Title: Years of Grace
Author: Margaret Ayer Barnes
Pages: 581
Finished: March 17, 2019
First Sentence: Little Jane Ward sat at her father's left hand at the family breakfast table, her sleek, brown pigtailed head bent discreetly over her plate.
Summary: Years of Grace follows the life of Jane Ward as she grows from a teenager to a middle aged woman in Chicago during the late Victorian era through to the 1920s. Summarizing this is more than a bit difficult as really the book is a life story and reflection of Jane set agains the backdrop of Chicago. Suffice it to say, she grows, she loves, and she lives to be disappointed.
Thoughts: The novel started strong for me. I spent a good deal of time googling various places mentioned to try and get a sense of where Jane Ward was as she talked about places. It was neat to see Chicago from a historical sense. And I liked the story. Of course it was fairly easy going. Upper class people with upper class problems.
The book slowed for me when it became clear that Jane was going to have an affair. Of course, it'd been foreshadowed in the first and second parts when she talked about Flora's mother, but I didn't want her to. And I guess, in a way, she didn't really.
The fourth part got into this massive discussion of the differences in generations as Jane realized she was different from her kids and she would never understand the next generation.
I found Jane to be rather blah to be honest. She seemed to be either completely unaware of things she should be aware of, or willfully ignoring them. Particularly Jimmy and then Cicily and Albert. I don't think she handled many situations as well as she could have. And in the end, she seemed rather melancholy. It seemed she lived her whole life with this expectation that ended up being completely and totally wrong.
For me, the best part of this novel was the Chicago landmarks. I never realize just how much Chicago pride I have until I see it in books or movies. I really enjoyed looking up the street Jane lived on as a child and finding out it's now Michigan Ave. I don't think I'd say this book is something I'll ever read again, but it wasn't odious. I just wasn't as into it as I wanted to be.
Read for Back to the Classics as a book set somewhere I live.
The book slowed for me when it became clear that Jane was going to have an affair. Of course, it'd been foreshadowed in the first and second parts when she talked about Flora's mother, but I didn't want her to. And I guess, in a way, she didn't really.
The fourth part got into this massive discussion of the differences in generations as Jane realized she was different from her kids and she would never understand the next generation.
I found Jane to be rather blah to be honest. She seemed to be either completely unaware of things she should be aware of, or willfully ignoring them. Particularly Jimmy and then Cicily and Albert. I don't think she handled many situations as well as she could have. And in the end, she seemed rather melancholy. It seemed she lived her whole life with this expectation that ended up being completely and totally wrong.
For me, the best part of this novel was the Chicago landmarks. I never realize just how much Chicago pride I have until I see it in books or movies. I really enjoyed looking up the street Jane lived on as a child and finding out it's now Michigan Ave. I don't think I'd say this book is something I'll ever read again, but it wasn't odious. I just wasn't as into it as I wanted to be.
Read for Back to the Classics as a book set somewhere I live.
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