An American Romance

by John Casey

In a theater commune in Iowa, Anya, the willful and ambitious director, and Mac, a practical Canadian poet and resident craftsman, move toward the irrevocable denouement of their lives and careers

Genres: Fiction

423 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

John Dudley Casey was an American novelist and translator. He won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1989 for Spartina.

Reviews

[Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel written & set in the 1970s has much of the feel of that era. The last half of the book is set in a rural area near West Liberty with several scenes in Iowa City (including perceptive commentary on the town & the university). In fact, Iowa is an important actor in the story. There are perceptive descriptions of the rural landscape, but John "Ryan," a Des Moines trucking firm owner (Ruan?), is a minor but significant character, & not all of the images & characters fit the bucolic, pastoral stereotypes of Iowa. It's in some ways a writer's book; the characters are too self-conscious intellectually & emotionally & analyze their relationships in too much depth to be believable. But once I suspended disbelief (as one has to in some ways in almost all fiction), it became a very penetrating book. It's one I have to get for Jessica: an actress/director/filmmaker comes to Iowa to join a sort of hippie semi-communal theater company in rural Iowa (Old Creamery in its early days?). Her boyfriend, a former hockey player & all-round well-grounded handyman & cook, comes along & falls in love with Iowa & its people. Their styles clash with & complement each other in a very complicated relationship, but one that includes sex in almost all of the book's 20 chapters.

[Stephen Gallup · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew about and read this book because at the time it had just been published by one of the professors in my school's English department. I'm not aware that it ever got much publicity beyond the initial flurry, but if not it certainly deserved exposure.

It's the story of Anya and Mac, two very recognizeable young folks of the early 70s, who are drawn so convincingly as to make me feel I not only knew them but lived very close by. The supporting characters are equally well done. I recall that the conclusion didn't feel quite right to me, but perhaps if I'm able to read it again that will no longer be the case. The rest of it, to my memory, was flawless.

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nope, sorry, it's too complex and too detailed to be read in bits on breaks at work and too deep and slowly paced to read at bed times.

I would need to tackle this like it was a project at work and that's something I'm not looking for in a book at the moment.