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A Family Trust
Jonathan Yardley called A Family Trust "his longest, his most ambitious and his best… a book with serious purposes that manages to entertain at the same time…rich in carefully observed details, in quick, sharp perceptions that reveal more than one at first understands…a fine, satisfying, rewarding book, the work of a mature and accomplished novelist," upon the book's initial publication in 1978. The passing of Amos Rising, town elder and editor of The Dement Intelligencer , leaves the Rising family without a patriarch and the town with a hole in its center. The ambitions and talents of the Risings, the changing face of the town and the life of the spirited, intelligent, and attractive Dana Rising fill the pages of this extraordinary novel. Ward Just's A Family Trust is about the public face and private souls of America's Heartland in the same way his other novels are about Germany, Vietnam, or Washington D.C. The time has come to bring A Family Trust back into print.
Mass Market Paperback
First published June 12, 1979
About the author
Ward Just
36 books83 followersWard Just was a war correspondent, novelist, and short story author.
Ward Just graduated from Cranbrook School in 1953. He briefly attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He started his career as a print journalist for the Waukegan (Illinois) News-Sun. He was also a correspondent for Newsweek and The Washington Post from 1959 to 1969, after which he left journalism to write fiction.
His influences include Henry James and Ernest Hemingway. His novel An Unfinished Season was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005. His novel Echo House was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1997. He has twice been a finalist for the O. Henry Award: in 1985 for his short story "About Boston," and again in 1986 for his short story "The Costa Brava, 1959." His fiction is often concerned with the influence of national politics on Americans' personal lives. Much of it is set in Washington, D.C., and foreign countries. Another common theme is the alienation felt by Midwesterners in the East.
Ward Just graduated from Cranbrook School in 1953. He briefly attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He started his career as a print journalist for the Waukegan (Illinois) News-Sun. He was also a correspondent for Newsweek and The Washington Post from 1959 to 1969, after which he left journalism to write fiction.
His influences include Henry James and Ernest Hemingway. His novel An Unfinished Season was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005. His novel Echo House was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1997. He has twice been a finalist for the O. Henry Award: in 1985 for his short story "About Boston," and again in 1986 for his short story "The Costa Brava, 1959." His fiction is often concerned with the influence of national politics on Americans' personal lives. Much of it is set in Washington, D.C., and foreign countries. Another common theme is the alienation felt by Midwesterners in the East.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 29, 2026
This is a very old fashioned feeling novel. Very establishment Midwest. The dialogue is good, while there is way too much of it for many individual scenes. I kinda felt like I had read this book before in multiple novels of the 20th century. So much drinking and regret. Yes, your time may come to an end. Yes, it may not turn out to be what you wanted it to be. Trying here to get through the many books I have acquired over the years. Another one down!
December 12, 2019
Foreword: I will not rate this book based on the number of typos in the Kindle edition, as several other reviews did. I think this is unfair to the author and misleading for the other readers. But I must agree that this is the by far the worst Kindle edition which ever fell in my hands; I had read raging comments on Amazon on this issue dating 5+ years back and I thought Amazon had all the time to intervene to correct this situation. Well, it didn't and I honestly found such sloppiness outrageous.
The book is essentially a family saga through 3 generation, spanning two decades (1953-1973); there's a family-owned newspaper at the centre of the story, but the protagonists are really the family and the midwest town Dement. The novel is all about the tension between change and resistance to it.
The latter promoted by dinosaurs from another era clinging to the past as it could repeat itself indefinitely into the future, thus allowing them to defy mortality. They thought they could stop the clicks and they tried hard to do so; they thought they knew what was best for their society, i.e. to stand still indefinitely.
The there is then the new generation, the new breed with a new vision of life and of society: change is good, growth is good, and the measure of good is money; and if growth and money mean to give away not only the past but also their own identity, well, too bad.
This was a good read by Ward Just, not among the best (Echo House, A Dangerous Friend) but well above the weakest (American Romantic, An Unfinished Season); the prose is as usual exquisite, with its elegantly subdued tonality, the characters as always very well developed, but the story lacked some of the tension which underpinned the best of his books.
