2.5
Lucky
ByPublisher Description
From the best-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, a soaring, soulful novel about a folk musician who rises to fame across our changing times • “A robust, atmospheric coming-of-age story.” —People
Before Jodie Rattler became a star, she was a girl growing up in St. Louis. One day in 1955, when she was just six years old, her uncle Drew took her to the racetrack, where she got lucky—and that roll of two-dollar bills she won has never since left her side. Jodie thrived in the warmth of her extended family, and then—through a combination of hard work and serendipity—she started a singing career, which catapulted her from St. Louis to New York City, from the English countryside to the tropical beaches of St. Thomas, from Cleveland to Los Angeles, and back again. Jodie comes of age in recording studios, backstage, and on tour, and she tries to hold her own in the wake of Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Joni Mitchell. Yet it feels like something is missing. Could it be true love? Or is that not actually what Jodie is looking for?
Full of atmosphere, shot through with longing and exuberance, romance and rock 'n' roll, Lucky is a story of chance and grit and the glitter of real talent, a colorful portrait of one woman's journey in search of herself.
Before Jodie Rattler became a star, she was a girl growing up in St. Louis. One day in 1955, when she was just six years old, her uncle Drew took her to the racetrack, where she got lucky—and that roll of two-dollar bills she won has never since left her side. Jodie thrived in the warmth of her extended family, and then—through a combination of hard work and serendipity—she started a singing career, which catapulted her from St. Louis to New York City, from the English countryside to the tropical beaches of St. Thomas, from Cleveland to Los Angeles, and back again. Jodie comes of age in recording studios, backstage, and on tour, and she tries to hold her own in the wake of Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Joni Mitchell. Yet it feels like something is missing. Could it be true love? Or is that not actually what Jodie is looking for?
Full of atmosphere, shot through with longing and exuberance, romance and rock 'n' roll, Lucky is a story of chance and grit and the glitter of real talent, a colorful portrait of one woman's journey in search of herself.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities19 Reviews
2.5
Caitlin Tobin
Created 25 days agoShare
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emilymckinney
Created 2 months agoShare
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Ali Fredrickson
Created 4 months agoShare
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Kylie
Created 5 months agoShare
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“I have never read a Jane Smiley book & people go on about her writing. Perhaps her other books are good but this was so weird. My favorite books are coming of age books; my favorite time period is the 60s with the music of Dylan & Baez taking the world by storm, so this book seemed SO up my alley. But it was such a disappointment. And frankly so odd. This girl’s lyrics are bad & yet she sort of makes it but doesn’t? She has 25 lovers but we don’t really hear of them, except for one for whom she pines for the rest of her life. She never reflects on how this loneliness affects her. She also doesn’t really have friends except for her family & then her mom’s friends? Her lyrics are bad! And the thing I love most about coming of age books is the growth & self reflection but there isn’t any of that. Honestly the main character doesn’t really DO anything but float around aimlessly.
And then in the end, it isn’t even the story we thought we it was?? And is suddenly a commentary on American society???????????? I just don’t get it.”
Doris Broadley
Created 6 months agoShare
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About Jane Smiley
JANE SMILEY is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and the Last Hundred Years Trilogy: Some Luck, Early Warning, and Golden Age. She is the author as well of several works of nonfiction and books for young adults. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she has also received the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature. She lives in Northern California.
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