America, America

by Ethan Canin

Book Overview

Etat de New York, debut des annees 1970. Issu d'une famille ouvriere, Corey Sifter devient assistant dans le riche domaine des Metarey, une famille puissante dont la generosite lui permet de... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0747597456
• ISBN13: 9780747597452
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
• Length: 458 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Most Insightful

This book is very well written in 1st person so much so that even though it was fiction, throughout the book it had me convinced it could possibly be true. Ethan Cain brought me right into this story about Corey Sifter and Liam Metarey I didn't want it to end. I felt this was the story of any one of us who for a short time in our life had the opportunity to see how "the other side" lived.

The finest American novel I have read in many a year!

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.

America America the beautiful and brilliant

It's hard to write about Ethan Canin's new novel America America without staring into space and sighing dreamily. I'm going to put it out there. If this doesn't turn out to be my favorite novel of 2008 I am going to shocked. Shocked and amazed. This book is so good that I have trouble finding the words to tell you about how good it is. This is the kind of book that you get lost in. It takes you to another place and time so wholly that you will grow to resent all those things (eating, bathing, sleeping) that take you away from the book. America America opens with the 2006 funeral of Senator Henry Bonwiller, a presidential contender in the 1972 race against Richard Nixon. Bonwiller's campaign was derailed by a Ted Kennedy Chappaquiddickesque accident that resulted in the death of a campaign aid. The funeral causes our narrator Corey Shifter to reflect on his time working with Bonwiller, and more importantly the man behind Bonwiller, Liam Metarey. It's a big, beautiful novel about journalism, politics, class, family, and, ultimately, America. It's brilliant. This book is so good that when I finished it, I didn't want to start any other book because I know it's not going to be as good as America America. It's so good that sometimes I just walk past the book, run my fingers over the cover, and sigh happily and fondly remember all the good times we had together. And there are so many good times in this book.

And Crown Thy Good

It is no accident that the author of this novel is a faculty member of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. America America is interesting in structure and style. There are three elliptical story lines. All are narrated by Corey Sifter, a native of a small town in Western New York. One ellipse deals with Corey's working class youth in the early 1970s and his gradual absorption as family retainer to the Metareys, the local gentry. The second ellipse concerns Corey's adolescence and young adulthood as he breaks away from his small town roots. The third, set in 2006, involves Corey's adult life as a newspaper publisher resettled in his old hometown, reflecting on events of the past. The points at which these three ellipses intersect form the center of the story: the rise and the mystery surrounding the fall of a hometown politician who aspires to - and nearly does -- capture the 1972 Democratic Party nomination for President. This structural device gives Corey the freedom to move backward and forward in time and to speak with mixed voices: naïve and trusting teen, battle-scarred political veteran, mentoring journalist. We see his world as it was and as it has become, capturing the many nuances of the transition from twentieth century to the 21st. The triple narrative device, and the resultant shift from one perspective to another, also gives the author the opportunity to color in his portrait of the times one bit at a time, filling in his outlines and illuminating his narrative with unexpected strokes until the whole picture emerges on the page. So what's the story about? It's about the presidential campaign, passingly. It's about work and ambition. It's about loyalty, to place and to person. It's about the freedom that wealth enables, and the responsibilities and tragedies that it imposes. It's about parents and their children, and the subtle inheritances that pass through generations. It's about character and integrity: their surprising appearances and their equally surprising absences. This is not a beach book. For me it was a front porch rocking chair book. It also would make a good window seat during a summer thunderstorm book. Not all the questions raised are answered, and not all the characters are well understood. It's nice to have something to think about on warm summer nights.

American Indeed

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.