In a
2005 Washington Monthly essay entitled “Why
Americans Can’t Write Political Fiction,” Christopher
Lehmann laments the dearth of enduring works of literature that
have as their subject democratic politics --- what he calls
“the country’s national epic.” Robert Penn
Warren’s classic ALL THE KING’S MEN is likely the first
that comes to mind, and for some the short stories and novels (THE
CONGRESSMAN WHO LOVED FLAUBERT and ECHO HOUSE among the most
noteworthy) of the grossly underappreciated Ward Just may follow
close behind, and yet it’s hardly a long list. In his latest
novel, Ethan Canin takes a grab for this elusive brass ring. And
while he doesn’t quite attain it, he nonetheless has produced
an admirable and appealing work.

Set in the small western New York town of Saline, AMERICA AMERICA
weaves together two main threads: the story of Henry Bonwiller, a
liberal senator from New York, who pursues the Democratic
presidential nomination in 1972, only to be undone by his own
arrogance and moral blindness, and the coming of age of Corey
Sifter, a local teenager whose circumstance brings him into the
orbit of Bonwiller’s bright political sun.

Corey, the novel’s narrator, is now the middle-aged publisher
of the local newspaper viewing the story’s principal events
from a distance of 35 years, shortly after Bonwiller has died, his
political career a distant memory. Corey is the only child of a
plumber and homemaker, and in 1971, at age 16, he is hired to work
part-time at Aberdeen West, the estate of the Metarey family, whose
wealth helped to build the town’s economy and whose
benevolence now sustains it. Corey’s arrival at the estate
coincides with Bonwiller’s decision to run for president, and
the young man becomes a bystander as the campaign unfolds. As his
role subtly shifts from that of a handyman for the Metareys to
low-level campaign assistant, Corey slowly is exposed to political
life in all its undeniable, adrenaline-filled appeal.

Liam Metarey, son of a ruthless, union-busting coal and lumber
baron who emigrated from Scotland and established the family
fortune, serves as Bonwiller’s principal campaign adviser, as
well as mentor and surrogate father to Corey. Metarey is the
novel’s moral center, tutoring Corey on the ways of the world
and teaching him, if only indirectly, about the compromises that
too often must be made in politics and in life. He’s a man,
as Corey describes him, “with unparalleled access to the
world but who still somehow retained a sense of justice, and whose
life was in large part measured by his gifts to the
community.”

Where Canin’s novel ultimately disappoints is in its
portrayal of Henry Bonwiller. We learn that he is an ardently
anti-war, pro-union politician who is beloved by working class
people like Corey’s parents. Despite the compassion he
displays in his political life, at his core is an ethical black
hole that allows him to embark on an affair with JoEllen Charney, a
small town beauty pageant winner and legal secretary some 25 years
his junior. What’s missing from the story is the perspective
of a narrator with an ability to fully grasp Bonwiller’s
complexity; his power to inspire unswerving devotion in his
followers while his life lurches toward self-destruction.
Realistically, Corey is not privy to the backroom meetings between
Metarey, Bonwiller and the campaign’s advisers, and so his
observations of Bonwiller’s campaign are mostly filtered
through the perceptions of Metarey, shared in frequent
conversations with his protégé. At best, the mature Corey
is left to muse over his surprise that “mass politics is an
emotional struggle above all, a primal battle that is more
charismatic and animalistic than either ethical or reasoned,”
or how at times in politics “the ritual of deference precedes
the auction of influence, and eventually the orgy of
slaughter.”

Everything about Canin’s elegiac novel is ambitious, from the
echoing words of its title to his willingness to embrace large
themes --- class differences, politics and morality, ambition and
failure --- to its generational sweep across a turbulent period of
recent American history. Perhaps one of the problems such a
talented writer encounters in crafting a political novel worthy of
its subject matter lies in the intimacy anyone who watches CNN or
MSNBC already feels to the process and those enmeshed in it. If
Canin’s effort falls just short, it’s not for want of
trying. AMERICA AMERICA is a serious, engaging story that may cause
us in this election year to reflect more thoughtfully on the heavy
price political life sometimes exacts from its practitioners.