Fiction set in the twentieth century may seem too close to the present day to qualify as “historical,” so perhaps it’s better to categorize these novels as “family sagas.” Following characters for decades allows an author to demonstrate their reactions to many life challenges.
Buckeye Patrick Ryan (2025) Sweeping across many decades of the twentieth century, this engaging novel recounts the lives of two couples—Cal and Becky Jenkins and Felix and Margaret Salt—who become linked by a fateful encounter at the end of World War II. The novelist moves the action along briskly while still lingering on everyday details that flesh out the scenes. The setting is a fictional town in northwest Ohio, an area where I was born and where I still have many relatives, and it rings true. One theme that pervades the narrative is the lasting trauma of war: the mustard gas that a World War I veteran remembers, the loneliness and grief of wives whose husbands are fighting in World War II, the senseless slaughter of the Vietnam War. One national reviewer of Buckeye called it “old fashioned.” Yup. I loved it.
Bug Hollow Michelle Huneven (2025) In 272 pages, this fast-paced story takes readers through forty-plus years in the lives of the Samuelson family. (And that page count includes a rather odd excursion into the life of “an old family friend,” Mrs Wright.) The sudden accidental death of one of the Samuelsons affects the members of the family in different ways—alcoholism, an extramarital affair, an unexpected adoption. Author Huneven develops her characters deftly, showing how they remain resilient despite the inevitable unhappinesses of their lives. A bonus is the portrayal of the culture of southern California through the decades.