America America: A Novel

Description

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, through the family’s generosity, he is a student at a private boarding school and an aide to the great New York senator Henry Bonwiller, who is running for president. Before long, Corey finds himself involved with one of the Metarey daughters as well, and he begins to leave behind the world of his upbringing. As the Bonwiller campaign gains momentum, Corey finds himself caught up in a complex web of events in which loyalty, politics, sex, and gratitude conflict with morality, love, and the truth. Ethan Canin’s stunning novel is about America as it was and is, a remarkable exploration of how vanity, greatness, and tragedy combine to change history and fate.

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Customer Reviews

A well written story...
I'm a little late to the "America, America" review section because I only recently was told how good the book is and how much I'd enjoy it. It IS good and I DID enjoy it! I'd read Ethan Canin's "Palace Thief" when it was published a few years ago and thought Canin had a great writer's voice.

This comes out fully in "America, America", the story of two men, Corey Sifter and Liam Metarey, who are bound together by history and personality. Sifter, who narrates the story, flips back and forth in both time and relationship, from the early 1970's to 2008. He is the son of working class people whose talents and intelligence is recognised by Liam Metarey, the scion of a wealthy liberal family in upstate New York. Metarey mentors Corey, arranges for his education at a boarding school and then at Haverford College. At the same time, Corey works around the Metarey estate and becoming involved in the presidential campaign of a Teddy Kennedy/George McGovern-like Democrat in 1971 and 1972. Henry Bonwiller, the candidate, is involved in some shady deals and possibly in the death of a young woman ala Teddy Kennedy's Chappaquidick-like accident.

Sifter grows up and becomes a journalist on an upstate-New York newspaper and in turn mentors another young person.Part of the story is his relating to Trieste the story of the decline of the Metarey empire along with the political ambitions of Henry Bonwiller.

Canin is a spot-on writer of dialogue and character development. All his characters - both major and minor - are beautifully drawn. If you, like me, missed "America, America" when it was originally issued, it's well worth seeking out and reading.

2010-04-01 (New Mexico) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Could have used a good editor
I was definitely intriqued by the back cover synopsis --- so much that I inadvertantly bought it twice :-D Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed in several aspects of the book. It started well, but quickly became one of those books which skips around in time and keeps "hinting" at future elements that you just want to have the author "get there".

The narrator, Corey Sifter, seems like a nice enough kid --- but he isn't really very interesting. He has a nice family and solid middle class upbringing. The rich family in town takes him under their wing, but besides being a nice, hard-working kid, I don't really see the attraction. The main political story is seen at such a distance that I never got emotionally invested in the characters in that drama. As another reviewer mentions, you don't see much of the backroom drama which can add tension. Since everything has already been alluded to already, there aren't too many suprises.

As in the tagline, I think that there were too many stories going on at the same time and by the middle of the book, I was reading mostly to finish it. There were some portions that I did find interesting, especially the relationship with middle aged Corey, his father and his fathers friend. There were some aspects that I think would have been nice to have been included in more detail --- specially about how Corey got together with his wife. Again, I suspected from all the hints who she was, but was interested in how the author would bring them together. Unfortunately, that story seemed to have been left out all together.

Overall, I liked Canin writing style in terms of the words that he choses. However,I think that the novel would have been better if he focused on a smaller set of stories and made the characters a bit more interesting.

2010-03-20 (San Carlos, CA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Literary and entertaining
This is a big book that should be read in a short period of time or much will be lost. It is very layered, textured and subtle with much held back for the reader to ponder and think about. I would have given it 4.5 stars if I could because it was not a book I could get as emotionally involved with as the books I truly find myself loving and recommending without reservation to all but it is an enjoyable, intelligent read by a great writer and one that will stay in your mind long after you've finished it. Well written,absorbing, entertaining and literary but not as emotionally engaging as some others I've read this year....perhaps because it pulls it's punches just a bit when it could have gone for the knockout.

