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36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Promised Land: Surprising & Insightful, December 11, 2008
This review is from: Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America (Hardcover)
When I first picked up "Promised Land," I must admit I feared I may be embarking on another dry survey of American Literature; that or a greatest hits collection that simply retold great American novels the likes of Gatsby and Moby Dick, incredible as they are. Instead, I found myself pleasantly surprised. By no means obscure, Promised Land does an superb job of including canonized classics like Uncle Tom's Cabin and Walden alongside the less expected Dr. Spock and Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Parini is a master at keeping his writing accessible to all readers, and despite the work's academic-sounding title, Parini's prose are light and highly insightful, resulting in a quick and enthralling read. His deep knowledge of his subject and colorful, one-of-a-kind anecdotes keep the pages turning throughout.
In the end, Parini produces a book suited for anyone who has ever marveled at an American novel or pondered what it means for literature to be American. Whether you have studied these works at length or have just read one or two back in high school, you will be amazed and touched by Parini's diligence and the careful consideration that went into crafting the Promised Land.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A baker's dozen of the greatest books in America, December 11, 2008
This review is from: Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America (Hardcover)
Is it possible to winnow down all the great books that have been written in --- and about --- America to a baker's dozen? Jay Parini thinks so and offers PROMISED LANED as proof.
Parini --- a poet, novelist, biographer and professor at Middlebury College in Vermont --- selects his choices dating back to William Bradford's HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH PLANTATION and ending with Betty Friedan's THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE. He defines his selection process as including books "that helped to create the intellectual and emotional contours of this country. Each played a significant role in developing a complex value system that flourishes to this day."
The other 11 titles feature a combination of novels and nonfiction, (relatively) light reading and much more serious fare: THE FEDERALIST PAPERS by Alexander Hamilton, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, THE JOURNALS OF LEWIS AND CLARK, WALDEN, UNCLE TOM'S CABIN by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain's THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK by W. E. B. Du Bois, THE PROMISED LAND by Mary Antin, Dale Carnegie's HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE, THE COMMON SENSE BOOK OF BABY AND CHILD CARE by Dr. Benjamin Spock, and Jack Kerouac's ON THE ROAD.
Each analysis consists of a brief biographical look at the author and an in-depth examination of the book and its impact on American society. Parini also shows how each volume has held up; sensibilities during the time each was printed have greatly changed over the generations, but they still pack a punch.
Parini actually embraces the discomfort one might find in discussing certain themes, such as the treatment of African-Americans in Dubois's SOULS OF THE BLACK FOLK or THE PROMISED LAND, a novel about the struggles of Jewish immigrants to adjust to life in a new homeland. The content of these books are connected, Parini insists. One common theme is the struggle to survive and thrive, be it as a colonial state: "One learns a lot about America by looking at these texts closely --- and the texts that swirl around them," he writes, freely admitting that his choices are quite personal.
A book like this is designed to engender discussion. Why this book and not that? As widely-read as it has been, does Carnegie's masterwork --- ostensibly the first "self-help" book --- merit consideration as one of the elite that "changed America"? Or Spock's book on child care? Surely there are others better suited for inclusion. Fear not, for Parini offers another hundred titles of similar significance, any one of which the reader might want to substitute for the 13 finalists.
--- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan
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37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting starting point for debate, November 30, 2008
This review is from: Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America (Hardcover)
Americans are utopians, as the list of the country's 13 most influential books -- as selected by Parini -- suggests. And Parini himself is perhaps a utopian of sorts simply by attempting to undertake such a mammoth task.
This is an interesting addition to the ongoing debate over whether it's possible to create a canon of great books. Parini doesn't get that ambitious, thankfully. He isn't suggesting that all the books he recommends are great: rather, only that they significantly transformed American politics or society in some critical way. Therefore, we have everything from Uncle Tom's Cabin to Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People on the list -- neither of which could be dubbed great literary works. In fact, I'd suggest that only Walden, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and On the Road would even qualify for inclusion. But each book does shed light on a different facet of the American identity, from our struggle to reconcile our insistence on freedom with the need for government and our urge to push our boundaries ever wider (Twain, along with Lewis & Clark), to race and gender issues
Even by that standard, I'm not sure that I can agree with all of Parini's suggestions for inclusion in the list, although that really isn't the point. He himself admits that it is subjective and one that was compiled with great difficulty -- and with an appendix (with comments) on a hundred additional works that could have been included. But the works do have a unifying theme running through them -- the endless quest for perfection and, in particular, a perfect society. (In the works selected from the 20th century, Parini deviates slightly to focus on those that deal more with efforts of individuals to perfect themselves, as represented by everyone from Dr. Spock to Dale Carnegie.)
The strength of the narrative lies in the introductions to the work, where Parini sets each book in the context of its time and discusses its impact. Unfortunately, the effort to divide each discussion into four parts feels like an artificial structure. The nature of the project calls for as freewheeling a structure and discussion as possible, not one that is broken down as if it were a recipe. (Part 1: context; Part 2: publication history & author's biographical detail; Part 3; summary of the work's salient points; Part 4; the work's legacy.)
Ultimately, those who will find this book of greatest value may be those with the least knowledge of American history or society. The majority of the discussion of each work lies in the third part, the summaries. Anyone already familiar with, say, Walden, may find the discussion an interesting reminder of its contents, but there are few fresh insights. Even when the contents are less familiar and are inherently interesting to the reader (I had never read the Federalist Papers, for instance), this section drags. Had the structure been more accessible, interweaving the circumstances of each book's creation and publication with its contents and impact, the contents would have resonated more with me.
Still, reading the introductions to each chapter and pondering the common elements and differences between the selected books is an intriguing intellectual exercise, and the project itself would make a fabulous starting point for a book group discussion.
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