Helpful Score: 3
I almost gave this book 5 stars. The writing is just wonderful, not for it's beauty but for the perfect word or phrasing just where it belongs. An effortless read with quirky but very believable people and no real plot (it's a fictional family's history) but plenty of twists and turns and a totally unexpected surprise ending. It lost 1/2 a star for changing in the middle from one story to another which left me rather perplexed. However, it did come together in the end. Read it. You can't help but enjoy it.
The story had a promising beginning: two outsized young Germans meet in a public garden at the turn of the 20th century. He wins her heart by singing opera songs in foreign languages. When she becomes pregnant, they escape her disapproving mother on a boat bound for New Orleans, settling in a small Missouri town with a predominantly German population.
But this story isn't just about the emigrant couple, Frederick and Jette. It's also about their two children, four grandsons, countless great-grandchildren, and a multitude of townsfolk and strangers that pass through their lives. The narrator of the story is one of those four grandsons, James. The events that occur before his birth, he describes in too much detail for his limited perspective. There's no way that his relatives would (or could) have told him that much. Some of the events within his lifetime are beyond his realm of knowledge, so we can only assume that he's supposed to be making them up. I think it would have been more effective to either use a third-person omniscient p.o.v. or to let various characters tell their own stories.
The themes and plot became too diluted and convoluted along the way. In the beginning, music is a strong theme in the novel, a source of inspiration and unifying force. Although the narrator claims that music is important in his life, that really isn't shown. Instead, literature and chess become just as important. Within James' lifetime, too many characters dance in and out of the story, introduced just to die, it seems. With many of the main (actually important) characters, it felt like the author was trying to figure out what to do with them. The results were mostly interesting, but not always plausible. Also, the foreshadowing one-liners sprinkled through the novel got on my nerves after a while.
What really killed my enjoyment was the twist ending, which came from out of nowhere and didn't really make sense, even when I went back and reread earlier sections.
But this story isn't just about the emigrant couple, Frederick and Jette. It's also about their two children, four grandsons, countless great-grandchildren, and a multitude of townsfolk and strangers that pass through their lives. The narrator of the story is one of those four grandsons, James. The events that occur before his birth, he describes in too much detail for his limited perspective. There's no way that his relatives would (or could) have told him that much. Some of the events within his lifetime are beyond his realm of knowledge, so we can only assume that he's supposed to be making them up. I think it would have been more effective to either use a third-person omniscient p.o.v. or to let various characters tell their own stories.
The themes and plot became too diluted and convoluted along the way. In the beginning, music is a strong theme in the novel, a source of inspiration and unifying force. Although the narrator claims that music is important in his life, that really isn't shown. Instead, literature and chess become just as important. Within James' lifetime, too many characters dance in and out of the story, introduced just to die, it seems. With many of the main (actually important) characters, it felt like the author was trying to figure out what to do with them. The results were mostly interesting, but not always plausible. Also, the foreshadowing one-liners sprinkled through the novel got on my nerves after a while.
What really killed my enjoyment was the twist ending, which came from out of nowhere and didn't really make sense, even when I went back and reread earlier sections.
A great read. So well written, that even though its a novel (fiction), it reads like a thrilling biography.
I found myself thinking that I could visit Beatrise, Missouri and look this family up. The author really pulled me into this book. I really want to read it again .
The book covers four generations and each is met with their own challenges, trials and tribulations.
Seems so real.
I found myself thinking that I could visit Beatrise, Missouri and look this family up. The author really pulled me into this book. I really want to read it again .
The book covers four generations and each is met with their own challenges, trials and tribulations.
Seems so real.
A Good American by Alex George begins in 1904 Germany where Frederick, a tubby amateur opera singer, falls in love with Jette, an ungainly higher class woman, and they find themselves expecting a baby. Their plan to immigrate to America is an impulsive act to get away from scandal, thus they find themselves mistakenly bound for New Orleans instead of NYC, eventually settling in MO amongst other German-speaking immigrants. This is their opening to security and to the books story of their family through several generations. I should have loved this book. The immigration story and time period is somewhat like mine; instead I just liked it. As it chugged along it didnt live up to its initial promise. There were spots where I wondered if the author had been accidentally symbolic with that in terms of the American dream because a big part of the book is Fredericks desire to always behave as a good American contrasted with Jettes disillusionment with their decisions. Characters drift in and out in a totally unlikely coincidental way. A family secret isnt much of a secret. Lots of the dialogue is pretty wooden. But it held my attention and the parts about the two world wars, and how the family became successful was interesting.
This is the history of the Meisenheimer family that begins with the immigration of Jette and Frederick from Hanover, Germany to Beatrice, Missouri at the beginning of the twentieth century. Alex George has depicted a family assimilating into American life and struggling to become what they perceive to be "good Americans" in a small town. It is always interesting to view immigrants' perception of America, so I found it entertaining; however it didn't resonate with me as other fictional immigration/family sagas have.
I loved this book. It was really good and well written. Enjoyed how the book took you through a family's history.
Above-average story of a family headed by a German immigrant who strives to be a Good American. The family manages a local restaurant in Missouri, and there is a twist at the end.
I didn't like it. Someone else might.
