Customer Reviews

America the Beautiful: A Novel

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a pre-mid-life-35ish woman who is still searching for her "thing," I saw myself in this book. The insecurities, doubts, obsessions, and idiosyncrasies from teen years are still there for us all whether we admit it or not. Through her character, America, Moon brings the raw, inner world of she-dom to the forefront. America is stubborn, willful, and totally likeable - the girlfriend we all have...or are. I can't help but wonder how much of the tale is autobiographical, but that only makes the characters more endearing. As I read this book, I couldn't help but compare it to Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity." It's about relationships and life and how they seem to come together somehow, eventually. It's about the path.

The thing you have to get past in this book is that the author, Moon Unit Zappa, is very obviously talking about her own life. No one will be fooled by her changing the name of the lead character's, America, father into Boris Throne and changing his occupation from legendary composer to legendary artist. She is most definitely speaking of her own father, Frank Zappa.

But the emotion and feelings expressed by America and her crazy way of over reacting to things is enough for her to win you over. Regardless if she is truly fictitious or not. Her life, while quite different from most, I would imagine, mirrors our own in a way we can actually relate with. Sure, your relationship issues probably do not stem from the fact that your father would bring many naked people over for the sake of his art but you probably have issues none the less. Who has not been so blinded with love that you did not see the break-up coming, or fallen in love with the perfect, unattainable person?

Reading this book is much like having a close gal pal sharing about her mixed-up love life.

America the Beautiful by Moon Unit Zappa is a novel about a young woman by the name of America Throne. America Throne is the daughter of a very famous painter by the name of Boris Throne. Growing up, America never had a solid father figure helping raise her. It was always her mother, her younger brother, and herself at home while her father was traveling by himself. Throughout America's life she would have to learn through difficult ways that she could not trust men because of the lack of trust she had for her father. Unfortunately America has also learned something else from her father, she adopted the bad characteristic of not being able to commit to anything. Her father was not able to commit a relationship with his wife or especially his family. America cannot hold a solid job or relationship, which directly is because of the carelessness for a relationship that her father had for his family.

I believe America the Beautiful, is a great novel for adolescent women and for women that are or have gone through many issues pertaining family, commitment, or self-esteem issues. I believe that Zappa uses great diction and detail in describing the events that take place in this novel. It was very easy to be able to relate to some of the situations that are mentioned in the novel. For example, America is involved with a man by the name of Jasper. Jasper and America have a very serious relationship and plan to get married. As the months go by unfortunately the relationship comes to an end. America, like many other women coming out of a serious relationship, has a horrible mental breakdown. Why is it that many if not all women must result to food to solve the pains of a breakup? I can personally relate to this, as can many other women as well. It is very hard for America to recover from the difficult breakup. But like many women besides food, our friends are always there for us. America's friend Sadie is a young woman who is definitely on the right path in life. She has a steady job, a serious relationship, and she has great self-esteem. Like America, Sadie was raised in a household where there was not a solid father figure. Fortunately, unlike America, Sadie is able to put her past behind her and go on living her life and look towards the future.

I believe that Zappa includes many women's issues in this book. These issues include: male and female relationships, women not trusting men, friends being there for one another, and trying to deal with the hardships of one's difficulties in their childhood. After reading this book it gave me a stronger sense of value for myself. I recommend this novel 100 percent as I would like other people to enjoy the feeling one gets after reading this novel.

"America The Beautiful" is a novel by Moon Unit Zappa, who most of us know as Frank Zappa's daughter. She is also the chick that rambled on in the parody hit, Valley Girl, back in the early 80s'. That is what I think of when I see her name.
Now I will think about what an original and fresh voice she's added to today's literature. While she definitely was "writing what she knows"(I am a fledgling writer and have heard that repeatedly), she definitely knows how to write. Her style is unique, and she has a real flair for dialogue. It really was well written and it was easy to follow. It is also laugh out loud funny at times.
I think a lot of women will relate to the character, America Throne, who constantly makes bad choices in her men. The story is about her rollercoaster style life of relationships, and her amnomosity towards her father. She learns about herself, and you will enjoy the ride. I promise....
When's the next book, Moon?

This book isn't completely worthless, but finding pearls of wisdom in it is about as easy as finding jade on certain beaches on California's central coast. (it can take hours or days). Many times I felt outraged at America's spoiled self-pitying: For eg, she whines ceaselessly about the fact that as a 29 yr old "C-list celebrity" she only gets $2000 a month in allowance...shucks, I'd take that in a heartbeat. What's worse, she seems to have no awareness that hers is an indulgent, rather spoiled position, and actually says that while her inability to choose a career might be expected from a grocery store clerk, its certainly beneath her as the daughter of a famous person. (I detected no irony in this sentiment, either). As well, I thought the epiphany of the book was heading toward "you can't find happiness through others, esp. boyfriends," yet ultimately her redemption comes through finding the perfect guy. What a disappointment.

