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America America A Novel Ethan Canin 9780679456803 Books

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America America A Novel Ethan Canin 9780679456803 Books

A fictional account of politics in the Nixon era and the story of a young working class youth exposed to the political hypocrisies of doing socially good while exploiting the need for power and control. How this exposure influenced his development and the innuendos of what goes on behind closed doors is pertinent to today's political climate.


Tags : America America: A Novel [Ethan Canin] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. 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,Ethan Canin,America America: A Novel,Random House,0679456805,Literary,Political,New York (State);Politics and government;Fiction.,United States;Politics and government;Fiction.,Working class men;Fiction.,American Contemporary Fiction - Individual Authors +,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction General,Fiction Literary,Fiction Political,General,Rich people,Upper class women,Working class men

America America A Novel Ethan Canin 9780679456803 Books Reviews

In this era of political uncertainty and the seeming lack of moral fiber and personal integrity this book raises questions and issues that bring it all to the fore. So worth reading and pondering the what ifs of American politics and it's candidates.
i liked this book because i'm interested in authors who can tell a good story about people. i also enjoy long family sagas, and can really indulge in a voyeuristic journey into other people's lives....'downton abbey'? so this book seems to create an engaging historical novel through the story of its characters.
i would recommend this book to people who like character development and historical settings.
The story times flit back and forth and I had to keep readjusting my background thinking to put it all in place. It was a bit annoying to keep up.
One of the best novels I have read. I found myself reading this book as a writer, paying attention how Canin developed the characters, stories, and scenery -- all visible in my minds'-eye. I have become quite a fan of his writing and will be reading more of his work in the very near future.
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.
This quirky book presents a thought provoking reprise of the oft-times unbelievable details of recent American political history. The relationships of the foreground characters sometimes seem a little too precious for words, but the richness of the (true) background personalities and composites grounds the whole. A terrific book club choice, the reader is invited to add his/her own moral dimension to the flow of the action in ways that probe the essence of our citizenship in late 20th Century America. Especially timely in an National election year -- but then, hasn't running for election overtaken governing as the true work of our current political class. Shame on us, the American voter, for not paying attention while our democracy was sold to the highest bidders.
This is a well-written story of political intrigue; historical fiction within my memory. It is also a coming-of-age story and here is where it is incomplete. The narrator is entwined with the daughters of his employer yet the author provides virtually no physical description of anyone outside of the male characters. We learn that the daughter that is his age has green eyes and that she has a sister but it is unclear if she is older or younger. The father is described and the candidate is described most fully. We know that the narrator is tall, like his father and the candidate (and the candidate's son). That's about it. Obviously, the narrator learned a lot about love and life from the two daughters but the treatment of those events is prudish - especially for a story built around an extra-marital affair. If the author had provided a description of the characters equal to that he provided for the physical setting, it would be a terrific book.
A fictional account of politics in the Nixon era and the story of a young working class youth exposed to the political hypocrisies of doing socially good while exploiting the need for power and control. How this exposure influenced his development and the innuendos of what goes on behind closed doors is pertinent to today's political climate.