A Good American

November 21, 2011
George’s debut novel is a sentimental, lively, and sad family saga spanning four generations, from a couple’s flight out of Germany in 1904 to the hope that their great-grandchildren hold for the future. The story is told by James Martin Meisenheimer, the grandson of the original immigrant couple, the unusually tall Jette and the unabashedly rotund and red-bearded Frederick. This unlikely pair falls in love in Hanover and flees (a mother, not a war) to the U.S. with Jette pregnant. She gives birth to James’s father, Joseph, in Beatrice, Mo., a small town whose residents are capable of both kindness and hatred. Frederick opens a bar, then volunteers for the army and is killed in WWI. Jette turns the bar into a restaurant during Prohibition, a place that feeds the townspeople—with food, yes, but also music—for decades. When James calls his grandmother’s life “one long opera,” full of “love, great big waves of it, crashing ceaselessly against the rocks of life,” he is very much a mouthpiece for author George (and not unlike Styron’s Stingo), whose debut chronicles much of the 20th century through the eyes of one family. George, a British lawyer who has practiced law in London, Paris, and Columbia, Mo., where he now lives, evokes smalltown life lovingly, sometimes disturbingly, and examines the ties of family, the complications of home, and the moments of love and happiness that arrive no matter what. Agent: Emma Sweeney Agency.

May 15, 2012

Protagonist James Meisenheimer, age 70, unfurls this gentle family saga beginning with his German grandparents. In 1904 Hamburg, Frederick and Jette fall in love, marry, and immigrate to America, settling in Beatrice, MS. Frederick becomes the bartender at a local tavern and eventually buys the place, which he and Jette turn into a restaurant when Prohibition comes along. Their daughter, Rosa, is the town schoolteacher, and son Robert eventually takes over the restaurant. Narrator James is the second of Robert's four sons. He and his brothers choose different careers but come together as a popular quartet, singing at weddings, funerals, and other local events. Memorable characters include Lomax, the jazz musician who introduces Creole flavors to Jette's German cooking, a best friend who is a giant, and a mad attorney who is a dwarf. A case of mistaken identity leads to a shotgun wedding and a new generation of Meisenheimers. VERDICT Gibson Frazier's narration conveys James's earnest desire to tell the family history accurately, without shame or boasting. A solid choice for popular collections. [Though the novel "loses steam once the focus (moves to the younger generation)...this memorable and well-written exploration of one family's search for acceptance in America should strongly appeal to readers who enjoy family sagas and historical fiction," read the review of the Amy Einhorn: Putnam hc, LJ 12/11.--Ed.]--Nann Blaine Hilyard, Zion-Benton P.L., IL

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