The book is essentially a family saga through 3 generation, spanning two decades (1953-1973); there's a family-owned newspaper at the centre of the story, but the protagonists are really the family and the midwest town Dement. The novel is all about the tension between change and resistance to it.
The latter promoted by dinosaurs from another era clinging to the past as it could repeat itself indefinitely into the future, thus allowing them to defy mortality. They thought they could stop the clicks and they tried hard to do so; they thought they knew what was best for their society, i.e. to stand still indefinitely.
The there is then the new generation, the new breed with a new vision of life and of society: change is good, growth is good, and the measure of good is money; and if growth and money mean to give away not only the past but also their own identity, well, too bad.
This was a good read by Ward Just, not among the best (Echo House, A Dangerous Friend) but well above the weakest (American Romantic, An Unfinished Season); the prose is as usual exquisite, with its elegantly subdued tonality, the characters as always very well developed, but the story lacked some of the tension which underpinned the best of his books.
June 30, 2022
Great subject matter—a small Midwestern city, fighting for the status quo and against social and economic change, seen through the eyes of its most prominent family and the newspaper they own and that they have long used to control the city. It’s a story that deserved to be told, and Just often writes beautifully.
But the structure—telling it from multiple perspectives, some of them not central to the story—really dilutes the impact. It would have been better told from the single perspective of Elliott Townsend, the attorney without a family of his own, who devoted his life to serving the Rising family, the newspaper and the city. He was there to witness the entire arc of the story—the start, rise and decline of the newspaper, all of which was reflected in the family and city—and was the best person to tell the story.
Just also struggled with narrative balance. The expository passages are far too long, the dialogue is often unrealistically verbose (nobody talks this long, uninterrupted, other than maybe a minister delivering a sermon) and action is all but non-existent. Good fiction needs to balance exposition, dialogue and action, and this book doesn’t do it.
I admire Ward Just, and loved his later novels An Unfinished Season and Forgetfulness, but this one simply didn’t work for me.
But the structure—telling it from multiple perspectives, some of them not central to the story—really dilutes the impact. It would have been better told from the single perspective of Elliott Townsend, the attorney without a family of his own, who devoted his life to serving the Rising family, the newspaper and the city. He was there to witness the entire arc of the story—the start, rise and decline of the newspaper, all of which was reflected in the family and city—and was the best person to tell the story.
Just also struggled with narrative balance. The expository passages are far too long, the dialogue is often unrealistically verbose (nobody talks this long, uninterrupted, other than maybe a minister delivering a sermon) and action is all but non-existent. Good fiction needs to balance exposition, dialogue and action, and this book doesn’t do it.
I admire Ward Just, and loved his later novels An Unfinished Season and Forgetfulness, but this one simply didn’t work for me.
October 23, 2011
Born in Michigan City, Ind., Ward Just grew up in the Chicago area. Graduating from Lake Forest (Ill.) Academy, Just returned to Waukegan after college to begin his journalism career at the Waukegan (Ill.) News-Sun. After stints with Newsweek and The Washington Post, he turned to full-time fiction writing.
“A Family Trust,” published in 1978, is one of what Just calls his “Illinois cycle.” I first learned about Just when he received the Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Prize for fiction in 2004 for “An Unfinished Season,” another of the “Illinois cycle,” also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2005.
Set in the far, far southwest Chicago suburbs from 1953 to 1973, Just unravels the saga of the Rising Family, owners of the local newspaper, The Dement Intelligencer. When the patriarch, Amos, dies, the story turns to the relationships and the decisions of the next generation, especially as they relate to the family newspaper. All is held together by family friend and official counsel, Elliott Townsend who is 75 when Amos dies.
Especially remarkable is Dana, Amos’ granddaughter, whose ambitions lie on the East Coast instead of in the Midwest even when she is as young as 16 in 1953. Since the novel ends in 1973, I wonder how Dana’s life turns out after age 36 along with the life of her daughter, Cathy. Unless Just provides readers with a sequel, we’ll never know. This is why I haven’t given Just a 5-star rating here. This is an uncomfortable loose end for me.
