book data
565 ratings,
3.60
average rating, 212 reviews
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published
June 24th 2008
by Random House
binding
Hardcover, 464 pages
isbn
0679456805
(isbn13: 9780679456803)
description
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 an...more
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avg 3.60
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in July, 2008
This is the first book of Ethan Canin’s I’ve read, but it certainly won’t be the last…
"America, America" is a readable saga that’s especially relevant as it explores the nature of politics, family, class, and idealism at the height of the Vietnam War. In this coming-of-age story we follow the life of Corey Sifter, a working class boy that is both smart and ambitious-if not a bit naïve. Young Corey goes to work for the Metarey’s, the most prominent and influen...more
"America, America" is a readable saga that’s especially relevant as it explores the nature of politics, family, class, and idealism at the height of the Vietnam War. In this coming-of-age story we follow the life of Corey Sifter, a working class boy that is both smart and ambitious-if not a bit naïve. Young Corey goes to work for the Metarey’s, the most prominent and influen...more
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Read in September, 2008
recommends it for:
anyone
wow this was a great book. Ethan Canin is a talent beyond his years. His writing style is calm and fluid. One of the best aspects of the book is the reflections that the narrator makes on his own daughters. It isn't just a story about hard work, ambition and the great American way. Canin shows us that we are just paving the way for what we set for ourselves back when we were children. I f we were digging holes when we were seven, take a look at what you are doing when you;re thirty. If yo...more
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recommends it for:
EVERYONE
Ethan Canin just keeps getting better and better. This beautifully crafted novel, set in the 1970s, tells the story of Corey Sifter, a poor, bright, earnest young man drawn into the privileged circle of a wealthy liberal family, the Metareys, and their world of wealth and political machination. The characters are wonderfully realized and the story, which revolves around the rise and scandalous fall of a great Senator who's running for President, is very compelling. Not to mention oh-so-relevant ...more
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Read in October, 2008
Especially interesting in the election year, this is a novel about politics, ambition and family secrets. It kind of plods along and yet is suspenseful at the same time. I've been savoring it over the past few weeks (it is SO OVERDUE at the library) and enjoying dipping in and out of it. Interesting narrative technique and lovely writing, coupled with suspense makes it the kind of book I love. Definitely check this one out.
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4 comments
Read in October, 2008
This book was a stunning portrait of America's eastern upper class, of the wealthy and the influential, of how financial empires turn, eventually, into politics in some way, shape or form. Told by a narrator, Corey Sifter, who is the outsider to a world of privilege, it tells of the shadows and darkness that exist - and eventually swallow - those who miss the steps of the dances of money and power. Corey is a jack-of-all-trades houseboy for the powerful Metarey family, a family whose financial...more
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Read in January, 2009
This engaging novel takes place in the early 70's and is narrated by present day Corey Sifter, a newspaper publisher in a small town in upstate New York. It is a coming of age story, but also an historical novel about presidential politics. It involves the fictional Senator Henry Bonwiller, who runs in the Democratic primaries against Ed Muskie and George McGovern, and his ultimate undoing. Sixteen-year-old Corey, the son of a laborer, is hired to work for the powerful Liam Matarey, who takes th...more
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Read in March, 2009
A great American novel. I find it unusual to read a novel that neither tries to create an overly romantic view of American life, nor a snarky nod to its shattered idealism. Having just come out of a decade where the word "values" had been manipulated into being synonymous with political will and the so-called righteous American stance, the essence of "America America" is about exploring a more fundamental and richer meaning of the word. What happened to "values" mea...more
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Read in January, 2009
I'm a slow reader, so it is rare that I finish a 450-page book in three days. But that's what I did with "America America," which has to be the worst title of any book I've ever loved.
The characters are engaging and real. The narrative threads are difficult to follow when they jump back and forth, but the compelling mysteries and political intrigue made me not mind the labor.
The political hero whose rise and fall is at the center of the novel is fascinating--his...more
The characters are engaging and real. The narrative threads are difficult to follow when they jump back and forth, but the compelling mysteries and political intrigue made me not mind the labor.