I pre-ordered this book, which I never do. I just knew it would be good, and it didn't disappoint. Moon Unit Zappa always seemed to me to be the kind of girl you'd want as a friend, intellegent,witty, funny and cool - which perfectly describes this book. Her main character, America, goes through so many heart wrenching, hysterical adventures in her search for love, any woman, or man for that matter, can relate. However I doubt it will make the Ophra book club (thank God) This book made me laugh out loud...brilliant.

From the minute I picked up this unique book I could not stop reading it. I began reading it online through Amazon and was almost to the second chapter when the "look inside this book" option was done. I rushed to the store and bought the book to continue reading that evening. I finished this short book in about a week, only stopping to do various important tasks. It was simply delightful and a great tool of validation for the silly things people do when they've been broken up with. For a relatively light hearted read I suggest picking this one up.

This book was recommended to me as something that would be fun to read but not very deep - take it for what is worth, just that. While the plot revolves around America Throne, professional dilettante daughter of world famous painter Boris Throne, it is not too difficult for the reader to make the leap that this is a thinly veiled "auto-biography" of sorts as Moon Unit's father is the famous/infamous musician and personality Frank Zappa.

Beyond the obvious, America The Beautiful is fun - she could be one of your girlfriends trying to get over being unceremoniously dumped. While the reader alternately laughs and feels sorry for America as she goes back and forth between calling her neer-do-well ex Jasper and begging him to come back to her and telling him off. She reads self-help books and tries to move on.

America's family, her half-there mother and brother Spoonie, is just as entertaining as she is. The reader watches as America learns to move on and meet other men and who knows, maybe the man she is meant to be with after all.

With tons of fun pop-culture references, musical lyrics and witty commentary, America The Beautiful is a good, fun, quick read that would be perfect for a vacation.

I thought "What the heck" when purchasing this book. Honestly, it's entertaining and funny. Any woman in her 20s to 30s can relate to the stuff American Thorne is living through: not enough $ to pay the rent, selfish boyfriends, bad sex, good sex, break-ups, etc.

The book is peppered with pop culture and terrific song lyrics and seasoned with a sense of sarcastic humor - just the way I like.

This is not deep, methodical reading, but a good summer read, even a good girlfriends' book club book.

Enjoy the laughs. I sure did.

America the Beautiful is a romantic comedy with a chunky forkfuls of darkness. The main character is substantially depressed through much of the book, which lent the story a lot of reality for me...unlike a Hollywood movie, the character felt and dealt with some of the black emotions that accompany the failure of a relationship or the percieved failure of a whole life. On the other hand, the main character (America Throne, or "Mer") struck me as flighty and unrealistic in a lot of ways. Surely people, and women in particular, aren't this nuts with relationships? However, as a substantially midwestern guy, I might not have had a choice but to see it this way: this book is set firmly in Los Angeles. I've been similarly baffled by characters in books by Steve Martin and Carrie Fisher.

I give the book three stars instead of four because of that inconsistency. The writing and story is good, and I think the blurbs on the back cover about Moon being a "fresh voice" are legit praise. There were times though that the character thought and did things that just felt unreal and it occasionally jarred me out of the page. Again I disclaim it could be that I can't relate to the L.A. state of mind, and happily offer that it could be that it is written from such a woman's perspective (glurp...that bit was great) that I might be missing some of it because I don't have enough of an understanding of the opposite sex! I am looking forward to Moon's next work and am also looking forward to loaning this book to my female friends and seeing if they have a different perspective on it.

One big note: I'm a Zappa fan, but I don't necessarily recommend that Zappa freaks buy this book just because "Zappa" is on the cover. This is Moon, not Frank. I've seen Moon on a couple of TV appearances, listened to some interviews and read some of her magazine writing. I've come to enjoy her for her own sake, especially her easy sense of humor and delight. This is so even though I do I think I initially sought her out on TV and such because of the family association. I think it's important to come to the book to enjoy Moon for her own sake instead of interpreting the book as a thinly vieled Tell-All. Moon has said that there are autobiographical elements in the book and further that she set up certain situations to vent about aspects of growing up in a celebrity household, but I think it's fair to say that's as far as it goes. It's fiction, and pretty good fiction at that.