Customer Reviews

Anthem

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The wisdom in the pages of this wonderful book is more relevant than ever. American's from across the political, social, and economic spectrum speak about what it means to be American, the myth and the reality. The icons are interesting, but not because they are famous. They are interesting because they are saying the sames things that the waitress and the gas station attendant. We are all participating in the great American experiment, rich and poor, famous and anonymous. And now that the icon that is America is under attack, this book is a refreshing and much needed look at the ideas, challenges, and tensions that, sewn together, make up our national fabric. Buy this book and share it with a friend. The world will be better for it.

I'm ordering "Athem: An American Road Story" because I first saw the documentary. The flawed cinematography almost adds to the freshness of the concept and the sincerity of the creators.

Anthem is a delightful and thought provoking book that successfully provides the reader with an entertaining snap shot of the common threads of a nation and her people. From the waitress to the politician to the musician the, voices of Americans explaining "what it is like to be an American" are clearly heard. The writers are entertaining and loveable as they travel the country in search of answers. I was sure I was with them in the White House when their camera equipment hit a piece of furniture.

I love this book. In the tradition of Travels with Charley, these two women provide an intruiging and engrossing snapshot of America as it really is: the people, the philosophies, and the stories. Thank you.

This book made me want to quite my job, jump in my car and hit the open road. It made me want to see America from a different view, other than through Disneyworld tours and out of Holiday Inn windows. However, after reading half way through, the questions become routine with routine answers. In addition there were hardly any interviews with women-not very healthy for a book written by two ambitious women.

I, myself am a road warior and lover of 20th century American literature. I come from an American family that has experienced many of the common tribulations of life that other American families have; from having grandparents that were cotton farmers in Missouri who moved to California to seek a higher standard of living to having a father who still suffers from the Viet Nam war to growing up in middle America. For this, I love this book. I, too, wondered what shaped us as Americans and enjoy observing the comonalities and patterns of American life; this is what Shainee and Kristen explored in Anthem. I found my own ideals expressed by those who much of the nation look up to. Its invigorating to know that I share beliefs with people all throughout our nation. This book allowed me to take a step back to examine my own thoughts and compare them to those of my fellow countrymen on subjects such as the American dream, heroes, and the changes occuring in this country and those that should occur.

Well written stories by two talented twenty-somethings as they journey through the US in search of the essence of the American Spirit - Our American Dream. Interesting side stories & insights. A Slice of Americana to go

Anthem, an American Road Story by Shainee Gabel and Kristan Hahn(Avon Books, 1997)

The adventure sounds like the dream project - two young independent film makers, Shainee Gabel and Kristin Hahn, map out a trip that will criss cross the country. With their camera and recorders, they plan on interviewing people, both famous and ordinary, and using the stories of this cross section of the country to create an `anthem' of what America is on the cusp of the millennium.

They hope to create a film that will following in the footsteps of Studs Terkel's Working and Steinbeck's Travels with Charley. Armed with camera and an impressive list of `name' people who've agreed to be interviewed, the two young women set off "in search of the American Dream." The book, Anthem, is a text version of Shainee Gabel and Kristan Hahn film (released by Zeitgeist Films). And that's the problem with Anthem.

The main focus of Anthem is the interviews. But reading the text of an interview is obviously not the same as seeing the interview. In text, Gabel and Hahn somehow manage to make interviews with Studs Terkel and Robert (they call him Bob) Redford boring. So it comes as no surprise that even the interviews with `ordinary' people come across in print as lacking in feeling. An interview with a Gloucester fisherman who's followed his father's and grandfather's profession, but see that his children will not follow in his is unable to leave the reader with a sense of pathos.

Anthem is divided into sections of interviews interspersed with entries from Gabel and Hahn's journal. As each interview is, by it's nature, a separate segment, the journal entries should be the common thread to give Anthem the narrative flow a book needs. Unfortunately this does not happen.

To the positive side, the journal entries provide us with a sense of character of Gabel, the `country girl' who grew up near Lancaster, Pa, and of Hahn, the `city girl' half of the team. But that's all the journal sections accomplish. And even then, they seem to fall short. In one section, the young women stop in Ames, Iowa to visit Hahn boyfriend who working `on location' of a movie. But that's all the details they give. I'd like to know what the boy friend did (gaffer? property manager? gopher?) and why didn't they mention the name of the movie being shot (Twister)? It the details that give texture to any written work, and the details get lost in the text of Anthem.

I don't know about the movie, but unfortunately, the book Anthem, is like reading the text of someone's home movies. The strength of Anthem is in the voice and faces of the people, but not in the text. Shainee Gable and Kristin are film makers and not writers, and it shows.