2010-02-07 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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A big, big, book
This book requires concentration. The author is a very intelligent, very informed professional who will make you pay attention by surprising you with bewildering frequency. As an aspiring writer, I learned a lot, and I enjoyed the process. Kind of.

2009-12-20 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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The Novel that Refuses to End
This novel was so very disappointing and, yes, boring. I kept hoping that it would eventually captivate me in some way--in any way. I only wish I had given up after even a fourth of the book.

It could be very useful reading at the end of one's life because it would make that time seem endless.

2009-09-01 (Southern California) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 2

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Carry Me Across the Water: A Novel

Description

Breathtaking in its suspense and beauty, Carry Me Across the Water is the story of a man’s turbulent journey, with his family, through the central years of the twentieth century. Young August Kleinman escapes from Nazi Germany to America, where his mother’s words—“Take the advice of no one”—fate him to a life of boldness and originality, from the poor streets of New York to the marble mansions of industrial Pittsburgh, from old world Hamburg to the jungle islands of the Pacific. Ultimately, near the end of a long and bountiful life, his resolution of a haunting encounter with a Japanese soldier during World War Two finally illuminates, at the deepest levels, the way authentic lives truly unfold. From the writer hailed as “the most mature and accomplished novelist of his generation” (Alan Cheuse, National Public Radio) comes this “exquisitely modulated short novel” (Los Angeles Times), which “eases its silky-smooth way into a reader’s consciousness even as it plumbs the depths” (Newsday).

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A truly gifted short-story writer, Ethan Canin faltered when it came to his second novel, the turgid For Kings and Planets. This time around, though, the author has found an ingenious solution to his problems with the longer form. Carry Me Across the Water is essentially a book of short stories posing as a novel, and here's the surprise--it's pretty effective. The protagonist, August Kleinman, is a wealthy old man looking back on the span of his life. He recalls his early youth in Vienna as the son of a cultured Jewish family; his flight to America in the 1930s with his mother; his war years in the Pacific; his career as the beer king of Pittsburgh; his love for his wife and alienation from his children. This may sound relatively straightforward. Yet Canin shatters this portrait into a series of compelling vignettes, each rearing up unexpectedly and without the crude restraints of chronology.

This format of random flashbacks allows the author to handle a sprawling novel--and a complex life. At the same time, these compartmentalized moments are kept from seeming too small by means of an expansive prose style, which sometimes suggest Mark Helprin in high gear: "Downriver he could see the fierce furnaces throwing blue-black smoke into the air, the crude ore of the land being transformed by human ingenuity into girders and beams that were then floated downstream to ports and train yards and trucking depots, a vast delta of commerce that fanned out from there to all the great hubs of the earth." Throughout, Canin tempers his grandiloquence with a short-story writer's sensitivity to the details of character, and accomplishes exactly what he intended: an involving montage of 20th-century life. --Claire Dederer

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Customer Reviews

Canin carried me...........
An exceptional author; you can't wait to see what the characters will do, and they do not disappoint. Canin is truly gifted.

2008-11-14 | Ficton Fanatic (Monterey,CA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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A little bit disappointing.
Based on Canin's short stories, I confidently expected to love this novel. I am not going to argue that Carry Me Across the Water is a bad book, but I was not nearly as impressed as I expected to be.

I am not sure that I am smart enough to exactly pinpoint what did not work. I certainly appreciated it as I was reading it. As I sit here now to try to find the words to describe the flaws, I keep coming up with "forgettable" and "weak". All the same, "weak" is not correct. Canin is too good of a writer for that. "Diluted" is maybe more appropriate. It is as though what I like about his short stories is not concentrated enough to hold my attention here throughout the book. August Kleinman is an interesting enough character. The events in his life should also have been interesting enough. But still, it just didn't do it for me.

There is enough of the flavor here of personal taste to suggest that you try the novel for yourself to see what you think. Since I cannot really define why it did not work, it may well be my issue rather than the novel's. Still, I think that I am going to circle back around to his short stories and remember what I liked so much in the first place.

Three stars, really. But I cannot give a writer this strong less than four stars.

