There is nowhere that young Mary Frances “Frankie” Lombard would rather be than her family's beautiful apple orchard. The gnarled roots of the trees and the amazing bounty they produce are as familiar to her as the many people in her family who work the land every day.

Frankie loves to plan adventures with her brother William, compete with her brainy cousin Amanda, and tend the orchard, learning tricks of the trade from her dad, Jim. She wants only that the rhythm of this agrarian life continue undisturbed by any silly realities that don’t fit. She has one question: Why do some members of the family stay here forever, while others have to escape to different climes and different places? Her fear of change and her need to understand it drives THE EXCELLENT LOMBARDS, the latest novel by Jane Hamilton, the bestselling author of THE BOOK OF RUTH.

"...a beautiful book filled with flowing prose that will make Frankie and her family one of your favorite literary go-tos all summer long --- and well after that, too."

Hamilton loves to dissect the family dynamic and uses an engaging heroine in Frankie to do her research in this tome. Change can’t be stopped, of course, as Frankie learns, and growth of all kinds start to push at the roots of her comfortable life. Will she be allowed to carry on the family farm? Will someone else? What is her purpose if not to stay in this place forever? What is anybody’s purpose on this big blue planet? 

We meet the family during a horrible oncoming weather trauma, Jim’s ability to grapple antiquated farm equipment and “outwit a storm” on display, as Frankie’s mother, brother and local helpers race around to save the all-important hay bales. Frankie loves William to death, but understands even more than he does that there are vital and difficult times facing their Wisconsin apple orchard at the turn of the 21st century. With her dad’s health ruined by years of manual labor, Frankie fears that his cousin and co-owner, Sherwood, an impractical man, will be the one to take control. Each character in this family has a story and a history to reveal. The parts play together like those of a great symphonic revolution, with the same sonic and emotional bombast you would find on a good night at Carnegie Hall.

America is still very much an agricultural force, and the way that the land is tilled and used is a controversial topic in today’s news. Hamilton mines this wonderful, eccentric family for all she’s worth in order to uncover some of the deeper truths about how our food is made, who makes it, and how deeply attached they are to the history of the land they serve and manipulate for our needs. Frankie can stand beside my other favorite Frankie, from Carson McCullers’ THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING, as a perfect observer of all this madness around her. It is through her eyes that we realize that things the rest of us take for granted are changing and rearranging families that have a long history of attachment to the land we call America. 

Hamilton’s work is fine-toothed; she is not one for great biting satire, but rather for easygoing yet deceptively weighty revelations about the way we live and treat each other in this day and age. THE EXCELLENT LOMBARDS is a great way to investigate difficult topics, through both human nature and husbandry. It is a beautiful book filled with flowing prose that will make Frankie and her family one of your favorite literary go-tos all summer long --- and well after that, too.