Wow! I just finished reading A Good American, and it was a really, really good book. I kept promising Mary Ann, our Penguin book rep, that I’d get to reading A Good American. So, I did, and I couldn’t put it down. I finished it last night, and it was one delightful read. A Good American boasts the “Amy Einhorn” stamp. So did Kathryn Stockett’s The Help. Well, well.
A Good American can be looked at as a epic family story. The second in line of four brothers tells the story of how his grandparents fled Prussia when they were scared to death of his mother’s mother finding out the truth about her only daughter: she was pregnant and she was unmarried. So, on the way over to the United States on a boat, the very young couple marries. It’s 1904. Oh, if forgot to say the he is a singer, and a amateur opera singer, even though self taught. His gorgeous booming voice is really what causes Jette to fall head over heals in love with Frederick, who is the first character to love, absolutely love America. Hence, he is the first “Good American”.
Once they anchor in New Orleans, they find a stagecoach to take them to Missouri, all because a man on the ship says that Missouri is THE place to settle in the United States. So, the couple does not make it as far north as hoped since the baby arrives early in “Beatrice”, Missouri. (That baby is Joseph, the father of the four boys.) There’s a small story there on the history of the name of that town!
The young couple opens a restaurant which serves as the “meal ticket” for not only Frederick and Jette, but as the generations are born, for their four sons and even the grandsons and their families. So, the epic story has at its roots, beautiful voices passed down from one generation to another, recipes passed down as the restaurant changes, and boys, lots of them. One of my favorite features is the barber shop quartet which the four grandsons form which they turn to throughout their lives for joy, as well as solace for members of the town during weddings and funerals.
At its core, this novel centers around family and love and the characteristic problems associated with both. All the while, the reader gets to watch as early United States history unfolds. Characters become endearing to the reader, and issues such as poverty, racial issues, and religion weave throughout. A big-hearted love for America serves as the umbrella for all. I suppose this is a patriotic book, and it’s a good book to read right now because it is as non-partisan as they come.
The narrator, as I mentioned before, is a grandson. Toward the close of the novel, he has a major life surprise. The reader is surprised at the same time, with no prior knowledge of the truth. I like that. I like to be caught off guard at the same time the narrator is. He is not all knowing, or omniscient; he is fallible, sensitive, and shocked, very shocked, just as I was. The second reason that I love this book is the fact that the narrator is a writer, a novelist. He writes four novels. Yet, at the end, listens to what he says,
As I returned to the box again and again, excavating memories, an idea slowly nudged its way into my brain. I thought of all those unpublished novels that were gathering dust in my spare bedroom, those improbable tales I’d spun out of my imagination. But as I considered the lives enshrined in that aggregation of photographs and artifacts, I realized that there was no need to invent a single thing. This story will do.”
The subtle reference to Mark Twain did not bypass me. Remember the ending to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? Go re-read it. You’ll see how very, very clever the author Alex George was to make a reference to Twain, one of America’s very best early novelists, and guess where Huckleberry Finn played around: Missouri, no doubt.
The real author of this book, Alex George, is an Englishman who studied law at Oxford University and worked as a young lawyer in London and Paris. He now lives in Missouri, hence the nice descriptions of the setting of this book. A Good American ranks as the Number One Indie Book Pick for February. Be sure to pick up a copy of the recent Indie Pick flyer when you purchase your very own copy of A Good American at Lemuria.
I’m already looking forward to Alex George’s next novel! -Nan
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