2008-06-14 | frumiousb (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Ethereally Stunning (If a novel can be described that way)
Canin, a writing professor at the University of Iowa, reminds me of Richard Yates in that I refer to each of them as a writer's writer. Both of these writers have very different strengths (and their lives have other points of intersection), but each has a way of producing work that is technically wonderful, while at the same time being an entertaining story. In this instance, Canin weaves a story about August Kleinman, a Jewish man who escaped the Holocaust and fought oversees in the Pacific. The story weaves August at multiple time periods and we jump from perspective to perspective seamlessly. That's the strongest aspect of this novel - the way Canin takes us to different points in August's life, while maintaining our complete and utter belief that this is the same person at different developmental stages in each instance. Another way to look at this novel is through its "tightness." Canin does a great job of linking things together and of providing closure to almost every single detail that he includes. This novel seems like it could have been written in two days or two years.

I highly recommend the book to people who enjoy reading technically saavy material. Rarely will you find work that is successful at pushing itself stylistically without compromising the plotline. Buy it and enjoy.

2007-02-03 | CMT (New York, NY) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 4

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Return to Form
After the major disappointment of For Gods and Planets, Canin again displays a mastery of his craft in Carry Me Across the Water. What a pleasure to find a novel that can be comfortably read in a couple of days yet leaves a deep emotional impression. I disagree with the reviewer who complained about the form, which uses flashbacks and cuts between various scenes in the protagonist's life; there's nothing confusing about it, and it works beautifully. I do agree that Canin has brought to bear his skill as a short story writer in conveying the essence of a good novel without the tedium of endless descriptions and meandering plot lines. For those looking for a complex interweaving of many well-developed characters, look elsewhere; this is the story of one man's life, in which all other characters are supporting, existing only through the lens of his aging eyes in order to help us understand how he feels as he approaches the end of his life, and why. Those reviewers who found the man unsympathetic perhaps are just not as familiar with their own irritable side as they hopefully will be eventually. I found the portrait very true to my experience. Canin seems to do much better with older characters; his young people tend to be two-dimensional, but he has a wonderful grasp of the subtleties of the minds of people much older than he is himself.

After For Gods and Planets I wondered whether Canin was capable of writing a good novel. As I finished the last page of this one, I said out loud to myself, "A good book."

2004-05-17 | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 4

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An intriguing tale of regret and redemption
August Kleinman is a a man in his 70s who has fully experienced life, from his escape out of Germany as a child to his service in WWII to his lucrative career as a business entrepreneur. Now, his beloved wife has passed away, and Augie struggles with maintaining a relationship with his son and new grandson while also trying to come to terms with his guilt about past mistakes. Author Canin skillfully weaves stories of the past--Augie's experiences as a soldier in Japan, the progression of his marriage--with those of the present--namely, Augie's interactions with his remaining family and a return trip to Japan. Although the frequent changes in setting could have been disorienting, Canin keeps the reader grounded with use of simple yet enchanting language. Slowly but surely, the story of Augie's life enfolds, coming to a satisfying conclusion while still leaving the reader with questions about Augie's exact fate. Sweet without being overly sentimental, this is a short novel with a wide appeal.

2004-05-06 | doctor_beth (Upstate NY USA) | Helpful Votes: 8 | Rating: 4

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For Kings and Planets: A Novel

Description

Ethan Canin, the acclaimed author of America America and The Palace Thief, is “one of the best fiction writers of his generation” (The Miami Herald). For Kings and Planets follows the lives of two young men and the woman they both love. Orno Tarcher arrives in New York City from Missouri, carrying with him the weight of his family’s small-town values. He meets Marshall Emerson, the charismatic scion of a worldly clan, a seductive and brilliant New Yorker who is revealed, as time passes, to be bent on destruction. This novel explores the conflicts of character at the heart of every life, the desire for grandeur and the lure of normalcy, and the tension between rivalry and friendship, fathers and sons, love and betrayal. 
 

