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| America America: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Ethan Canin
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $27.00
Buy New: $8.99
You Save: $18.01 (67%)
New (53) Used (29) Collectible (7) from $8.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 15463
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0679456805
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780679456803
ASIN: 0679456805
Publication Date: June 24, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
book review June 28, 2008
10 out of 13 found this review helpful
In America America, a young man, Corey Sifter is swept up into the lives of a small town's most wealthy and powerful family. Corey comes from a working class home and accepts a job on the Metarey Family's estate in the late 1960's. Before he knows it, the family patriarch takes him under his wing offering him advice about succeeding in life and the chance to further himself by attending a prestigious private boarding school. The story is told through alternating chapters in at least three different time periods (all at once!); Corey in high school, Corey in college, and Corey as a middle-age adult. The tale is told mostly through Corey's eyes, but every now and then strays to one of the lesser characters' point of view.
The book centers on a political campaign (of Senator Bonwiller) run during Nixon's second presidential campaign and focuses on the Metarey family's and therefore Corey's involvement with the campaign.
There are many facets to this book. It is modern historical fiction and contains a portrait of the proverbial American Dream. A Scottish man (Eoghan Metarey) coming to America and rising from nothing to become wealthy and powerful through hard work (and perhaps some questionable decisions). And then the legacy he leaves behind for his family. The book centers a great deal on what one generation can learn from the next and how each generation affects another. It also portrays the political world of the late 1960's, early 70's before the world of the computer age when newspapers and reporters were an integral part of the campaign. Also, the lengths politicians will go during a campaign (not that any of this has changed much, just the medium through which the information is disseminated has). The American Dream is also shown through Corey's family where he has the opportunity to learn more and have more of an education than his father did. There is an interesting storyline about the relationship with Corey and his father toward the end of the book.
It's hard for me to decide if I liked this book or not. I think it is very well written and I think many of the characters are developed well. I like the way Canin creates the relationships in the book between Corey and his father, Corey and Liam Metarey, and Corey and the Metarey daughters. A good section of the book deals with the political campaign and I found some of these parts to be very boring and I wondered if I would actually be able to get to the end of the book. Through much of the book, Corey refers to his spouse as "my wife" and not by name, so we're not entirely sure which character he has chosen to marry until quite close to the end of the book. There is also an "incident" that is talked about in much of the book that really has too much of a build up. I wasn't that into the Senator's character or his affair with a young woman and the ensuing incident.
The timing of the book is good with this being an election year and with as close as the primaries are, its sort of fun to read a bit about politics. I think overall this book is probably 4 out of 5 if I'm impartial about it. But for my personal tastes, I think it was a bit long and not quite as gripping as I might like (I'm also usually not very engrossed by politics) so it could be a 3.5. If you like the author, Richard Russo, I would recommend this one. It's themes reminded me a great deal of Bridge of Sighs and Empire Falls.
 American Indeed June 30, 2008
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
This lovely novel was the first I have read by Ethan Canin. As the story progressed I found myself more and more satisfied with the feeling, the sense of the novel and the time and place it evoked.
Corey Sifter is the blue-collar son of a plumber and handyman, living in a one-company town in New York during the Nixon years. This is Cory's coming of age story seen in the flashbacks of his middle-age as he looks back on his youth. Towards the end of high school Corey is employed on the estate of Liam Metary, a wealthy and influential powerbroker and the owner of almost everything in Saline, New York. Corey is not only taken in by the Metary family and exposed to the lifestyle of his wealthy neighbors, but is witness behind the scenes to the rise of Senator Henry Bonwiller as he becomes a contender for the Democratic nomination in 1974. Cory's love and respect for Liam Metary is tested as he sees first-hand what happens to keep Senator Bonwiller's reputation clean and his candidacy protected. Corey's relationship with other members of the Metary family are also shaped by these powerful events.
The narration is first person, as Cory Sifter, happily married and the father of three grown daughters looks back on those remarkable years. Canin describes a time and a presidential nomination campaign that has many parallels to the campaign we have just gone through. "One of the hallmarks of our politics now is that we tend to elect those who can campaign over those who can lead." Senator Bonwiller's campaign parallels that of Ted Kennedy and the tragic way in which his presidential aspirations came to an end.
Much of my enjoyment of the book had to do with the middle-aged Sifter's reflections on life. As the father of three grown sons I appreciated the wry wisdom and generous view of his past that only comes with the accumulation of years. "Not only are our parents buried cryptically inside each of us, but ... we are buried just as cryptically inside each of them and ... we may look in either direction to see the secrets of our children and of ourselves."
The story is fascinating and timely, the writing is evocative and heart-breakingly beautiful at times. It is indeed a story of America, of immigrants and how they shaped the lives of their great-grandchildren, of the landscape that was taken from the first Americans and the dynamics of the political system that sees power affirmed or transferred peacefully every four years. All of these themes and many more are twined skillfully into a thoroughly enjoyable novel. I am looking forward now to reading Canin's other works and discovering more about a new favorite author.
 Overhyped and Overrated July 17, 2008
9 out of 16 found this review helpful
I bought this book after reading the recommendation in O Magazine. All I can say is this author must have a great agent getting him a lot of P.R. I found the book stretched on and on in what could have easily been condensed down to a 250 page book. The story dragged on and bored me. Trying not to spoil the plot, I also found it strange how a particular relationship (between Corey and Metarey sisters) flipped over to something different, but was never fully explained how that developed in the end exactly or how others felt about it. Didn't anyone who read this think that was strange? This is a big SKIP IT and spend your money elsewhere.
 Am I the only one??? Remi Storm WV July 8, 2008
7 out of 14 found this review helpful
Am I the only one who was reminded of Dominick Dunne's novel: A Season In Purgatory??? Granted, this is a solid well written book but it felt like I had read it before.
Only one word ... August 7, 2008
7 out of 15 found this review helpful
There's one word that describes the entire novel from beginning to end: wistful. If that's your thing, then you've got 458 pages of it. I will say it was beautifully written, but the end result is like having your brain under too much novacaine. Did anything actually happen in the book? I guess so, if you don't mind being given the story through wistful remembrance after wistful remembrance. Guess I got wistfulled-out. Ethan must be one sad dude.
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