ahead in time to show what the future holds, not only for her protagonist, but all of mankind.

Thanks to NetGalley and Alfred A Knopf Publishing for the ARC to read and review.

This was not what I was expecting, maybe because I’ve never read Jane Smiley before, maybe because this book was just a bit odd. The meta-narrative was hard to get into, it wasn’t really something that I ever connected with or could get a hang of as far as pacing. The ending of the book also was extremely off-putting to me. I didn’t understand it and didn’t enjoy it. I don’t think I’ll be recommending this one, unfortunately, it just wasn’t my taste at all.

This sounded so promising but was just...not it for me. Reading it was an uphill battle and I was confused as hell at the top. The ache that is familiar in Jane Smiley novels is present in glimpses, but otherwise it did not read much like a Jane Smiley to me at all.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was drawn to this book because it was about a young woman coming of age in the United States in the 1960s, a very turbulent time in our country’s history. The music scene back then was very diverse and the main character’s involvement in it were interesting.

I do think too much time was spent with the backstory. It was almost 20% into the book before Lucky gets involved in music professionally, but as we find out, even music is not the endgame of this book. The best way to describe this book is as women’s historical fiction because it’s not a mystery, or dual timelines. We simply travel along with Lucky as she grows up and ages, taking us through the decades, dealing with the extraordinary or the mundane. I loved the references to pop culture, from books to music and TV shows; it helped me as a reader get in the mindset of Lucky. Sometimes, I wondered where the book was going, if it was going anywhere at all. When I got to the end, it made sense to me in that sometimes a book’s objective is just to tell a person’s story, and that’s what Lucky does beautifully.

I thought the twist at the end was excellent, and it definitely made me think about the book as a whole. I won’t spoil it for you but suffice it to say that the end of the book could be the start of a whole different type of fiction book.

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley and Knopf Books. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Received this book as an ARC through NetGalley. I have read previous books by this author and enjoyed them. While this book was ok, it took me a long time to finish it. Parts were captivating while other parts seemed more like filler.

I found this book to be a bit straightforward and boring - the writing didn’t come to life for me, and the characters seemed flat. The ending is a bit bonkers though, and weirdly saved the book for me a bit, but it just wasn’t for me on the whole.

A boomer baby takes us through a first person stroll of her life as an almost famous folk singer from the 1960's onward. Jodie Rattler dubs herself as Lucky due to an early experience at a race track with her Uncle. The theme of her luck follows her throughout the book.
Lucky she is that a family member set it up that her finances are never an issue; Jodie goes where she wants, when she wants. That detail made it seem all to easy to breeze through the social turmoil of the 60's forward and never experiencing life in a way that is realistic for most.
Interestingly, never wanting to be tied down, she returns to her family home to help her elderly parents face their final years. This is where the book is the best to me, where the most real and relatable parts are located.


Lucky wasn't quite what I was hoping for but interesting nonetheless.

I wanted to love this, but it was more of a miss for me. The writing seemed all over the place, for lack of a better term, and I never felt invested enough in the story to make up for that.

We meet Jodie Rattler at the age of six when she accompanies her Uncle Drew to the race track. He has her circle the numbers she likes, and you guessed it, they win big! Jodie thinks herself lucky and throughout her life she holds on to the roll of two dollar bills her Uncle Drew gave her from their winnings, as a lucky charm. We watch the child Jodie grow up during the ‘60’s in her St Louis home where she lives with her single mom, and we get to know her tight knit family. We watch as she lives her ordinary day-to-day existence through the stages of her life - high school, college, breaking into the music industry as a folk musician, obtaining a modicum of success, numerous romantic entanglements which she never commits to, travels, historic events, and caring for her ill and aging mother. We watch as Jodie becomes her own person, free, independent, someone who sets her own course, but seems to be missing something from her life.

Lucky is structured uniquely and cleverly with a big reveal in the Epilogue. Readers will either love Smiley’s twist or want to throw their book across the room. It is this very meta-meta structure that Smiley creates that both makes Lucky genius and mundane. The author seems to be saying a lot about ones prosaic life and the things that truly matter. The ways we fail to connect, misunderstand and misjudge one another, the missed opportunities, the forces that compel us even when we feel we are acting freely, and the even greater forces over which we have no real control. Unfortunately, I fear many will give up before the pay off because they will find it indeed TOO ordinary. Smiley appears to be inviting us not to take life to seriously, while also not taking it for granted. After all, luck isn’t everything.