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Like Philip Roth and Robert Penn Warren, Ethan Canin won the Houghton Mifflin Fellowship for rising stars whose first books hit big. His luminous 1988 story collection, Emperor of the Air remains a must-read, but his second novel, For Kings and Planets, is nonetheless recognizably part of the Canin constellation. He repeatedly features a straight guy (an accountant or other sober type) transfixed by the spectacle of an out-of-control guy (a delinquent and/or child-prodigy brother or brother figure to the main character). This time, it's Orno Tarcher, a Missouri farm boy thunderstruck by his Columbia University classmate Marshall Emerson, a theatrically bratty, sometimes suicidal Manhattan genius. "I grew up with farmers and insurance salesmen," says Orno. "I grew up with Kennedys and insurance salesmen," says Marshall. "I grew up with pigs everywhere," says Orno. "And we had that in common," Marshall replies. (In keeping with their characters, Orno becomes a sensible dentist and Marshall a cynical, coked-up Hollywood producer.)

Canin sensitively evokes Orno's prosaic world--you'd have to read Jane Smiley's The Age of Grief for better fiction about dentistry. But Orno mostly exists to relate Marshall's appealing, appalling antics: his manic raps about his childhood amid the ruins of Istanbul, his sabotage of his own (and Orno's) love life, his Oedipal strife with his chilly, brilliant parents. "Our family seal is a snake twisted in knots," says Marshall's lovely sister. And, reader, Orno marries her. Page for page, Canin's stories better show off his gift for epiphany, but the novel gives him room to develop character, entangle plots, and make a stab at the heart of the family romance. --Tim Appelo

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Customer Reviews

A Coming of Age Story
Curious about this author whose fascinating interview I read last month in "Poets & Writers," I picked up this book. In many ways the writing style reminded me of F. Scott Fitzgerald in both the story and the language. I thought the question of regional values the book opened with was an interesting one. However, I would have to characterize the flow of the book as disruptive. I found it hard to believe these characters because so many things they did were contradictory and left unexplained.

Canin immediately interests the reader with the ease of his prose, but he doesn't convince us that a character's shift in behavior, appearing to be contradictory, is actually quite plausible now. Marshall, the gifted and discontented son borne of a difficult family history, is ironically the author's most consistent character, eccentric, narcissistic and bizarre.

The imbalance in the amount of background (particularly for Simone) interfered with my wholehearted acceptance of Canin's fictional world. I was interested in the story, read it to completion, but was never drawn in. I could not accept all the contradictions in the characters as believable.

Canin is clearly a masterful writer. I admired his skill at creating suspense-filled turns. He touched on the psychological mysteries that drive people to do bizarre things, but did not go very far with that. I thought the stories of these people were simply too complex for a cursory treatment.

The second half of the book (which moves through time more quickly) reminded me of a roller coaster ride with its upredictability. The ride was exhilarating, but dissolved into exasperation because I was left wondering why people's core beliefs so rapidly changed.

2008-08-03 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Worth reading
I enjoyed Canin's writing and characters and different locales (New York, Missouri, California, Cape Cod). It definitely captured my interest and his friend Marshal added quite a bit of spice to the story. A bit melodramatic, and hard to believe that Orno the main character wouldn't have dumped his friend Marshal, but overall I think it was worth the read.

2007-06-01 (Arroyo Grande, CA United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Not Bad...
My girlfriend lent me this book because of its setting at Columbia and within New York City. I read it in 2 days and was very entertained by the triangle relationship between sister and brother Simone and Marshall, and Missouri born Orno, the central character in the novel. The book reminded me of 'A Separate Peace' in that you have one character, Marshall, who is so highly talented and so charming that he has a way of bringing everyone in, and Orno, a character who for no apparent reason (at first, the reasons become apparent over time) is brought in as his closest confidant. This is the kind of text you read when you have to write a story for a creative writing professor who constantly tries to imprint the adage 'Show, Don't Tell' into your consiousness. It's a good read, but nothing to become overly ecstatic about.

