A Good American

this month for BlogHer Book Club, i was able to read "A Good American" by Alex George. 

the book tells the multi-generational story of the Meisenheimer family and how they came to America, starting with the grandparents. their story is told by the grandson, James, and follows their story up until present time when James is an adult. 

the story is beautifully written which was one of my favorite parts of the book. i loved how the author described things and captured the feelings/actions of the characters. it wasn't written like most modern books and i appreciate it. especially having to tell the different stories of each character in the family, i felt like his writing still kept up its stamina and didn't falter or get lazy.

George definitely knows how to get you looking forward to the rest of the book with teasing phrases and loaded words. he is able to make a normally boring story pretty interesting. there are lots of twists and turns to keep you on your toes.

though i must admit, even with the beautiful text of the author, there were still some parts that were a little dull. mainly, i felt like the book moved kind of slowly, especially at the beginning. i didn't feel emotionally invested in the characters until well into the book and even then it kept going back and forth. 

i felt it dragged on for kind of a long time {i mean, you had to go through the whole family!} and even with all the twists and turns eventually i felt like i didn't even know where this story was going or what the next part was going to be about. it still had moments that would keep me hurrying to the next page. but other times i just wanted to know how it was all going to tie together in the end. 

overall i thought "A Good American" was written well and was filled with stories that a lot of people could appreciate with their own family histories. i also felt like he captured the American spirit in a sense, showing that it's not all rainbows and roses when you try to make a name for yourself but also comes with lots of determination and sometimes tragedy. 

i would definitely still recommend reading "A Good American" to others, even with the slow start-up. 

[i mean in all honestly, it could've just been me :)]

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.