American Sycamore: A Novel

by Charles Kenney

A moving novel about the devotions of friendship and the power of love to heal, American Sycamore celebrates the American experiment and the importance of giving a damn.

Friends since their college days, Rob, Julia, and Ray are boomers who set out in their twenties to make things right in America. A couple since law school, Rob is a distinguished Constitutional scholar at Harvard and Julia a prominent journalist writing a book about the wreckage of the nation’s political life, while Ray serves as dean of the medical school. Ray’s work as a physician in a Vietnam combat zone left him scarred yet with a powerful and loving commitment to heal and to support his friends through tragedy. Together, they’ve accomplished things that matter—in the public square and in medicine.

Yet,  in contemporary America, they still have some hard lessons to learn. After the New York Times publication of the 1619 Project, Rob finds himself out of step with critics and his students, but his and Julia’s secure world is truly shaken by a diagnosis of prostate cancer that will require medical intervention—releasing memories of another time when their lives were turned upside down. Meanwhile, when Ray learns that the hospital and school he has devoted his life to may have betrayed patients and the medical community, he must choose whether to take up again a fight he has waged all his life against the worst impulses of big institutions.

Genres: Fiction

288 pages, Hardcover

Published March 5, 2024

Reviews

[Brandice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spanning several decades, American Sycamore is the story of friendship between married couple, Rob and Julia Barrow, and their long-time friend, Ray. Rob, Julia, and Ray met at Harvard in the 1970s and now, in 2021, each have successful careers – Rob as a lawyer and professor of constitutional law, Julia as a journalist with a book coming out shortly, and Ray, as a physician and medical school dean.

When Rob receives a cancer diagnosis, the trio bands together as they always have, working to battle this challenge. Rob and Ray are each dealing with professional challenges too, and the trio revisits memories of earlier times, both positive and painful.

American Sycamore is a timely story, with not only themes of friendship, but moral issues of right and wrong as well. I correctly predicted some elements of the story, but not all of them, which made the reading experience more enjoyable. This is a character-driven, reflective novel and I enjoyed the dynamics.

[Zibby Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gripping and profoundly moving novel about the turbulence in today's American life and the invincible power of love between Rob, his wife Julia, and their best friend, Ray. They are accomplished Americans in their professional lives yet carry profound personal experiences of tragedy.

The book makes you think about love, friendship, loyalty, and purpose. It’s a powerful story about how humans deal with issues and challenges over a lifetime. It explores our struggles today: politics, division, judgment, and anger. It can be disheartening and disappointing, but it shows us the power of grace, kindness, hope, and love. It also gives us a portrait of America and raises issues around our profit-driven healthcare system that are acutely pertinent to boomers and future generations.

To listen to my interview with the author, go to my podcast at:
https://zibbymedia.com/blogs/transcri...

[Stevejs298 · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent novel. It was a pleasure to spend time with all of the main characters. More importantly, decades from now when people want to know what it was like to live during the current times, this novel will provide some keen insights.

[Maine Mom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh how I wish this was a better book. It attempts to tell the story of a generation (mine) that was at one time on the forefront of social change but is retrogressive by the standards of the next wave of radicalism. And sets it in a city and institutions that are familiar to me. But no attention to concrete detail--and there is plenty of it, particularly the indignities of prostate cancer treatment, and a scene of medical malpractice lifted almost wholesale from the movie The Verdict--can bring the characters to life. They are observed and described, but never inhabited or individualized. Kenney is clearly on their side; they all, one way or another, get to claim the moral high ground, and he creates an easy opportunity for irony in Julia, one of the few women graduates of Harvard Law in the sixties, achieving her academic reputation through a vehement repudiation of that generation*--and then does nothing with it. Likewise the brilliant constitutional lawyer at the center of the book is given an impoverished childhood with a mentally ill single mother, living on his own from age 15, that has no discernible effect on his personality and, once established, is never again referenced.

It could have been fun, if a little narrow in scope, but sadly, the whole book is like its protagonists--well-meaning but clueless.


*this is so odd that I wonder if this is more of a roman a clef than I realize and perhaps she is modelled on an actual character.

[Joan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Based on the issues, this should have been a much better book than it was. Unfortunately the characters were flat, and I could not engage with them emotionally at all. I skipped the parts about Thomas and Julia, which seemed overdone and irrelevant, and by the end of the book I was merely skimming.

[Karen Armacost · Rating 1 out of 5]

Predictable plot. Uninteresting characters. Wish I could say something nice.

[Christine Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book

Beautiful book. While some parts of this story don't quite fit, that is also the way our lives play out.

[Paula Beavers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too dark for me. It was like watching 2 depressing 60 Minutes broadcasts.

[Regina · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fascinating book. Well written and it makes you think!

[Lucy · Rating 1 out of 5]

surface level characters, awash in white male privilege. cringeworthy

[Anandi]

Good book

[Ric Santos · Rating 5 out of 5]

A page-turner from the start and superb storytelling that few books can match - one of my favorites in several years for sure!