American Band: Music, Dreams, and Coming of Age in the Heartland (Hardcover)

by Kristen Laine (Author) "Max Jones woke ahead of his alarm..." (more)
Key Phrases: mandatory camp, band dads, music hallway, State Fair, Max Jones, Gabriel's Oboe (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In 2004, first-time author Laine immersed herself in Elkhart, Indiana's Concord High School Marching Minutemen, a 240-plus ensemble preparing to defend its state title, and emerges with a detailed and intimate account that delves deep into the rarified world of competitive high school marching and the students, parents and teachers devoted to it. Max Jones is the band's hard-nosed director, in his final season at Concord, and just beginning to fall out of touch with his young charges; students, meanwhile, juggle social and spiritual concerns with their all-consuming commitment to the Minutemen (practicing more hours than even the football players). In the stories of a trumpeter whose mother contracts terminal cancer, a clarinetist who longs for her native California and a drum-line captain who aspires to West Point, Laine finds an intriguing sample of small-town, red-state Middle America's next generation. Her descriptions of field performances-from the earliest planning stages to their in-competition execution-are intricate, but fail to convey their power or majesty; in addition, Laine's emphasis on narrative observation over direct quotes gives the work a magazine feature feel. Still, Laine brings passion, curiosity and affection to her heartland chronicle, ideal for anyone who's ever marked time with an instrument at the ready.
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Review
American Band has everything going for it, from tempo to heart to the grand bittersweet finale. What a gift for readers: a pitch-perfect tribute to kids and song and community. -- Madeleine Blais, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle

American Band is a compelling story of young people finding their voices, their callings, and their rhythm. In Kristen Laine's hands, the unfolding highs and lows of a group of high school musicians becomes an unlikely but utterly convincing venue for relating universal experiences: learning to love, learning from loss, struggling with faith.... In other words, growing up. With remarkable empathy and skillful prose, Laine not only grants access to the lives of the teenagers whose stories she so poignantly tells, she actually makes the reader nostalgic for high school, for that time when we dreamed big dreams and loved our friends as if the music of life depended on them. Best of all, while American Band will surely be relished by those who have glide-stepped to 'Take the A Train,' it invites even those of us who wouldn't know a piccolo from a pipe organ to take the field and march along. -- Peter Manseau, author of Vows: The Story of a Priest, a Nun, and Their Son

A triumph! American Band is an incisive portrait of life and coming of age in our 'heartland' - a place so many of us feel free to ridicule and analyze, but so rarely take the time to truly comprehend. Kristen Laine pushes right through the stereotypes about 'red states,' 'evangelicals,' and the nature of life in the middle of our nation. American Band, is, in one sense, a well-paced page-turner in the great tradition of 'competition' narratives. But it is also much more. Kristen Laine has blessed us with a deeply serious, life-affirming book whose quiet insight and wisdom will stay with the reader many years after those pages have been turned.... -- Susan Eaton, author of The Children in Room E-4: American Education on Trial

As a spats-hating, apathetic, marching-band clarinetist in high school, I didn't recognize the driven and talented Concord High musicians who train harder than the football players at whose games they perform. But American Band is much more than the story of a season in the life of the most fanatical practitioners of this uniquely American ritual. Kristen Laine has produced a captivating portrait of what it's like to be a teenager in middle America in the first part of the 21st century. -- Stefan Fatsis, author of Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players

Football isn't the only thing happening underneath those Friday night lights. American Band leads us through the championship season of Elkhart, Indiana's Marching Minutemen. But most importantly, author Kristen Laine shows that in the heart of the heart of the country, so-called quaint notions like 'community' and 'personal excellence' are alive and kicking. -- Cathy Day, author of The Circus in Winter

Through the graceful narration of Kristen Laine, a season of a high school band becomes the provocative story of young men and women grappling with issues of friendships, ambition, and spirituality. American Band transports us to the real America that so many journalists simply fly over. It makes us care us care deeply about the parents, kids and teachers who come together to create a sense of community in these fast-changing times. -- David L. Marcus, author of What It Takes to Pull Me Through: Why Teenagers Get in Trouble, and How Four of Them Got Out

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Gotham (August 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592403190
• ISBN-13: 978-1592403196
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #496,318 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For anyone who has marched in a high school marching band or band parent and more, November 14, 2007

By	V. Bierlein (Goshen, IN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I happen to be a parent from this particular program whose son graduated before the book was written. I read initially to open the "mysterious" "how" in the world did this man, Max Jones, consistently get these kids from summer freshman band camp, to marching a complicated show with fabulous, entertaining, difficult, music, marching, color guard, and a total show that always brought the state finals crowd to their feet.

What inspired those kids, how could he chew out the entire band without raising his voice? Why did he command such respect? What were his real goals for these kids? We knew some of them when our son arrived at Taylor University just wanting to audition for the Jazz Band for the love of music, but was majoring in business and computers. Mr. Jones had called ahead unknown to us the Chair of the Music department and told him to keep an eye our for our son as he was a good kid and musician he'd want to have in his program, as a bass trombone player.

This book shows how an excellent music program is not just about music, it's about making kids who will become excellent parents, workers, students, parents. He taught leadership, perserverence, teamwork. There are also several students who were highlighted. Their stories are remarkable and touching. You will be swept into their lives. Prepare to be totally caught up in a story that isn't just about a band, a community, or kids. It becomes a spiritual experience, it's compelling. My husband cried at the end. Now that's a book! It's inspirational. It's too bad they did not include the DVD of the state fair show,final show, and the next year's that was in a way a tribute to Max . I'm trying to get my hands on them as we speak from friends at church!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A well-written book about today's teenagers, August 19, 2007

By	B. Jacobsen "whsy82" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A well-written book makes a topic I would not have thought interesting very engaging indeed. Although the band is well-covered, I and others may find the profile of students in a changing town more compelling.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not quite the book I was thinking it was., February 18, 2008

By	California Reader (California) - See all my reviews

I think the book idea is great and if you know the particular people involved, it could be a good read. But I had a problem keeping my interest while reading, I just wasn't that interested in getting into the kind of detail about these kids as the detail presented. I couldn't finish it, but I feel as though I should finish the book because I paid list price. I did read another band book and found it fascinating from a historical standpoint, but for this book, I just wasn't interested in the lives of the kids, I'm really more interested in the band as a whole. Don't decide to buy the book on my preview, but if you're not really interested in reading about these kids particular lives, don't get the book.