Family businesses, especially those operating as pillars in relatively small communities are fascinating to me. I suppose that is because my father was the third generation in a family funeral home business in Columbus, Ind., until his untimely death in 1983. Our father never pressured my two sisters and me to continue the family tradition. I wonder what he would have thought had one of us wanted to follow him. We’ll never know.
I highly recommend “A Family Trust” for anyone with Midwestern roots and a healthy respect for the impact a family business can have on small-town mentality, especially in the face of “progress” coming to the town. Of course, anyone with newspaper journalism in his or her heart should also read this book.
My very real bookshelves contain two other of Just’s 17 novels: “Jack Gance” and “An Unfinished Season,” the other two entries in Just’s “Illinois cycle.” Stay tuned for how they measure up to “A Family Trust.”
“A Family Trust,” published in 1978, is one of what Just calls his “Illinois cycle.” I first learned about Just when he received the Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Prize for fiction in 2004 for “An Unfinished Season,” another of the “Illinois cycle,” also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2005.
Set in the far, far southwest Chicago suburbs from 1953 to 1973, Just unravels the saga of the Rising Family, owners of the local newspaper, The Dement Intelligencer. When the patriarch, Amos, dies, the story turns to the relationships and the decisions of the next generation, especially as they relate to the family newspaper. All is held together by family friend and official counsel, Elliott Townsend who is 75 when Amos dies.
Especially remarkable is Dana, Amos’ granddaughter, whose ambitions lie on the East Coast instead of in the Midwest even when she is as young as 16 in 1953. Since the novel ends in 1973, I wonder how Dana’s life turns out after age 36 along with the life of her daughter, Cathy. Unless Just provides readers with a sequel, we’ll never know. This is why I haven’t given Just a 5-star rating here. This is an uncomfortable loose end for me.
Family businesses, especially those operating as pillars in relatively small communities are fascinating to me. I suppose that is because my father was the third generation in a family funeral home business in Columbus, Ind., until his untimely death in 1983. Our father never pressured my two sisters and me to continue the family tradition. I wonder what he would have thought had one of us wanted to follow him. We’ll never know.
I highly recommend “A Family Trust” for anyone with Midwestern roots and a healthy respect for the impact a family business can have on small-town mentality, especially in the face of “progress” coming to the town. Of course, anyone with newspaper journalism in his or her heart should also read this book.
My very real bookshelves contain two other of Just’s 17 novels: “Jack Gance” and “An Unfinished Season,” the other two entries in Just’s “Illinois cycle.” Stay tuned for how they measure up to “A Family Trust.”
October 11, 2010
This book was written in 1978 but was set in the period from 1953 to 1973. This dependable author gives us a picture of the importance of newspapers during this period in small cities across the countries. Set in a midwestern town of 30,000, the novel traces the story of a family owned newspaper and the story of the daughter who flees the confines of the small town for New York. I found this well written novel fascinating for its revelations about the power of the newspaper publisher in the politics of the town and the changes to the town when outsiders develop the cheap land on the outskirts of the town at the expense of the downturn. Just as interesting is the daughter's life during this pivotal years when woman took on careers.
October 30, 2008
Ward Just is a wonderful, under discussed, American writer. I am enjoying working my way through his works. A Family Trust made me think about the small businesses in our society and what happens to them after the third generation. Some make it and some don't. Unfortunately the book was a little slow in places (particularly the beginning) and we got a little too much detail on some characters. I would have liked the end to have been fleshed out a bit more.
April 1, 2008
I didn't know until literally right now this book had originally been published in 1979. Damn cover artists. I might have viewed it a little differently that way.
I was seduced by the idea of a newspaper family, spanning generations tied to the media. Eh. It's more about small-town politics, and even for that, pretty dry. Well written but disappointing.
I was seduced by the idea of a newspaper family, spanning generations tied to the media. Eh. It's more about small-town politics, and even for that, pretty dry. Well written but disappointing.
November 2, 2013
i always feel depressed at the end of this man's novels because he realistically captures the futility of the human condition.
May 14, 2011
Sort of interesting...but didn't feel like continuing somehow.
October 23, 2016
Fiction
January 29, 2017
newaspoaper family
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews