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Books

A book about the ordinary nothings that, in the end, are everything

A review of Some Luck, by Jane Smiley. The Pulitzer-prize winner captures the strange beauty of mortal life

15 November 2014

9:00 AM

15 November 2014

9:00 AM

Some Luck Jane Smiley

Mantle, pp.395, £18.99, ISBN: 9781447275596

We live in a world in which nuance is trampled on and cannot survive. Is that true? I don’t know. But the further point is, must authors now preface their novels with introductory letters, in which they carefully explain the central themes of their work? Epistolary prefaces in general are not remotely new: you often find editors and publicists addressing readers with disinterested solicitude.

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