The political hero whose rise and fall is at the center of the novel is fascinating--his...more
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Read in December, 2008
Geoffrey Wolff's review in the New York Times brands the narrator of "America America" as "diffident and reliably gullible and unsmiling." While I would disagree with the last adjective--Corey Sifter surely has a sense of humor--I must admit my affection for Sifter's story is due in part to my own diffidence and gullibility. I keep being drawn to elements of our culture that show my pop naivete--Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love" truly moves me, for one example. Anywa...more
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Read in May, 2008
Perhaps the whole point of this book is that no-one can know the truth at the bottom of a scandal except the people involved, but I think that Canin makes this point in an unnecessarily confusing way. The time frame shifts from the present (more or less) to various points in Corey Sifter's association with the Metarey's, the wealthy family in town, who become his patron, sending him to private school and then helping to pay his college tuition. He is telling the story to his would-be protegee, a...more
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Read in November, 2008
I really loved this novel! I had never read anything by Ethan Canin and after hearing about this one I added it to my list. It is so well written and the story is wonderful, especially given the subject matter (politics) and the timing (our current election).
Canin is a fantastic storyteller and this story is an American classic. It's about class distinctions and power and politics and scandal and journalism and family and everything American. Wonderful.
Canin is a a great ...more
Canin is a fantastic storyteller and this story is an American classic. It's about class distinctions and power and politics and scandal and journalism and family and everything American. Wonderful.
Canin is a a great ...more
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12/05/08
Marc
added it
I really liked this story of a working class boy transitioning to middle class and experiencing upper class situations. The back and forth between time periods was handled superbly. I related to the hard work, done without cutting corners, and the struggle of class, identity, and guilt after receiving an education. The insights of comparing being a child and being a parent were thought-provoking and real. I enjoyed every page.
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This is a fantastic novel that seems to know everything about well, everything. It tells the tale of young Corey Sifter, a lower middle class youth who is taken under the wings of Liam Metarey, an affluent man with ties to Senator Henry Bonwiller, a Kennedyesque Presidential candidate. Before long, a Chappaquidick-like incident happens and it sends the Metarey famly and Corey into reexamining their beliefs and themselves. It's a very moving book about innocence lost not only in humans but in ...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
Rich
This book has a few characteristics that classically appeal to me: wealthy characters, family, a tiny slice of boarding school, and a Northeastern setting. The narration can be a little ponderous at times, but the splicing of the different narratives works really well, even in places propelling me along much faster than the voice itself (wanting to go back to the next piece of the story, but never sure which strand Canin will take up next). Parts of the story were very moving, and, true to its t...more
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I loved this!!! It's long, but a complex political saga/love story is the perfect thing for long plane rides. I was a little confused at the end.--not sure who the mysterious visitor at the gravesite is. I have my suspicions, but I want to discuss with another reader.
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02/05/09
Bookmarks Magazine
added it
Canin asks important questions about wealth, power, and ambition in his latest novel, but critics' feelings about America America depended largely on their reaction to Canin's narrator, Corey, a passive and inexpressive figure. While the Washington Post declared confidently that "America America is Ethan Canin's best novel," a number of other reviewers opined that Corey's inability to feel (or communicate) any kind of passion about his life's tale was a fatal flaw that left the reader
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Read in December, 2008
A rather complex story told alternately by a 17-year-old narrator and his adult self (35 years later) about his relationship with a wealthy, political family during the early 1970s. The story includes many references to the Nixon administration and the 1972 Presidential campaign, focusing specifically on the campaign of a fictional liberal Democratic candidate loosely based on Ted Kennedy who has an affair with a local beauty queen and leaves her to die after an auto accident. The narrator, wh...more
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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.
Read the rest on iwilldare.com
Read the rest on iwilldare.com
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Read in April, 2009
Oh no! I ended up putting this book aside. I'm a sucker for the old ingenue sucked in the wealthy family and getting involved in a scandal plot, but this seemed to add nothing new. I'd read it all before and the pace seemed to move really slowly. I didn't enjoy the present-time story and felt when a third timeline was introduced I gave up. ALthough the past-tie line was set in the 70's, it didn't feel like the seventies, it felt very 30-50's. I found it hard to believe in the 1970 a father and s...more
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Read in July, 2008
Whew, thank goodness. I've started and tossed aside four or five books in the last two weeks, not sure whether they just sucked or whether I'd developed a brain disease that affected my concentration. But once I started this one, I was sucked in for two days. Thanks to Mr. Canin, I know I'm not suffering from early senility. What a great book! Class, family, politics, innocence, corruption, and one of the great dog characters in recent literature.
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