Jodie Rattler grew up with a single mother in St. Louis, a city she loves and to which she continues to return. Influenced by her family’s interest in music and the folk singers and other musicians of the 1960s, her talent brings her to the fringes of success, providing enough income to support her. Always independent but with strong family ties, she makes conscious choices how she will live her life. As she passes through the stages of her life, she reflects back, determining whether they were the right alternatives for her.

Well written by Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley, this will appeal to fans of literary fiction, although I fear some readers may tire of the constant musical references and Jodie’s wanderings around England. For people of a certain age and fans of the folk rock genre, this is a nostalgic read recounting the songs and singers of the 60s, as well historical events dating from the early 60s. There are some very poignant and insightful observations of the various stages of women’s lives and the options open to them.

I don’t like to write spoilers. Suffice to say that there is a turn at the end of the novel that will cause some to say “brava” and others to say “what the…..?”. Read the book to see in which camp you will be.


Thanks to @NetGalley and @aaknopf for the DRC.

I would like to thank Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor, as well as Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book as an ARC. I did not like this book. I did finish it, but it was tough going. It os a hard book to review without giving away spoilers, so I will do a brief synopsis then give a spoiler alert, if you do not want the spoilers.
Jodie Rattler is a woman living in St Louis, at the outset. She is being raised by a single mother. One day her Uncle takes her to the race track where he wins a lot of money. He gives her 86 dollars and she rolls up the bills and keeps them for good luck. In High School, she has some friends and often mentions a girl, only by her description- "the gawky girl". This girl turns up at times during the narrative. Jodie goes to college and becomes a folk singer/songwriter of some small fame. She gives her earnings to her Uncle to invest. Like the roll of bills from the race track, she really doesn't seem to use it, not for her self or for her family. The book continues on in this way, as Jodie has some romantic relationships, writes and sings, and interacts with her family and some friends. The writing is very odd. It is awkward, and stilted. The story is meandering and takes forever to get to a conclusion. OK SPOILER ALERT. The book itself ends with Jodie going back to her High School Reunion.She meets up with the gawky girl ( who is now a writer) and they talk. The last chapter is an epilogue, written by the "real" Jodie Rattler, who says that everything we just read was written by the "gawky Girl", and was not accurate. Ok, once I got my mind wrapped around this twist- is this meant to be a Meta kind of thing, a statement on writing and truth in writing, came another twist. All of a sudden we are plunged into an Global disaster, a combination of Climate Change, War and political candidates. It was jarring, unneeded and dumb. I am not sure what Jane Smily tried to do here. However, if it was to keep me from reading anything else she wrote- well she succeeded.

This is a fascinating story by Jane Smiley. In Lucky, we meet Jodie Rattler, who at six traveled to horse track with her uncle and from then on believed herself lucky. Rattler tells us her story in first person from age 6 to becoming a star. It's very interesting and gripping, even the minutiae of education as you follow her trajectory. Jodie lives almost a half life however, missing something that makes her full. What happens at the end will surprise you and may answer that question for her and all of us.

This meta novel was very enjoyable to me and I am glad I read it. I am not sure that it is for EVERYONE however, it is certainly not a typical rock star rise to stardom story. It's literaray and it is quite different. The story is told in an almost laissez faire style. It's Jane Smiley though! So if you are a fan of literature you will enjoy it!
#knopfpantheon&vintage #knopf #lucky #janesmiley

WOW. my god this was goood. i dont even know what else to say except oh my lord. thanks so much for the ARC and this one will probs become a new classic.

I just couldn’t get into this book, and gave up about a quarter of the way through. The reason was that it felt more like a memoir than a novel, with lots of details about growing up in the 1950’s in St. Louis but not much else. I couldn’t figure out what the point was. Maybe it picks up after a bit, but I was getting too bored to find out. Alas, so many books to read, so little time…

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

In the latest from Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley we follow Jodie Rattler from the time she is six, at a race track with her uncle (who will continue to be influential in her life) through her old age. We travel with her through her youth in St. Louis, her college years as a music major at Penn State, being a working musician and then her “lost years” in England. She returns to the U. s., living in New York, again as a working musician before her return to her hometown of St. Louis to care for her aging relatives as they die one by one. Smiley also makes herself a minor character.

