American Dreams

by John Jakes

Overview

From America's master storyteller and writer of historical fiction comes the epic story of the Crown family--first introduced in the New York Times bestseller Homeland.

As the second generation comes of age, the Crowns strive to find theirplace in a turbulent America which stands at the dawn of a new century. From thespeedways of Detroit to the unbridled glamour of a young Hollywood, to the daringheights of early aviation--theirs is a story of passion and adventure, glory, andambition, with all the wonder, promise, and splendor of...American Dreams.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101209189
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/01/1999
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	560
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John Jakes is the bestselling author of Charleston, the Kent Family Chronicles, the North and South trilogy, On Secret Service, California Gold, Homeland, and American Dreams. Descended from a soldier of the Virginia Continental Line who fought in the American Revolution, Jakes is one of today’s most distinguished authors of historical fiction.

Table of Contents

Part One DREAMERS
1. Actress	3
2. Drifter	9
3. Paul and His Wife	13
4. Ilsa's Worry	19
5. A Dream of Speed	23
6. Paul's Pictures	28
7. The General and His Children	33
8. Courage from Carl	38
9. Obligatory Scene	41
10. Eastbound	45
Part Two STRIVING
11. Adrift in New York	53
12. Fritzi and Oh-Oh	59
13. Smash-up	64
14. Paul's Anchor	70
15. Three Witches and Four Actresses	74
16. Grosse Pointe Games	82
17. Bad Omens	90
18. Confessions	96
19. Reunions	99
20.Model T	109
21. Jinxed?	114
22. Tess	120
23. Jesse and Carl	123
24. Rehearsal for a Tragedy	128
25. Tragedy	131
26. Closed	135
27. Paul and Harry	138
28. Boom Times	143
29. "Speed King of the World"	147
30. A Desperate Call	154
31. Savagery	159
32. Separation	165
33. Postcard from Indianapolis	169
Part Three PICTURES
34. Ilsa to the Rescue	175
35. Biograph	181
36. Westward Ho	188
37. Blanket Company	194
38. Our Heroine	201
39. Onward, If Not Exactly Upward	204
40. New York Music	208
41. Sammy	214
42. Signs of Success	217
43. Threats	223
44. Attack	227
45. B.B. Decides	232
46. A Toast to War	238
47. In the Subway	243
48. Further Westward Ho	246
Part Four CALIFORNIA
49. Welcome to Los Angeles	253
50. Wrong Turn	261
51. Liberty Rising	265
52. Fritzi and Carl	271
53. Mickey Finn	277
54. No Laughing Matter	283
55. Inferno	289
56. Carl Mows the Grass	293
57. Decision	297
Part Five NIGHTMARE
58. Loyal	307
59. Flying Circus	316
60. Viva Villa!	320
61. English Edgar	328
62. Inceville	333
63. Mercenaries	340
64. The Day Things Slipped	347
65. Crash Landing	355
66. Fritzi and Loy	361
67. That Sunday	365
Part Six BATTLEFIELDS
68. In Belgium	377
69. Troubled House	385
70. Taking Sides	391
71. "Truth or Nothing"	395
72. Fritzi and Her Three Men	402
73. Revelations	409
74. Detroit Again	413
75. Million-Dollar Carpet	417
76. End of the Party	423
77. U-Boat	430
78. Winter of Discontent	433
79. Air War	438
80. Torpedoed	442
81. Marching	448
82. Troubled Nation	454
83. Kelly Gives Orders	460
84. Heat of the Moment	466
85. Bombs	471
86. Casualties	476
87. In the Trenches	480
88. The Boy	484
89. The Unfinished Song	485
Afterword	493

What People are Saying About This

Kirkus Reviews

"Realistic detail and period color galore keep this swift-moving story grounded in the sunset of a largely agrarian America as the automobile and WWI arrive to shake the republic out of its golden idyll."
--Kirkus Reviews

Interviews

Before the live bn.com chat, John Jakes agreed to answer some of our questions.

Q:  In your opinion, what has been the most exciting time period to live in?

A:  There are any number of historical eras I'd love to visit if I had a time machine: Shakespeare's London (taking in a performance at the Globe), Europe in the age of Napoleon, England in the bawdy Restoration period (but be careful to get your shots first and go armed in the streets after dark). Realistically, though, I feel that the most exciting period will be the 50 or 100 years just ahead, when my 11 grandchildren will find their careers, and live out their lives, in an unpredictable and ever-changing century I wish I could see.

Q:  Why does writing historical fiction appeal to you?

A:  The past, like the present, is packed with dramatic events and colorful personalities, but in writing about the past I have the benefit of decades of scholarship to put the historical record in better perspective than we have for present events in this era of government secrecy, hush-hush diplomatic negotiations, et cetera. There is also a kind of romantic glow to the past as it recedes from us -- certainly not entirely realistic, or justified, if you look at the grim and grimy record of most eras. But this aura is very real for millions nonetheless. Some of this romantic feeling enlivens most good historical fiction, including, I hope, mine.

Q:  What are your favorite five books? Your favorite historical movie?