Many thanks to the author Jane Smiley, @AAKnopf and @NetGalley for the pleasure of reading this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Described as "...a souring, soulful novel about a folk musician [Jodie Rattler] who rises to fame across our changing times." Much about St, Louis, where Jodie grew up [with many details about neighborhoods] but also New York City, the Catskills, the UK, and her various travels around the U.S. and abroad.

I like Jane Smiley and have been a fan since Ordinary Love and Good Will [1989]--my favorite--others, not so much. But.

The story starts wtih six-year-old Jodie winning money--at the race track with her Uncle Drew, She keeps her lucky roll of $2 dollar bills throughout her life and her feeling lucky is often mentioned. Jodie is financially independent as Drew invested her money and she also was quite frugal.

Jodie's mother is a single mom; her dad [who left them when she was two] is noted, but not a part of their lives. Pretty much a loner, she has a loving family in St, Louis--aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousin Brucie.

I slogged through this book and pushed myself to finish it finding it flat and caring for no one. I was bored and hugely disappointed. Sometimes I liked the descriptions of the music scene [she was on the outskirts/semi-famous/sometimes recognized]--successful in her own way. Pretty much a loner who kept track of her numerous [!==25+?] affairs--some detailed.

Later on in the story, I found the references to her Smiley's own titles self-indulgent/disconcerting/an oddity/a bit of a disconnect.

Covering more than 50 years the parts I "enjoyed" [?] the most were the descriptions/the relationship between mother and daughter in the last year of her mother's life, and her 50th high school reunion [I could relate].

The sections on politics/climate change seemed to come out of the blue. And the epilogue--out of left field--scary but will not spoil.

2.5 but rounding up probably because it's Jane Smiley.

Lucky is the latest novel from the prolific, Pulitzer-prize winning author, Jane Smiley. It tells the story of Jodie Rattler, a young girl growing up in St. Louis.

The first part of the novel was my favorite - a coming of age story of a young singer. The entire novel was very detailed and in this part much of the detail dealt with Jodie’s song writing process. However, for me, the character of Jodie seemed a bit unrealistic as she seemed to glide through life.

It isn’t until the Epilogue that certain things makes sense. I don’t want to reveal any details but while it brought the novel together, it was such a drastic ending that it was just too far-fetched for me. Overall, I enjoyed the writing and will continue to read more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and Alfred A Knopf for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

Initially, Lucky captured my interest when a very young Jodie Rattler, living in St Louis, goes to the racetrack with her uncle and he luckily places large winning bet Jodie is given what seems to be a fortune in rolled up bills, tucks it away in a very safe place, and the story proceeds in a very different direction.

Told in blunt, lackluster language, the story plodded along slowly and never recaptured my heart or my interest again. Ultimately, Jodie becomes somewhat of a folk rock celebrity. Her life moves to other locations that are all bland in description. . Blah. Blah. Blah. Never do the characters jump off the page. Never did the story draw me in.

References to singing sensations of the time ( 50s and 60s) seem to go on and on in what felt to me like sequences of name dropping. Lyrics of songs appeared ad nauseum. Lacking passion, the plot droned on until I just couldn’t care less where it wound up. At times I had to skim through endless dull sequences just to continue to read until the end. And then when I reached the end there was a big twist, turn around, about face that didn’t seem to belong in the same book I had been reading.

I am rarely disappointed this much by books I select to read and by authors whose works. I have previously admired I am truly sad to rate this book a two star read. Thank you Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor publishers for an ARC in exchange for my review.

An interesting story that I enjoyed until the unexpected ending, which felt disjointed. Still a good read.
Many thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This novel was fine... until the very end. What a ridiculous way to end a story. Very disappointing.

Well written but the ending throws the entire experience of the book into question. It didn't work to complete the story for me and open it up in a new light. It actually just made me feel like I'd wasted my time instead of having some incredible revelation.

Smiley is an excellent story teller but that narrative device just didn't work here.

Jodie believes herself to be lucky when her uncle takes her to the racetracks and gives her $86
from his winnings based on the horses she chose. The roll of forty-three $2 bills will be her good
luck charm as she goes through life.
Raised by a single mother, Jodie has always been interested in music. She has earned royalties
from songs she wrote while still in school. The money is invested by her uncle, allowing her to live
life as she chooses. We follow her career from backup singer to a moderately successful folksinger.
As time passes, she begins to examine her choices and her relationships with family and others
she has encountered. Interesting ending.
#Lucky #NetGalley

Lucky is Jodie Rattler in Jane Smiley’s latest book of historical fiction coming out April 23. Jodie attributes the beginning of her lucky life to a horse race in St. Louis in 1955 when she was 6 in which she walked away with a roll of two-dollar bills thanks to her uncle. She keeps the roll as a good luck charm throughout her life.

