America, America By Ethan Canin Random House / 458 pages / $27
Late fall 1971. Liberal Democratic Sen. Henry Bonwiller of Upstate New York is challenging Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine, the favorite in the race for the presidential nomination.
He enlists a friend and neighbor in the area, Liam Metarey, a very wealthy and powerful man, whose estate spreads over thousands of acres. He wants to be the king-maker for his friend. He turns his home into Bonwiller's campaign headquarters.
Bonwiller becomes the front runner, with "crescendoing victories" in several primaries. This was after he wrecked his car while drunk, killing a young woman on his campaign staff whom he was having an affair with. He left her on the ground to cover up what happened. Literally.
He kept quiet about it and continued to campaign. It appeared that he had avoided getting caught. But soon he is found out, and newspapers go after him with gusto. He denies everything. The suspicious state police could get no evidence against him. Federal agents may have, but couldn't or wouldn't act, which should be left to the reader to deal with.
Nevertheless the senator's supporters melt away. Others than the senator pay a dreadful price for what then occurs, which I also should not reveal.
Some reviewers describe America, America as a "political novel." They see Senator Bonwiller as Edward Kennedy. As a rule, political novels are not great literature. The few that are tend to be based on a real person. I've read only a couple of previous such novels that are as good as or better than America, America: All the King's Men (Huey Long) and The Gay Place (Lyndon Johnson).
Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly went beyond even that. Kirkus says America, America is "Tolstoyian"; Publishers Weekly called it "a ghost of The Great Gatsby."
Most of the characters in America, America are better developed than Bonwiller. Liam Metarey, his vivacious aviatrix wife, his two daughters, even the family dog, Churchill, come alive on the page.
The best character in the novel is Metarey's handyman, Corey Sifter, the teen son of a blue-collar family. He is the reminiscent narrator of 1971 and 1972 and the aftermath through most of the novel.
From the moment he is introduced to H.L. Mencken's work by a political writer for the local newspaper who came to interview Liam Metarey in 1971, Corey begins to take an interest in politics. His chores include chauffeuring Senator Bonwiller.