A: 

1. Great Expectations. Charles Dickens is my No. 1 literary idol, and this is one of his masterpieces (along with Bleak House). It's also one of his most accessible novels. I've just completed the book and lyrics for a musical theater version of the novel (score by composer Mel Marvin), which will have its world premiere at our new $10 million Self Family Arts Center on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, in April 1999. Obviously a labor of love!

2. The Count of Monte Cristo. Of all the historical novels I read as a youngster, this is the one that hooked me on the form.

3. Anthony Adverse. Hervey Allen's towering 1933 work may be the best historical novel of this century -- despite its dated and wrongful attitudes toward slavery.

4. Lonesome Dove. One of the great novels of this century, in my estimation, and possibly the best ever written about the American West.

5. The Martian Chronicles. This hooked me on science fiction, and Ray Bradbury, whom I tried to imitate with my own SF stories written as a teenager (I sold my first when I was 18).

P.S. This is a very difficult list to make, leaving out some equally deserving favorites such as The Great Gatsby, Hammett, Faulkner, Ragtime, John Dos Passos's U.S.A. trilogy, et cetera.

Film: "Dodge City." The "history" in this 1939 Errol Flynn epic for Warner Bros. is dubious to nonexistent, yet I vividly remember seeing the picture as a seven-year-old kid in Terre Haute, Indiana, where it had an enormous impact, introducing me to the drama and color of the American past.

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
Just in time for the nation's birthday comes a new book from John Jakes! Praised as America's preeminent writer of historical fiction and "a master of the ancient art of storytelling" (The New York Times Book Review), Jakes continues to deliver one literary home run after another. Who else can make history come so alive? The Kent Family Chronicles, the North and South trilogy, and the New York Times bestseller Homeland are chock-full of fascinating historical detail and colorful personalities. Homeland, a towering tale of a German-American immigrant dynasty, made it clear that Jakes had begun one of his most ambitious and exceptional epics to date. Almost immediately, enthusiastic fans began writing Jakes fan letters asking about the next installment in the Crown Family Chronicles.

American Dreams, a sweeping saga of passion, adventure, glory, ambition, and hope, is the much-anticipated follow-up. The Crown family now stands at the threshold of a new millennium, a remarkable age of promise and opportunity. Everything seems possible, yet the distant rumble of war foreshadows turbulence and tragedy. Certainly it is an exciting time to be alive. Jakes was drawn to this period, he says, because, "in little more than ten years, America, and the world, went from idyllic golden summers of peace to the bleak and bloody winter of war — war so apocalyptic, so destructive, it could hardly be imagined by most of those living at the time."

Spanning 1906 to 1917, American Dreams charts the triumphs and tragedies of three extraordinarydreamerswho all struggle to make their mark in one of America's burgeoning industries. We meet 26-year-old Fritzi Crown, daughter of successful beer brewer Joe Crown, and a woman of fierce determination and formidable ambition. Fritzi yearns for the excitement of life on the stage, but pursuing an acting career will mean defying her wealthy father and social convention. Through this young starlet's eyes, on her road from starvation to stardom, Jakes incorporates fascinating detail about the early days of the film industry. Readers meet Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Fatty Arbuckle, D. W. Griffith, and Erich von Stroheim, among other real-life notables.

Meanwhile, Fritzi's brother, Carl Crown, is searching for a higher purpose in his life after being thrown out of Princeton. His secret dream of flying takes him from Henry Ford's Detroit to the war-torn European skies as a daring aviator. His cousin Paul also finds his fortunes drastically altered by the impending war. An idealistic filmmaker and acclaimed author, Paul sacrifices his own career in the name of truth by screening footage of the atrocities of the German army. Returning to Europe intent on obtaining more war footage, Paul experiences a devastating personal loss in the trenches that is a precursor to the violence to come.

With its abundance of period history, historical fact, and highly entertaining prose, American Dreams is sure to please Jakes fans and newcomers alike.

Best-selling historical novelist Jakes continues the story of the Crown family in early-20th-century Chicago.

Library Journal

This sequel to prolific historical novelist Jakes's Homeland (1994, not reviewed) leads faithful readers of his Revolutionary and Civil War sagas into the 20th century and continues his roman-fleuve of the Crown Dynasty of Chicago. These dreamers of new American empires include 26-year-old Fritzi Crown, who abandons her family and enters the new-flowering, amazingly fantasy-filled film industry, first as an actress in Westerns filmed in New Jersey, then as a Hollywood star buddying around with Charlie Chaplin, Erich von Stroheim, Mary Pickford, and other famed folk; her brother Carl, who longs to be an aviator, puts his genius for machines to work for Henry Ford in Detroit, then goes on the racing circuit with Barney Oldfield before becoming a pilot for a flying circus; and author/ filmmaker cousin Paul, whose newsreels documenting German atrocities at the Front get him into hot water with the British censors, but lead to Fritzi's call for US intervention. Realistic detail and period color galore keep this swift-moving story grounded in the sunset of a largely agrarian America as the automobile and WWI arrive to shake the republic out of its golden idyll. Literary Guild featured alternate.

Kirkus Reviews