The book becomes a biography of fictional Jodie as she develops an interest in folk music and finds some success as a singer-songwriter. The songs she writes earn her a steady income that her uncle invests wisely, providing a bankroll to land anywhere she wants, whether it is New York City, England, St. Thomas, or Los Angeles. Singing first with a band called the Freak-Outs, she later branches out on her own making albums, performing at gigs, and filling in for singers in other bands.

Along her journey, she becomes familiar with recording studios, backstages, and tours in a time when famous singers like Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Joni Mitchell are making a name for themselves. She witnesses firsthand how the music is changing from folk music to pop, and she adjusts her style of singing accordingly. Other names like Lyle Lovett are dropped into the story as he invites her on stage to sing a duet with him. Many of the lyrics of the songs she writes are woven into the narrative.

While her musical life is satisfying, Jodie senses that something is missing in her life, and it is not that she never became a big star. Finding true love at an early age, she finds herself leaving it behind and experiences what she thinks of as life as a feminist: being able to conduct her life like men did such as sleeping around, logging 23 affairs by the time she reaches her 30th birthday.

As the novel draws to a close, a startling turn occurs causing readers to question what they’ve just read but no spoilers here!

Jane Smiley won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for A Thousand Acres, a story based on William Shakespeare's King Lear. Lucky is her 34th book. Smiley has tackled a variety of topics during her long career, writing about everything from abolitionists to prostitutes, from horse racing to Hollywood, but this reader finds her farm stories to be her very best.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting February 24, 2024.

I would like to thank Alfred A. Knopf and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

2.5 Stars

This is a story of family, fame, music, love, luck and a life lived on one’s own terms.

This story begins when Jodie, as a young child, wins a roll of two-dollar bills at the racetrack. It is what drives her belief that luck is on her side, and for the most part, it is. She becomes a musician, and while she doesn’t have quite the same level of fame as the more iconic musicians of the time, she seems quietly content to be adjacent to them, and play with them occasionally.

Her journeys take her to places where she meets several men who she spends some time with, but never seems to be interested in a long term relationship, and while they may occasionally turn up fondly in a memory, she is content to be on her own, as well. She ‘enjoys’ them, she just doesn’t *need* them.

Her family, especially her parents, weave in and out of this story, as she is very close to them, if not always physically, but she does seem to realize how frail they have become, and so she takes some time away from her music to spend time with them.

This isn’t a light and fluffy story, there are darker moments now and then, especially as she watches her parents fading away, but they aren’t traumatic.

While there were a few positives to this, I really didn’t need or enjoy the plethora of ‘song lyrics’ written by Jodie that were sprinkled throughout this novel. I felt that they detracted from the story, and the story would have been better without them.


Pub Date: 23 Apr 2024

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Knopf

Disclosure: Received an uncorrected ARC of this book from NetGalley and GP Knopf/Borzoi Books/Penguin Random House LLC (Thank you!) in exchange for an honest review.

Reading this novel was like tediously trudging along a snow-filled trail that ultimately leads you nowhere. I really wanted to like this book as a fan of the author, but I was quite disappointed. There are elements that warrant the spoiler warnings you can see in other reviews, but these components aren't enough to save the story.

The writing felt unusually flat and, at times, like a huge run-on sentence written by a child for a school project. I am perplexed at how a story that should be imbued with excitement and enthusiasm was so incredibly boring and lacking feeling. The main character was so one dimensional, so matter of fact and so lacking any sense of personality, it was hard to care about her.

Framing herself as lucky, she describes her whole life but it does not feels like the story of a woman who has led a vibrant and full life, instead she comes across like an unemotional robot. There were elements that one would think "oh, how lucky!" such as falling into a quasi-successful music career and finding great financial success but it did not feel as though she was very lucky, it felt more like she wasted most of the opportunities laid at her feet.

Those willing to dive into this book, be forewarned, the song lyrics embedded throughout the novel are cringe-inducing. The ending is the most powerful thing about this book and it left me feeling extremely glum.