Finished: Years of Grace (Barnes) Pulitzer Prize winner from 1931 about the life of Jane Ward, a Chicago girl, and her loves, losses and family, from 1891 to 1928. I'm not really sure this was a Pulitzer worthy book...a little bit too surface, not much depth, but maybe that's just a sign of the writing in that time period? Each section is labeled by what man had the biggest influence in her life...first Andre, her first love at 14, then Stephen, her husband of thirty years, and then Jimmy, her best friend's husband who she falls in love with, but sends away so as to do the proper thing and stay with her husband and children. The last section is labeled for her children, and is about her relationship with them mostly as young adults as she laments that their generation does things so much differently and watches them make decisions she wouldn't have made. When Jane and Andre fall in love as young teens, they declare they want to get married before he must move back to France. Their parents say no, and Jane's parents make Andre promise not to contact her until she's 21, four years later. Jane goes to Bryn Mawr and then back home to debut with her other girlfriends. She never forgets Andre, and as her 21st birthday approaches, she wonders if she'll hear from him and if they will feel the same for each other. Meanwhile, one of her best friend's cousins, Stephen Carver, has fallen madly in love with Jane as they've seen quite a bit of each other. He keeps proposing to her, but she tells him while she's very fond of him, she doesn't love him. When she finally gets a letter from Andre, she's thrilled, but he says that he's been given the opportunity of a lifetime to work for the next year in seclusion mentoring to a great sculptor in France. (Andre is an artist.) Jane feels betrayed and writes Andre a dismissive letter, saying they've both moved on and she's marrying Stephen. Then, pressured because the Spanish American War is about to take Stephen to Cuba, Jane does declare her love for him and marry him. Flash forward fifteen years and Jane is 36, still married to Stephen the dependable banker, with three children. She's bored and unhappy, but loyal to her family. She goes to visit her best friend from childhood, Agnes, in New York, and meets Agnes' restless, carefree husband, Jimmy. Jimmy moves to Chicago for a job and Jane's whole family sees alot of Jimmy and really likes him. Of course, Jane falls in love with Jimmy and Jimmy with Jane, but they don't take it further than a few kisses. Jimmy does beg Jane to leave her husband and children and go off to Europe with him. She is shocked that he'd think she would do such a thing, and ends things abruptly. She feels guilty for the rest of her life that she betrayed her husband and her best friend, but she still holds the love for Jimmy in her heart. Jimmy, distraught when Jane says no, signs up to fight in World War I, and is killed fairly quickly. Agnes never knows that Jimmy fell for Jane. Later, when Jane is watching her own grown children go through loves and losses, she's incredulous when her oldest daughter, Cicily, who is married with three children, falls for HER best friend's husband, who is married to Jane's husband's sister, and has children of his own. Their solution, rather than doing the right thing and breaking up two families, is to each divorce their spouses and marry each other. The whole book is very readable, but not very deep, and rather soap-operish. I kept thinking maybe I was reading a 1930's version of a Jackie Collins novel maybe? Anyway, another one down. Not sure I'll read all the Pulitzer Prize winners, but I'll keep plugging along. :-)