I have often been a fan of Smiley’s work, although there have, occasionally been publications I wasn’t so enamored of. I actually liked this gentle book quite a bit until the out of nowhere ending. I get that Smiley thinks we are going in a calamitous direction, but the ending just didn’t seem to fit with what came before. Not a bad book, but I really can’t square the books final pages with the rest.

While reading, the word banal kept coming to mind. Yet this is Jane Smiley. Not an author with whom I would associate such an adjective. Now that I’ve finished, I see that the bulk of the book is a novel within a novel,,penned by ‘the gawky girl’. Presumably it’s Smiley’s intention to make the fictional author’s work read this way. So, much of the narrative is a dull account of a woman’s life - her homes, family, school, love for St Louis, the many walks taken. The more interesting bits - men, music - are given some space, but less. As bio-fiction goes, it’s tolerably done, but not exciting, or moving, or penetrating. And then you get to the apocalyptic epilogue, which turns much of it on its head.
Strange, late, depressing. An odd book, then. Not my favorite.

Because this author is prolific and one of the greats, I wanted to give this a try. I found it a bit slow, meandering, and hard to sink my teeth into. Contemporary fiction is so hit or miss for me…

This was quite disappointing. I found the start very rambling with too many names to allow clarity. I felt that the meat of the story was blurred by tge overlong start and unsatisfying end. I have read other Smiley novels and this was not up to my expectations.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Overall, I just didn’t care for this story. It was a bit of a slog to make it through and I also didn’t like the political aspects that were included. There may be readers who like this book, but it just wasn’t for me.

Thanks to #NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this ARC.

The title of this not only should be Lucky but “Traveling Musician,” even though she didn't travel as a musician most of the time but did write songs when she was in high school and when she got older and traveled around Europe, she wrote a lot too. She was in a few bands too as a substitute. She really didn't have a job per se but settled in NY and made videos for MTV and stayed active in the music scene it seems. I loved the setting of the 60s because of the music and artists she loved back then and I so do I. ides her writing songs and performing with bands once in a while. She never seemed to be doing anything permanently besides writing songs and getting people once in a while to record her music even at 47 old and singing at small concerts and gigs.

The book was first person and it was set in the present but looked back at her life. I loved the family aspect of it with her aunts and uncles living in St. Louis where she ended up mostly and her mom.

The epilogue was set in the way future it seems and it was definitely interesting.

To be honest, in order to be a writer you have to be an avid spy

from Lucky by Jane Smiley
Jodie Rattler tells her life story, how lucky she has been. Her pregnant, unwed mother wanted her. Her uncle took her to the racetrack and she won $82 lucky dollars that she never parts with. By chance, she saw the college she knew she wanted to attend. She walked away from the love of her life to claim her own career and life. She made enough money as a singer/songwriter to never have to worry.

Jodie grows up, takes lovers, sings her music, buys a cabin in the woods and a house in her hometown of St. Louis, learns how to connect with family and make friends, experiences the end of life of her grandparents and mother.

Jodie talks about the events and times of my own life: the Cuban Missile Crisis bookended by climate change angst; “Sing Along with Mitch” and folk music; 77 Sunset Strip; concerns about rising American fascism.

It is a full life, simply presented.

But the novel isn’t what it seems. And in the Epilogue, Jamie Ring reveals the identity of the ‘gawky girl’ who haunts her life like a ghost, and we learn something about art and how writers transform life into fiction, and questions the very concept of luck.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

I read and enjoyed two books by Jane Smiley, “Horse Heaven” and “Perestroika in Paris.” I was swept away by these books and I highly recommend them. My advice? Read those books instead of “Lucky”.

“Lucky” is told in the first person by “Jodie Rattler”, in an almost a stream of consciousness way. Jodie narrates her whole life, from growing up in St. Louis, high school, college, her career as a folk singer and recording artist, her 25 lovers. All this is mildly interesting- sometimes witty, sometimes appealing. We get to know her family, too.

The book ends in a very abrupt way, followed by an “I didn’t see this coming at all” end of the world scene. Turns out this story isn’t even told by “Jodie Rattler”. I’m giving this book 3 stars, instead of 1 or 2 stars, only because I do respect Jane Smiley.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance digital review copy. I was so delighted to receive a copy, and so disappointed with the book. This is my honest review.

