From Ethan Canin, bestselling author of The Palace Thief, comes a stunning novel, set in a small town during the Nixon era and today, about America and family, politics and tragedy, and the impact of fate on a young man’s life.

In the early 1970s, Corey Sifter, the son of working-class parents, becomes a yard boy on the grand estate of the powerful Metarey family. Soon, through the family’s generosity, he is a student at a private boarding school and an aide to the great New York senator Henry Bonwiller, who is running for president of the United States. Before long, Corey finds himself involved with one of the Metarey daughters as well, and he begins to leave behind the world of his upbringing. As the Bonwiller campaign gains momentum, Corey finds himself caught up in a complex web of events in which loyalty, politics, sex, and gratitude conflict with morality, love, and the truth.

America America is a beautiful novel about America as it was and is, a remarkable exploration of how vanity, greatness, and tragedy combine to change history and fate.

PRAISE FOR AMERICA AMERICA

“A brilliant, serious book for serious readers.”
–San Diego Union Tribune

“A complicated, many-layered epic of class, politics, sex, death, and social history…Its reach is wide and its touch often masterly.”
–John Updike in The New Yorker

“A sprawling, captivating, timely work of art…Clearly the work of a writer at the top of his form…A novel that reminds us that fiction matters.”
–Houston Chronicle

“As rich, ambitious, intelligent, emotionally satisfying and important a work of fiction as we’re likely to get this year.”
   –Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls

“We’ve waited a long time for a worthy successor to Robert Penn Warren’s All the King's Men, and it couldn't have arrived at a more auspicious moment."
–Washington Post

An intoxicating big book–in both size and ambition.
Thrilling…Luminous.
–Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A big, ambitious, old-fashioned, quintessentially American novel about politics, power, ambition, class, ethics and loyalty…Bravo to Canin for tackling the American Dream.”
–Los Angeles Times

“Beautifully written…Heartbreaking.”
–USA Today

“Intelligently observed, elegantly written…A perfect story for an election year, but one that will be read long after November.”
–Christian Science Monitor




“A magnificent novel with enormous sweep and power…The crowning glory of Ethan Canin’s writing life.”
–Pat Conroy, author of The Prince of Tides

“A very ambitious take on the great American novel–about class, wealth, politics, history, power, innocence and corruption. Beautiful…brilliant…complicated…At times triumphant, at times sad.”
–Linda Wertheimer, National Public Radio

“Ethan Canin could hardly wish for higher praise than this: His big, carefully crafted novel earns the right to its name.”
—New York Observer

"One of the best writers at work today."
–Lorrie Moore, author of Birds of America

“At year's end, America America might not have won the National Book Award, but it should have.”
–Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star

“A grand novel, with a wide scope and small anguishes…The writing is exquisite, the depiction of the fading days of a certain American dream haunting.”
–Miami Herald

“A splendid novel.”
–Publishers Weekly, Signature Review

“A superb achievement.”
–Library Journal, Starred Review

“Powerful and haunting, a major work.”
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“Striking...Sweeping, multileveled…America America has that pull, that something that could make it a classic.”
–Buffalo News

Customer Rating:
Summary: America: An Outsider's View of politics
Comment: This novel would work better for me in diary format or as random reminiscences and without the bait of an important disclosure. Narrated mostly in first person, the episodes that compose the novel do not lead to a climax and do not fulfill expectations. As the story begins, Corey Sifter, the narrator sets the scene for a revelation ("That I would be the one to bring it back now, after all this time"), but also warns the reader that he only knows part of it and has had to guess at other parts. I was certainly willing to go along with him and a novel with such an ambitious title until I began to suspect that Sifter was an apt name for this narrator. He was indeed sifting through a mixture of events, storylines, and themes. Still, I kept expecting the novel to come together. Unfortunately for me, it did not, and I became more and more dissatisfied with the narrator, who like most of his major figures remains blurred. Let me add that the narrator is a newpaper reporter and publisher, so I expected a more definitive story.

Ethan Canin is certainly an important name in current fiction, and I do not mean to disagree with those readers who loved this book. I write more for other readers who perhaps chose not to quit even if they were not enchanted with the novel.