2006-07-24 | CMT (New York, NY) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 3

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Perfect
This was an old fashioned novel in the best sense. The characters showed the reader who they were. Their interactions were real -- confused, incomplete. The book itself was immensely satisfying. I had to finished the last 90 pages in one flew swoop because I was so terrified of what might happen to the characters. I really cared about all of them.

2006-07-04 | reggieroy (Chicago, IL) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Teeth aren't named for Kings and Planets.
This is the story of Orno, a self-proclaimed hayseed from Missouri, who moves to New York City to attend Columbia University. There he meets Marshall, a man who changes the course of his life.

Marshall is a genius with the gift of eidetic memory. He's a rogue student, voyeur, classic alcoholic/drug addict, and maybe even manic-depressive. Orno is magnetized to him like an alter ego, and consequently, Marshall is also drawn to Orno, recognizing in him the qualities he lacks in spite of his seemingly privileged background. They attend many of the same classes, date the same women and eventually, after he makes the decision to attend dental school (much to Marshall's disapproval), Orno falls in love with Marshall's more stable and wise sister. Belittling his own stable yet naïve background, Orno tries to make his way in an unfamiliar world, mistaking the dysfunction of the Emerson family for sophistication. Triumphant, Orno manages to hold onto his integrity, learns to appreciate his own father and is an earnest and likeable character.

For Kings and Planets is a love story (exploring love between friends, siblings, parents and children and lovers), and ultimately a coming of age tale. Beautifully-written, a fast read and I highly recommend.

From the author of "I'm Living Your Dream Life," McKenna Publishing Group.

2004-01-05 | www.michelecozzens.com (Cloud 8) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 4

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Emperor of the Air

Description

EMPEROR OF THE AIR "explores tricky family relationships and tender moments of self-discovery with a voice of compassion rarely found in contemporary short fiction" (San Francisco Chronicle). Whether his characters are struggling to save trees in their yards, their marriages, or themselves, Cannin renders their moments of revelation with rich observation, energy, humor, and grace.

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Customer Reviews

One of the Most Beautiful Books of Short Stories I Have Ever Read
This is one of the most beautiful books of short stories that I have ever read. The stories
are simple in their delivery yet profound in their rendition. They left me touched and
tearful. I smile with the knowledge that Canin captures the "one man" in "everyman" - -
the unique in the common, the sublime in the every day.

Issues of creativity and sensitivity as the most important aspects and highest traits of
humankind are stressed in the stories.

Of special beauty are 'Where We Are Now', 'We Are the Nighttime Travelers', Pitch Memory',
'The Carnival Dog, The Buyer of Diamonds', and 'Star Food'.

This book rates a '5+' from me. It is one of those rare books that is so beautiful that it
leaves me virtually speechless. The beauty is haunting and remains with the reader long
after the last sentence is read.

2009-06-09 | Fairbanks Reader (Fairbanks, Alaska) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Crafted Collection of Stories
This is one of the best short story collections I've ever read, docking just below the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Carver as the most crafted collections of stories in my experience.

-- Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens

2007-03-19 | Jonathan Stephens (Huntington Beach, CA USA) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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Short Stories told through others eyes
Emperor of the Air, a great book of short stories. I enjoyed the different characters he was in each story. This book is an easy read, easy on the eyes and easy to put yourself into each of the characters life. This book leads your imagination to the place and time of each story. (Nicole Lake Peekskill, NY ) Author Rainy Day Poems and more 1 and 2

2007-02-02 | angelwriter01 (Lake Peekskill, NY) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Tender & Makes You Think
I enjoyed most of these stories. My only complaint would be that sometimes they came off with too strong an air of an MFA style. I found he was using an old trick: during conversations between characters he would intersperse actions with dialogue--"he said. he cut into the bread. he said. he buttered the bread. etc."--blending them together in a forced kind of way. An effective tool when used well, but distracting when relied upon too much.

Otherwise the stories were tender and subtle. Canin has a quiet voice that nevertheless comes through clearly--the story attunes our ear to the message.

If you liked the title story you'll probably like the collection. Not one of those has-only-one-good-story-in-it-and-the-rest-are-duds books. It's quality stuff.