In the promotional materials this book is described and atmospheric and soulful. It follows a young girl through her growing-up years in St. Louis, her love of music, and her journey into adult life. The locales are described well and gave me a sense of being there. But my disappointment with the book was that nothing much happened. Towards the end there was an unexpected reveal, but if it was intended to be dramatic or important, I didn’t see it. For me the most satisfying detail of the book was the recurring motif of a roll of two-dollar bills that the girl, Jodie, keeps with her for decades, for luck. I have not read anything else by Jane Smiley; but perhaps those who follow this author will better appreciate the story.

Lucky is perhaps Jane Smiley's most self-indulgent book yet. While I liked Moo and admired A Thousand Acres, this meta-meta narrative was disappointing and annoying from the start. The first -person narrator is Jodie Rattler, who has a folk-music career that she's not particularly committed to, but which sets her up monetarily for life when she's still in her teens. She floats her way around the world, leaving lovers and experiences in her wake but not ever developing much as a person. She writes songs, or doesn't, and records them, or doesn't, and plays a festivals, or doesn't. The song lyrics are, I'm sorry to say, cringeworthy, and the music terminology isn't always right. In fact, it's more often wrong than correct. Jodie often mentions "the gawky girl" with whom she went to school and of course this girl is Smiley herself, who writes a fictional narrative of Jodie's life, which is what you're reading. The real Jodie, reading her own copy of Lucky, isn't happy about this, but the world is ending, I don't know why Smiley chose to structure the novel as she did, but it was easy to see her setting it up with the "gawky girl" and to watch as Smiley's fictional self and the fiction of Jodie came into collision with one another. The result isn't very good: the device doesn't come off well, revealing very little about anyone, and the epilogue, a correction of fictional Smiley's book and state of the world address, is kind of bizarre. I'd love to read or hear why Smiley decided to create the book in this way.

I have always loved Jane Smiley’s books, but I think this is the best yet. The story is about the life of Jodie and how she navigates family, friends, and a career as a somewhat successful folk singer. The story contain a lot of day to day details that might normally be a bit mundane, but Smiley uses them to keep the story moving. And it does move- I kept looking to see what percentage I had read because I didn’t want to get through it too quickly. Would have loved a sequel, but the epilogue changes how you feel about the story- not in a bad way, but in a different way. Enjoy this book to the end.

I was a beautiful book! I loved all of the twists and turns. I thought it was just a gentle story. I was expecting a lot of drama and was surprised by how gorgeous this was. Jane Smiley can do no wrong!

I'm a huge Jane Smiley fan. Her character development is like no other. So it must be me because I could not get into Lucky. Not sure how to even complain cause she's so good!

I started this book on a high note. Jane Smiley! Great writer! My enthusiasm settled down a bit but I still was captivated by Jodie’s musical career.. she was about my age, so the songs and artists she interacted with were fairly familiar. I loved reading about how her family shared caring for her grandfather as he aged and then died and then the same thing happened with her mother. I followed along as Jodie aged and learned life lessons. However, the end of the book seriously jumped the shark for me. The author’s preaching about “climate change” and her obvious liberal politics spoiled the arc of the story. Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this ARC.

Jane Smiley is a master of so many writing styles, but what always sticks with me is a kind of ache that comes through in her stories. It is so in "Lucky," which is by turns wonderful and bewildering.

Jodi's uncle takes her to the racetrack at Cahokia Downs as a special treat, and lets her pick the trifecta. To their amazement, they win, and big. Uncle Drew gives her a bundle of $2 bills and tells her to hide them, save them, not tell anyone about them, but buy herself something nice one day. Knowing that she has this special think tucked away. She's a talented singer and almost has a folk career, she writes songs that are modest hits. Somehow, the feeling that she is lucky allows her to live the life she really wants, modest and fulfilling.

But there's something else going on in "Lucky" and I'm still trying to make sense of it. A girl Jodi knew in high school--the "gawky girl"--pops up occasionally in her life and turns out to be Jane Smiley, who writes the book we are reading. Then there's an Epilogue that comes out of the blue and has to do with what's come before. I'm still wondering.

I enjoyed every page of "Lucky" until the end. It is beautifully written, of course, and filled with relatable characters and that ache. Little action but a lot of humanity. How many stars does a book get that is so good until this weird Epilogue blows it apart?