Customer Reviews

American Beauty

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"True" Baldwin, an aging millionaire, is ordered by his doctor to get out of the Chicago after the 1929 stock market crash takes a toll on his health. His daughter takes him for a drive to Connecticut to visit his birthplace. When True last knew the place, it was a rural farm land that was known for its crops of tobacco. Still having money, he is interested in purchasing a farm house and taking up farming.

True remembers his lost love, Judy Oakes. The Oakes were a historic family -- having owned the largest plantation in the county. However, Judy is long dead but her majestic house still stands. Ferber takes the reader into a long journey into the past concerning the history of this domicile. The story starts in 1700, with some of the first Americans to settle in the area. It covers the growth and struggles of the people there: their interaction with Indians, the harsh winters, and taming the land.

Ferber has done her homework and appears to know the ins and outs of tobacco farming. She also knows the mores and living conditions of the Polish farmers. The primary focus of the book is a love story set in the late 1890's. Judy's adopted niece (a reincarnation of an Oakes who died from exposure in the 1700's) and her hired Polish man, Ondy, fall in love and try to continue the Oakes' family line.

The book was interesting and I found myself absorbed. The characters are colorful and add charm to this book. It certainly wasn't action packed and there wasn't much as far as suspense, but it caught my fancy. I think the book has historical and social interest and I learned about what it must have been like to live in the late 1800's on a Connecticut tobacco farm. The title appears to come from the appreciation of all the events that went into making the Oakes' mansion. Ferber's clear writing is similar to Ellen Glasgow without the feminist overtone.

One of my gripes with modern "great literature" is the omnipresent dysfunctional family. Well, this book is seventy years old and goes to prove that wacky families are nothing new in literature. It includes the last of the Oakes clan - early Yankee settlers who are now running away to the circus, crazy or simple. They can't farm their own land so enter the Polish immigrants. What follows is a clash of cultures, bigotry and a little romance.

While the plot could be part of contemporary fiction, it is the tone and style that sets this book apart. Some of the writing would not pass any political correctness test. Still, in other ways there is a gentle and calm quality that makes this book quite readable.

The good/bad part of the book is that my book group all agreed on it. We found it a pleasant window into a world that was fairly interesting. Still, it didn't incite much passion in any of us, let alone providing any juicy meat for disagreement.

Ferber fans will be disappointed by this derivative book. It contain snatches of the themes and characters of her other novels, without their heart or cohesiveness. Don't waste your time on this one.

This was an interesting book. It was almost totally about the "Polacks" in the 18th and 19th Century. It was not very flattering for them, and I wonder what they think when they read this book. I am sure they lay it down quickly and don't finish it. But, I know how people talked long before language had to be politically correct and I understood while not necessarily agreeing with the assessment of that nationality. The fact that the author was Edna Ferber lent credence to the book in my opinion.