A Good American A Good American

A Good American

    • 4.0 • 166 Ratings
    • $13.99
    • $13.99

Publisher Description

“A beautifully written novel, laced with history and music.” —Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven

A LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A BOOKPAGE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

Everything he’d seen had been unimaginably different from the dry, dour streets of home, and to his surprise he was not sorry in the slightest. He was smitten by the beguiling otherness of it all.

And so began my grandfather’s rapturous love affair with America—an affair that would continue until the day he died.

This is the story of the Meisenheimer family, told by James, a third-generation American living in Beatrice, Missouri. It’s where his German grandparents—Frederick and Jette—found themselves after journeying across the turbulent Atlantic, fording the flood-swollen Mississippi, and being brought to a sudden halt by the broken water of the pregnant Jette.

 A Good American tells of Jette’s dogged determination to feed a town sauerkraut and soul food; the loves and losses of her children, Joseph and Rosa; and the precocious voices of James and his brothers, sometimes raised in discord…sometimes in perfect harmony. 

But above all, A Good American is about the music in Frederick’s heart, a song that began as an aria, was jazzed by ragtime, and became an anthem of love for his adopted country that the family still hears to this day.

GENRE
Fiction & Literature
RELEASED
2012
February 7
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
400
Pages
PUBLISHER
Penguin Publishing Group
SELLER
PENGUIN GROUP USA, INC.
SIZE
1.6
MB

Customer Reviews

Primadonna2 ,

One of my favorite books

I loved this book with its travel through history and for character development. Mr. George transports the reader to joy, laughter, sorrow, tragedy, and an understanding of what makes America great. It’s the people that inhabit small towns, small and big cities, pastoral or concrete. The early immigrants, through hard labor, strong values, and ideals, forged our country and left a legacy for us to follow their dreams and aspirations. The last part of the novel tied all the story together in a poignant manner. I highly recommend this book.

Hummingbyrd59 ,

A Good American

A wonderfully woven history of our American heritage.

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