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An uplifting novel about the families we create and the places we call home.
Amy Einhorn Books
February 2012
On Sale: February 7, 2012
Featuring: Frederick; Jette
400 pages
ISBN: 039915759X
EAN: 9780399157592
Kindle: B005GSZI4O
Hardcover / e-Book
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Historical
It is 1904. When Frederick and Jette must flee her
disapproving mother, where better to go than America, the
land of the new? Originally set to board a boat to New York,
at the last minute, they take one destined for New Orleans
instead ("What's the difference? They're both new"), and
later find themselves, more by chance than by design, in the
small town of Beatrice, Missouri. Not speaking a word of
English, they embark on their new life together. Beatrice is populated with unforgettable characters: a jazz
trumpeter from the Big Easy who cooks a mean gumbo, a
teenage boy trapped in the body of a giant, a pretty
schoolteacher who helps the young men in town learn about a
lot more than just music, a minister who believes he has
witnessed the Second Coming of Christ, and a malevolent,
bicycle-riding dwarf. A Good American is narrated by Frederick and Jette's
grandson, James, who, in telling his ancestors' story, comes
to realize he doesn't know his own story at all. From
bare-knuckle prizefighting and Prohibition to sweet
barbershop harmonies, the Kennedy assassination, and beyond,
James's family is caught up in the sweep of history. Each
new generation discovers afresh what it means to be an
American. And, in the process, Frederick and Jette's progeny
sometimes discover more about themselves than they had
bargained for. Poignant, funny, and heartbreaking, A Good American is a
novel about being an outsider-in your country, in your
hometown, and sometimes even in your own family. It is a
universal story about our search for home.
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