Customer Reviews

The Americans (The Kent Family Chronicles, Vol. 8)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Book 8 in The Kent Family Chronicles neatly wraps up the family history in a most satisfying way.Carter Kent, son of Julia and Louis, shows some of the weakness of character of his father and becomes embroiled with shady, criminal types, forcing him to head for San Francisco where he becomes an off-sider to a powerful political boss. Will Kent follows his dream of becoming a doctor and after an initial inclination to concentrate on becoming rich and famous by marrying the promiscuous daughter of a society family, realises his true potential and joins a practice in the N.Y. slums. Eleanor Kent, married to Leo, a Jewish actor, experiences for herself the prejudice against Jews directed against her for daring to marry a Jew. They are caught in the terrible Johnstown flood and the pattern of their lives is altered forever.
I'm sorry that this wonderful series has ended but am grateful for the very real insight into American history.

I have finally summed up enough time and courage to put myself to read through all the volumes in the "Kent Family Chronicles". I frankly don't know what took me so long to try and read them. Instead of resuming each book individually, I thought I'd gather all books into one single review and say that it has been perhaps the most entertaining time of my life. There's everything and anything any reader could possibly want. It's a massive compilation of historical detail gathered along with wonderfully crafted fiction. Its an overly dramatic saga, rich in tragedy, suspense, action, poignant love scenes. The person who reads these books and says they're nothing short of excellent truly does not know what great fiction storytelling is about. No wonder these books have received the critical acclaim they have. They are definitely books that stand in a class of their own. The bad thing about them is that there is an end to them...I am going to miss not reading about the Kents. Oh well, everything must end one day, I suppose. My admiration for John Jakes and his work is the only exception to this rule

sorry it had to end. I would read another 8 volumns if he were to continue...i try to figure out which kent had the best life and which one had the most difficult....i welcome any feedback.

I first started the Kent Family Chronicles when I began teaching U.S. History. I learned so much, and there are stories that I will never forget. My family literally lost me for a few months, because I spent every available moment reading those books. It's been a few years since I've read them, but I'm thinking it's time to pick them up again. Be prepared to block out some time, because you won't put them down until you're done with all eight!

I am sad the series is over but I am also happy. I am sad becouse I want to know what happens to the family in the future. I am happy it's over becouse by then end I was tired of reading the books they started to drag on. In the final book Carter Kent sets out across america in search of himself and riche's and gets in some bad sistuations.. Will Kent becomes a doctor. Eleanor Kent marries a Jewish actor. They end up in the middle of the Johnstown flood and it changes there lives forever. The book draged on I found the charactors to be boring in this on and I ahd no interest in them. I liekd the Johnston flood and Eleanor's charactor the best. Overall it was ok it wasent the worse of the series and it had good parts I just found it draged on.

"The Americans," the final installment in John Jakes' eight-book Bicentennial series, is the story of Gideon and Julia Kent's three kids. It is in particular the story of the worries of Gideon, now in his 40s and receiving solemn reminders of his mortality from his frequent chest pains. He simply doesn't see a bright future for the Kent family amid Carter's aspirations to be a wandering con artist, Will's determination to be a shallow physician to the pampered wealthy, and Eleanor's life on the road in a profession ill-esteemed -- acting.

So one by one, Jakes tells the story of each of these three young adults, spending the most time on Will and his gentle coming of age. There's a reason you can have faith in Will's character, and he certainly proves out that faith.

The series ends before 1900. I am disappointed that Jakes did not continue it all the way to 1976, as he had planned, and as he pointed out in the afterword of this book. It would have been wonderful to see this family as it would've looked in the '70s. But I understand what a grueling process these 800-page tomes must have been. Jakes wrote eight HUGE books in seven years, 1973-1980, a rather superhuman feat, especially considering the historical research that went into them. The cynic would say he moved so slowly in the second half of the series -- using an ocean of ink on just two generations, Gideon and his children -- that had he picked up the pace he could've easily spanned the full 200 years from Philip Kent's arrival on the Eastern shore.

Neither here nor there. The series on a whole is so smashingly written. Now I've got to find some other good series to read!

I was very pleased with the speed that my order was completed. The book was
exactly what I was seeking - it completes the set of seven that I have in the series.

I'm only writing a review for the last book, because it's really about the entire series. I don't want (and it would be too long) to give a synopsis of the different storylines. I'm just giving my opinion of them as a whole.

I read this series back in the late seventies, again a few years later, and am once again devouring the history of the Kent family. John Jakes smoothly intersperses historical facts, trivia, and fiction in a way that makes what was boring in my school years come alive. I often find myself wanting to be my own character in the books, whether a friend or family memeber!

Even having read the entire series multiple times, I still find that I look forward to the next book. It's been a long time between this reading and the last, so some of the parts have faded and seem new, but many moments in the series had made a lasting impression and it's been pleasurable to revisit all of it. The only downside to the series is that it ends; the last book, the last paragraphs, the last sentence, leaves me wanting a whole lot more. I think that says the most about the entire story.

I ordered and received all but one in the series, each book arrived in good time and excellent condition. My experiences have only been positive so far with the Amazon network. I have not had time to read books, but as they are big sellers in the USA I don't feel that's required.
Looks like I have to rate books unread, to review.

In many ways, this is the least effective Kent book. Gideon Kent dominates the other characters, and his determination to see that his family and the Kent name continue into the future is his dominant motivation. He dies in the book's final pages on the cusp of the twentieth century, his dreams fulfilled. Unfortunately, his unpleasantness as a character--building from the previous Kent book The Lawless--is a serious drawback. Why is it when the Kent men grow up (Philip, Louis), they become such unpleasantly conservative louts? The Americans reads to me like the work of a middle-aged man; only someone of middle-age could create without any sense of irony a character who does his best to dominate his family and stifle their plans and ideas to his own end, forgetting his own youth and energy in the process.

The fact that the book ends in 1900 also contributes to its comparative failure. Quite plainly, there is more story to tell, and Jakes' failure in his original plan to bring the Kent family up to 1976 is obvious. The three main surviving Kents--Eleanor, Will, and Carter--are each at crucial points in their lives when the story ends, and leaving them where they are with no sequel is not quite fair. Plainly, Jakes has things set up nicely for his characters to participate in the disaster of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 as well as the independence of India. Of the historical events and characters reproduced here, I found myself absolutely bored by Will's adventures in the Dakotas with Theodore Roosevelt. In contrast, the depiction of the Johnstown Flood of 1889 is probably the best of all the historical events recreated in the entire Kent series.