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Jul 21, 2008

Stacey rated it:

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 influential family i More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 05, 2008

Kristy rated it:

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...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Feb 23, 2008

Hillary rated it:

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...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 18, 2008

Miriam rated it:

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.

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 25, 2008

jillian rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 18, 2009

Wendy rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 07, 2009

Gravity rated it:

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...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2009

Dave rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 10, 2009

Chad rated it:

This story, while beautifully written, is difficult to classify. Is it a historical fiction piece? Is it a murder mystery? A coming-of-age story? A political diatribe? A rags-to-riches yarn? Actually, a title as broad as America, America is fitting because it takes on all of these things at once. The shocking part is that it actually works. It doesn’t feel like a reach. In fact, it works quite well by employing something rarely used anymore – the art of subtlety.

The characters - begi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 19, 2008

Lars rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 27, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

It took some patience, and yes, I'd even say "work", for me to get through this. It doesn't start to get interesting until about 60 pages in, and there are places throughout the book that drag a bit. But I'm glad I stayed with it. The story delves into a lot of murky areas with regard to politicians, class consciousness, family dynamics, and the price each individual pays for keeping secrets.

There is an especially pointed exploration of how the privileged classes view the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 28, 2010

Laura rated it:

This book has been on my book rental to read list for a long time. They finally sent it and by the time I got it I had forgotten why I was interested in reading it. I know why, now that I have read it. It covers a time period which was a part of my life and about which I am very interested in reading. The time frame for this novel is approximately the latter 1960's to the early 1980's. The story centers around Corey Sifter who is the son of working class parents. In the area of upstate New More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 19, 2008

Mara rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 13, 2011

Bruno rated it:

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-time 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 1970s a father and More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 08, 2008

Len rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 05, 2008

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.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 14, 2008

Joe rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 10, 2008

Sara rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 22, 2009

Joanne rated it:

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.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 11, 2011

Elizabeth rated it:

I loved this book. Canin takes on so much -- the nature of goodness, the nature of honesty, the nature of America itself -- and he brings them together in a way that's wise but still somehow sweet-tempered. This one will stay with me for a long time.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 01, 2011

Abby rated it:

This is my first Early Reviewer book and also my first posted review. I requested the book because I loved Canin’s book of short stories (“The Palace Thief”} and because the plot summary was irresistible: politics, scandal and small-town life in the Nixon era, with a working-class protagonist entangled with the rich and powerful – all the ingredients of a great read in the hands of a master of character development. [return][return]The result is a beautifully written book that perhaps reache More...

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Feb 05, 2009

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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Dec 20, 2008

Judy rated it:

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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Jan 27, 2012

Roger rated it:

Ethan Canin’s accomplished novels always burst with honest voice and fine prose. His choice of words and sentence structures make for a rewarding reading experience. This novel takes on American politics and the men who compete for public office and power. Corey Sifter is a teen in the small town of Saline, New York. The Metarey family has over generations built the city from scratch. Corey becomes a personal grounds keeper of the Metarey estate and slowly finds himself an important asset of the More...

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Jul 29, 2011

Catherine rated it:

America America isn't espousing any particular political agenda, but it's a story in which the audacity of hope confronts the tenacity of power -- and loses. As the protagonist, Corey Sifter looks back on his teenage self and the men who plotted to take the White House that year, the novel becomes a reflection on a young man's maturity and the moral calculus of democratic government. "I've never known another politician, and have never again in my life come so close to a man of history like More...

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Jun 09, 2011

Jeruen rated it:

I suppose it took me two weeks to finish reading this one. Well, I should say, this is one of the better books that I have read.

This is the first book that I have read written by Ethan Canin. Before America America, I haven’t heard of him. I suppose the best feature of the novel was the way things were presented to the reader. The narration is definitely non-linear: the main story happens during 1971, but the story is told through the eyes of Corey Sifter, after attending the funeral o More...

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Jan 03, 2011

Georgie rated it:

This is another attempt at the 'Big American Novel'. Big being the operative world, standing at nearly 500 pages, the book is weighty and could have benefited from a decent edit.

The slow burn narrative chronicles the adult recollection of his coming-of-age as a teenager in a working class family when a wealthy Kennedy-esque gentleman effectivly sponsors him. The novel employs the use of flashbacks and jumps between first and third person narrative which was annoying.
Corey More...

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Jul 14, 2010

Noreen rated it:

The writing is very, very good. The storytelling does keep you turning the page. The characters are well depicted and mostly interesting. But the story didn’t quite hook me. The narrator is an only child from a working class father. His mother stays at home and does housework. The rich, political neighbor takes in the narrator, Corey. Liam Metarey is impressed with Corey’s working class ethic. Behind the scenes, Corey’s mother and Liam work out a deal so that Liam would finance boarding school. More...

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Sep 26, 2009

Brian rated it:

Canin is a local writer, though I have never met him and I have never read anything by him before. He was recently recommended to me by a doctor from Philadelphia who I happened to meet in Montana. I do not remember what book the doctor recommended, so I just decided to pick this one.

In the beginning, I was unimpressed. I enjoyed Canin's slow and methodical first person narrator, and I was quite curious about his life. But I just didn't care about the political issues. Those, un More...

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Aug 08, 2011

Jenny rated it:

I should have given up on this book when I first thought about it, but I kept thinking it would get better.

Canin seems to be attempting to be Faulkner or Hemingway in his attempt at giving the reader just enough information to piece together the story, but it just caused me to spend most of the story waiting for facts to be revealed. Maybe it needs a re-read, but I'm not sure I'll catch more than what I already know.

I'm not sure why Corey has felt guilty about his role i More...

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