Homeland: A Novel

Homeland: A Novel

by John Jakes
Homeland: A Novel

Homeland: A Novel

by John Jakes

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Overview

From the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of North and South: The first in a saga about a German immigrant and his family’s rise in 20th-century America.

 The tide of the twentieth century is rising upon the world, and on its crest rides the Crown family.
 
Young Pauli Kroner, freshly arrived in America from the streets of Berlin, makes his way to the mansion of his millionaire uncle in Chicago, looking to fulfill his dreams. His uncle, Joe Crown, is a self-made brewery tycoon who rules his domain with an iron hand—especially when it comes to his own family of defiantly rebellious children and a wife yearning for her own liberation.
 
In this new world, Pauli will rise as his own man and find his destiny in the early days of motion pictures. Surrounded by relations close and distant, proud and vengeful, each struggling to find themselves at the dawn of a new era, he will witness and experience the violence of the Pullman Strike, and find love in the arms of a woman who can never be his as he follows the march of history, intertwined with such figures as the audacious Theodore Roosevelt, the ruthless Thomas Edison, the fading western icon Buffalo Bill, and many more.
 
Named a New York Times Notable Book, Homeland is a “first-rate historical . . . chock-full of fascinating period detail, [Jakes’s] captivating story brings to life the sounds, smells and tastes of turn-of-the-century America in a manner comparable to Michener’s Hawaii and Doctorow’s Ragtime” (Publishers Weekly).
 This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Jakes including rare images from the author’s personal collection.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781453256022
Publisher: Open Road Media
Publication date: 07/10/2012
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 1188
Sales rank: 77,358
File size: 8 MB

About the Author

John Jakes (b. 1932), the author of more than a dozen novels, is regarded as one of today’s most distinguished writers of historical fiction. His work includes the highly acclaimed Kent Family Chronicles series and the North and South Trilogy. Jakes’s commitment to historical accuracy and evocative storytelling earned him the title of “the godfather of historical novelists” from the Los Angeles Times and led to a streak of sixteen consecutive New York Times bestsellers. Jakes has received several awards for his work and is a member of the Authors Guild and the PEN American Center. He and his wife, Rachel, live on the west coast of Florida.   
John Jakes (b. 1932), the author of more than a dozen novels, is regarded as one of today’s most distinguished writers of historical fiction. His work includes the highly acclaimed Kent Family Chronicles series and the North and South Trilogy. Jakes’s commitment to historical accuracy and evocative storytelling earned him the title of “the godfather of historical novelists” from the Los Angeles Times and led to a streak of sixteen consecutive New York Times bestsellers. Jakes has received several awards for his work and is a member of the Authors Guild and the PEN American Center. He and his wife, Rachel, live on the west coast of Florida. 

Read an Excerpt

Homeland

The Crown Family Saga 1890 -1900


By John Jakes

OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA

Copyright © 1993 John Jakes
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4532-5602-2



CHAPTER 1

Pauli


He thought, where's my home? It isn't here.

From a flimsy shelf beside his narrow bed he pulled a wrinkled paper.

It was a map of the world, torn from a book he'd bought at a secondhand shop with money he could ill afford to squander. He bought the whole book in order to have the map.

He scrutinized various locations as if he were some god-like being, able to choose any place on earth to live. But he was in Berlin, and that was that. Sometimes he loved the city but sometimes, as now, he felt trapped.

He'd come home at midnight, exhausted from work, and lay now under the old duvet, unable to sleep, studying the map. It was almost two in the morning, and Aunt Lotte hadn't yet returned. Out with one of her Herren, he presumed. He worried about her. Once the kindest of women, now she was short with him, as if she disliked him. Hated having him around. She was drinking more heavily than usual. That very morning, before he left, he'd seen her stumble into furniture twice.

His room felt tiny and cramped, like a cell. Barely enough space for his single bed, an old wardrobe with a missing leg replaced by a wood block, one shaky taboret with a kerosene lamp. A night jar was tucked into a corner, beside a wooden box containing some childhood toys. The room was part of a cellar flat; he had not even one window.

Often his room was cold; most of the time it was damp. Aunt Lotte complained that it was messy; very un-German. That could be said of him too. His clothes were almost always awry, his shirttail often hung out, his pockets were constantly stuffed with old pencils, chalk, scraps of paper on which he wrote down thoughts or things to do, rocks, crackers or sweets he forgot to eat, leaving them to crumble or melt.

He was no longer in school; he'd never liked it, and had left it a year ago. Though dropping out was against the law, no one came to find him. No one cared.

Pensive, he touched the map, putting his finger in the middle of America, where his uncle lived.

As they often did at night, painful questions arose. Questions usually buried so deep, he'd never uttered them aloud to another soul. Probably because he feared there were no answers. There were no answers tonight. Slowly he stretched out his hand and put the wrinkled map back on the shelf.

His name was Pauli Kroner.

He was thirteen years old.


Spring rain hammered the streaming glass. Lightning flashed and glared. Pauli peered in the window of Wertheim's on Leipzigerstrasse; window dressers had draped a variety of gentlemen's and ladies' coats around a marvelous globe, multicolored and exquisitely painted. The globe had brass fittings at its axis and rested in a heavy wooden stand, fancifully carved.