Four stars.

2006-10-13 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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LITERATURE LITE: ALL THE BIG WORDS, NONE OF THE SUBSTANCE
This book is the literary equivalent of paint-by-numbers. You know how when you see a comedian totally bombing on stage, all of his jokes eliciting only stony, derisive silence, and you yourself actually start feeling embarrassed for him? That's exactly how I felt as I read this book - I was embarrassed for the author. Canin takes no chances in any of these stultifyingly dull stories, stooping instead to crass emotional button-pushing and Hallmark card sentimentality. It's actually a staggering accomplishment that Canin could put this many words to paper without at least accidentally coming up with an interesting turn of phrase or substantial insight. Obviously written with an eye toward publication, mass-market success, and tv movie script adaptation, this is the most mediocre, Establishment-pandering book I've ever read. The thing that sets it above and beyond most bad books is that while Canin can obviously write, he's got absolutely nothing to say. I mean, most people have at least one good story in them, you know?
Despite (or because of) all that I give "Emperor of the Air" five stars. I firmly believe everyone should read this book as an example of what not to do when writing a book.

2004-09-27 (Washington DC) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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America America

Description

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Customer Reviews

A well written story...
I'm a little late to the "America, America" review section because I only recently was told how good the book is and how much I'd enjoy it. It IS good and I DID enjoy it! I'd read Ethan Canin's "Palace Thief" when it was published a few years ago and thought Canin had a great writer's voice.

This comes out fully in "America, America", the story of two men, Corey Sifter and Liam Metarey, who are bound together by history and personality. Sifter, who narrates the story, flips back and forth in both time and relationship, from the early 1970's to 2008. He is the son of working class people whose talents and intelligence is recognised by Liam Metarey, the scion of a wealthy liberal family in upstate New York. Metarey mentors Corey, arranges for his education at a boarding school and then at Haverford College. At the same time, Corey works around the Metarey estate and becoming involved in the presidential campaign of a Teddy Kennedy/George McGovern-like Democrat in 1971 and 1972. Henry Bonwiller, the candidate, is involved in some shady deals and possibly in the death of a young woman ala Teddy Kennedy's Chappaquidick-like accident.

Sifter grows up and becomes a journalist on an upstate-New York newspaper and in turn mentors another young person.Part of the story is his relating to Trieste the story of the decline of the Metarey empire along with the political ambitions of Henry Bonwiller.

Canin is a spot-on writer of dialogue and character development. All his characters - both major and minor - are beautifully drawn. If you, like me, missed "America, America" when it was originally issued, it's well worth seeking out and reading.

2010-04-01 (New Mexico) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Could have used a good editor
I was definitely intriqued by the back cover synopsis --- so much that I inadvertantly bought it twice :-D Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed in several aspects of the book. It started well, but quickly became one of those books which skips around in time and keeps "hinting" at future elements that you just want to have the author "get there".

The narrator, Corey Sifter, seems like a nice enough kid --- but he isn't really very interesting. He has a nice family and solid middle class upbringing. The rich family in town takes him under their wing, but besides being a nice, hard-working kid, I don't really see the attraction. The main political story is seen at such a distance that I never got emotionally invested in the characters in that drama. As another reviewer mentions, you don't see much of the backroom drama which can add tension. Since everything has already been alluded to already, there aren't too many suprises.

As in the tagline, I think that there were too many stories going on at the same time and by the middle of the book, I was reading mostly to finish it. There were some portions that I did find interesting, especially the relationship with middle aged Corey, his father and his fathers friend. There were some aspects that I think would have been nice to have been included in more detail --- specially about how Corey got together with his wife. Again, I suspected from all the hints who she was, but was interested in how the author would bring them together. Unfortunately, that story seemed to have been left out all together.

Overall, I liked Canin writing style in terms of the words that he choses. However,I think that the novel would have been better if he focused on a smaller set of stories and made the characters a bit more interesting.

