What readers think of America America, plus links to write your own review.

This is a 10-star book in a five-star world. This exceptionally well-written novel by Ethan Canin has it all: a compelling plot, fully-developed characters that just pop off the page, and a wise philosophical message about how we reconcile our life's dreams and hopes with what really happens.

It's the early 1970s and Corey Sifter, a working-class 16-year-old who actually thrives on physical labor, is helping his father repair a busted sewer line on the massive estate of Liam Metarey in Saline, New York. Meteray is quite taken with young Corey and hires him to work that summer on the estate, known as Aberdeen West. Corey embraces the opportunity, and before too long, Metarey makes a truly extraordinary offer to the young man—to send him to an elite boarding school all-expenses paid. Meanwhile, Metarey is a key player in the 1972 presidential campaign of Senator Henry Bonwiller, until something absolutely horrific happens that derails not only Bonwiller's campaign but also life as everyone then knew it.

The novel takes place in two time periods: modern day and the early 1970s with Corey narrating in the first person for both. Time slides back and forth and sometimes in an almost zig-zag pattern, but it always makes sense and serves to move the plot, as well as to create little cliffhangers. More than anything, managing the time swings so expertly speaks to the extraordinary writing capability of Ethan Canin.

The sophisticated storytelling, multilayered plot, and complex characters work in harmony to create a magnificent novel I will long remember.