January 30: A Good American by Alex George

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Meet the lively, spirited Meisenheimers, stars of the beguiling new novel, A Good American, by Alex George. They would be welcome anywhere—but in 1904, Frederick and Jette, a newly married and unlikely pair, have landed in Beatrice, Missouri, up the Mississippi from New Orleans, after a long journey across the Atlantic from their native Germany.

Frederick opens a bar that grounds the story through its many transformations due to changing moral standards or the needs of the community. The bar becomes a restaurant during Prohibition, for example, and changes several more times through the years.

The Meisenheimers’ colorful journey through the 20th century will include, but not be limited to, P.G. Wodehouse, a good game of chess, the seductive power of music, a midget and a giant, a barbershop quartet, the terror of war and joy of early romance, the particular pain of the middle child, and, finally, a pugilist and his financier.

The Good American is a quixotic immigration saga, spanning four generations and wrapped in exquisite finery, from the opening promise of everlasting music to the closing declaration that one’s own, ordinary life is often anything but ordinary.



Alex George visits Wichita (Link)
Alex George on Twitter (Link)