2010-03-20 (San Carlos, CA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Literary and entertaining
This is a big book that should be read in a short period of time or much will be lost. It is very layered, textured and subtle with much held back for the reader to ponder and think about. I would have given it 4.5 stars if I could because it was not a book I could get as emotionally involved with as the books I truly find myself loving and recommending without reservation to all but it is an enjoyable, intelligent read by a great writer and one that will stay in your mind long after you've finished it. Well written,absorbing, entertaining and literary but not as emotionally engaging as some others I've read this year....perhaps because it pulls it's punches just a bit when it could have gone for the knockout.

2010-02-07 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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A big, big, book
This book requires concentration. The author is a very intelligent, very informed professional who will make you pay attention by surprising you with bewildering frequency. As an aspiring writer, I learned a lot, and I enjoyed the process. Kind of.

2009-12-20 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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The Novel that Refuses to End
This novel was so very disappointing and, yes, boring. I kept hoping that it would eventually captivate me in some way--in any way. I only wish I had given up after even a fourth of the book.

It could be very useful reading at the end of one's life because it would make that time seem endless.

2009-09-01 (Southern California) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 2

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Blue River

Description

The long-awaited novel by the author of the bestselling Emperor of the Air is a story of astounding power and sensibility. Lawrence and Edward are two brothers who haven't seen each other in ten years. Lawrence--a drifter, a gambler, a man of questionable character--appears on the cautious Edward's doorstep, challenging his beliefs and forcing him to recall their tumultuous childhood and uncover a long-buried story of monstrous betrayal.

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Customer Reviews

The Estrangement of Two Brothers
This is a gentle novel that relates the history resulting in the estrangement of
two brothers. It is told from the perspective of the younger brother, now a suc-
cessful physician. The reader revisits the angst of childhood familial dynamics - -
the mysterious and worshiped 'black sheep' older brother and the absent father.
We see the depths of unspoken emotions and silent pain; the losses, mistakes,
and the love.

Canin's language is rich and languid. He builds upon the inner workings of heart
and mind more than observable action. The novel is thoughtful and engrossing.

2009-05-13 | Fairbanks Reader (Fairbanks, Alaska) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Amazing People Don't Like This
Ethan Canin is one of my favorite modern novelists. That being said, I feel his books, while still good, have gotten progressively less interesting as he has gotten older. The first two stories in the Palace Thief are my favorite - along with Blue River.

Just the way Canin emotes the feelings created by the bonds of his characters in this book truly reveal how it feels to be a young man, what traits are revered by young men, what is found in oneself, and what is lost.

I don't know...not sure what there is here NOT to like.

2008-08-25 | The Kid (Los Angeles) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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surprised by negative reviews
I too am surprised by the negative reviews. This may not be the best book ever written, but Canin has a remarkable skill with language and description that I found arresting.

There was a power, as well, to the device of at first seeing the brother as grown man, who'd lost his way, and then earlier, an all-knowing older brother.

As for tedium, I dunno what readers are looking for - a thriller perhaps? I read this without putting it down.

2008-08-18 (New York City) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Examining a boring life through a high-powered microscope.
First, let me state that I have been impressed by all the Canin I have read prior to starting "Blue River." The problem with this novel isn't that it follows pattern similar to Canin's other works, most notably "For Kings and Planets," a far more mature novel, but that the protagonist is very hard to empathize with. A successful California optimologist, the protagonist spends the too much of the narrative defending his materialism. When he's not bothering with that, he's repeatly over-describing his less successful brother (After the first few times, I understood that the brother was violent and troubled during high school). There's a good story here, but it's trapped under a poor, plodding narrative.

2003-12-12 | NelsonCL (Asheville, NC) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 2

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Amazed by the reader reviews
I thought this was a very well-written and interesting description of the relationship between two brothers. I agree that pages 75-125 were slow but the rest of the book is by no means dull. Canin gradually reveals what caused the estrangement of the two brothers and his description of life in the small Wisconsin town where he grew up is often vivid with truly three-dimensional characters. I don't know whether anyone will believe me after reading the prior reviews but I highly recommend this novel.

2003-07-03 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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