If pressed to give a plot summary, I could only say that the the book seems to set out to reveal a political scandal revolving around a Senator Henry Bonwiller, but meets up with a coming of age narrative, a narrative about the powerful immigrant Metarey family, and a father/son narrative. Themes of social class, economic status, ambition, ethics, and loyalty weave throughout these. First person sometimes gives way to third person, and the story, which is set mainly in a small New York State town, advances in episodic fashion. It starts in 2006, but immediately jumps back to 1971 and the era of the Vietnam War. Although Corey Sifter is around college age, he never mentions student anti-war unrest, demonstrations, or protests, so a portion of the social and political fabric of the time and of his generation is missing. The omission seems especially significant considering that part of this story is a coming of age tale. A young male in college at that time would surely have had to grapple with the politics of war and of the draft.

A major portion of the novel is devoted to the hazy story of Senator Bonwiller's attempt to run for President on the Democratic ticket and a scandal that gets in his way. Liam Metarey is a major supporter of Bonwiller, but young Corey Sifter is a sort of errand boy for the campaign, and politically innocent or ignorant. I do not understand why the author chose a person twice removed from the proceedings, by age and by involvement, to tell this tale, which in the end reveals more doubts than certainties. This narrator begins in doubts and ends in doubts. He also leaves major chinks in his story.

If you want a book that makes you think about what the author is trying to get across, this is the book for you. I am not a reader that demands that all ends be tied up or that does not want to read a challenging book, but this one I would not read again. I do demand that a book touch me in some way, and this one is just a ramble.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Comment: Fast great delivery! Received it in like 2-3 days...Was quicker than i thought!! Right in time for a Bday present, which I bought at the last minute! Brand New Book --> awesome author --> Great book!! Recommend buyer!!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The finest American novel I have read in many a year!
Comment: A great story with a beginning that draws you in, a middle that keeps you turning the pages and an end that is quite satisfying in every respect.

The characters are familiar yet presented refreshingly and develop and grow over the course of the novel.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Much appreciated.
Comment: What a relief it is to read a novel that accomplishes what it sets out to do.

I'd never read any of Mr. Canin's works, so I came into this blind. Now I have a canon to dig into, and am relishing the great reading ahead of me.

The tale is sprawling, but not overwrought. It's written in the first-person, but the narrator's voice is not cloying, and he does a wonderful job of retrieving memories, providing perspective. There's humour, sadness, political and human drama...and even some history lessons along the way.

I'll leave a more detailed review to those more adept at them than I...but suffice it to say that I was charmed by 'America America', and will savour its reassurances about the state of North American fiction for a goodly time.

Thanks.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Let's Not Relive The Past!
Comment: I found the beginning of this book to be beguiling and thought to myself that I was in for a treat. The more that I read, the more my disappointment mounted. Canin writes beautifully, and some passages were worthy of a second read. Great characterizations. One is easily drawn into this story. Corey Sifter is most sympathetic, and I really liked his folks. Class differences come alive, yet again. Then it is as if we [the readers] are asked to question that wistful phrase, "If only....? What would have happened if....?" Are some of us not doing that at this moment?! Do we require reminders about close elections, lost races for the White House, etc.? Do we realy need reminders that war is hell? Also, what happened to Holly? She drops out with either no little explanation. Additionally, there comes a time when the jumping back and forth in time is too much. Something is lost here. If one is a "boomer" plus [in years], one cannot question if this was based on Sen. Ted Kennedy. Frankly, the best way for this reader to descibe this is "been there, done that." I kept asking myself "what is original here?" Politics is a rough game -- just look around!! I so much wanted to enjoy this book in its entirety. It came highly recommended. I don't deny the beauty of the writing, the wistfullness, etc., but I do question the justification of nearly 500 pages many of which are [almost] rehashing history. Perhaps, a younger reader who did not live through the 1960's will enjoy this tome. Where, on earth, are the editors? If readers enjoy the books I've rated 4 or 5 stars, they will, most likely, not like this one.

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