The globe's painted seas and continents seemed full of mysteries, possibilities, wondrous sights Pauli yearned to see. If only he had enough money to buy a globe like that …

Something hard whacked the back of his head. "Lump." Ragamuffin. "Get away from that glass, you're leaning too hard."

Pauli spun around to confront Wertheim's giant doorkeeper, sodden in his greatcoat with gold shoulder boards and ropes of braid. Rain dripped from the bill of his braided hat.

"I was only looking."

"Look somewhere else. We don't want trash like you loitering around, it scares off the customers."

"Es wird überall nur mit Wasser gekocht," Pauli exclaimed. It was an old proverb, meaning literally, They cook everywhere with water. Pauli meant it to say he was as good as the next man.

"Oh yes?" said the doorman. "You're a good customer? Big spender? Get away from here before I whistle for the police!"

Pauli gave the doorman a hot stare, but the defiance hid his real feelings about himself. The doorman knew him for what he was. Nothing.

He disappeared up the rainy boulevard, hands in his pockets, head down.


On a Sunday morning soon afterward, Pauli walked into the Tiergarten with a block of cheap paper under his arm. Returning from work the night before, he had found Aunt Lotte bemoaning the absence of gentlemen on a Saturday evening. Her speech was slow and slurred. She was drinking strong fermented Apfelwein from a goblet. She had still been asleep when he left this morning; he'd heard her snoring behind her closed door.

Pauli walked through the Tiergarten with a strong, fast stride. He looked older than his years. He would never be handsome, but he had friendly, lively blue eyes, and wide shoulders, and a sturdy build that enhanced his masculinity. The blood of southern Germany ran in him, and there was a red-haired strain in the family that sometimes gave his brown hair russet glints. Whenever he was feeling good about himself or his circumstances he exuded an air of strength and competence that people noticed.

The great park was green and misty this summer morning. Pauli hurried to a site, and a subject, that had caught his eye. On a grassy hillock, an old gentleman had laid aside his straw boater and his meerschaum pipe and gone to sleep with his belly jutting up like a mountain under his vest. At a discreet distance, Pauli dropped to his knees, smoothed the top sheet of the block and rummaged through his pockets for his charcoal stick. He licked a smear of chocolate off the end and poised the stick over the pad.

He was tight inside, with anticipation and anxiety. He wanted to do a good sketch of the sleeping gentleman, but he feared he'd fail.

He began with an outline of the sleeper, from the side. After four strokes, he rubbed out what he'd done; the proportions were all wrong. Somehow his hand couldn't understand or execute the signals from his eye and mind. Pauli tore the paper off the block and crushed it, cursing. The old gentleman started, sat up and looked at him. Pauli grew red. He jumped up and ran off with the paper block and charcoal, quite forgetting to pick up the discarded sheets he'd left on the grass.

Why did he keep it up? He wanted to draw the marvelous sights and subjects that abounded in the world. But his talent was poor. He struggled and struggled, and every time he came out with nothing. Sometimes it seemed he had no talent for anything.


Once again Pauli was on the pavement outside the great department store, Wertheim's, on Leipzigerstrasse. The doorkeeper was nowhere to be seen. It was late July; the long summer twilight was golden and warm.

Pauli saw an old lady in black emerge from the store with a string bag. Instantly, a bearded man sprang from the crowd and brutally shoved the old woman to the ground.

The old lady cried out as the man snatched her string bag, pulled out two tins of department store tea and swore furiously. He turned to flee through the crowd, in Pauli's direction.

Pauli didn't hesitate. He threw himself on the sidewalk. The thief couldn't stop in time, and tripped over the boy.

Pauli grabbed the frayed hem of the thief's long coat and brought him down. The man cracked his head badly.

The dreaded doorman appeared, but he ignored Pauli, fussing and clucking over the old woman while helping her to her feet and into the store.

The groggy thief tried to rise. Pauli sat on him. Two of Wertheim's store detectives came out to collar the man. Pauli stood up, brushed himself off. A few angry people gathered around, shaking fingers at the robber.

The police arrived. They insisted Pauli accompany them to the station.

"But I'm waiting here to meet my friend." The friend was Tonio Henkel, whose father owned a thriving sweet shop on Unter den Linden.

"No argument, you're coming along." One of the policemen seized his arm to settle the matter.

They took him to a room with dingy yellow walls and the inevitable large heroic lithograph of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Two stern detectives shot off questions like bullets.

"Your name?"

"Pauli Kroner."

"Age?"

"Fourteen, last month, June 15."

"Address."

Reluctantly, he gave the number on Müllerstrasse. The detectives exchanged quick looks. They recognized a cheap street in one of the workers' districts. Almost a slum.

Pauli spent an anxious half hour repeating his story. All at once a distant bell rang. One detective was called out. When he came back in three minutes his whole demeanor had changed.

"I was speaking on the telephone," he said to Pauli. "You helped a very important lady. Frau Flüsser. The mother-in-law of the store's deputy director. She wants to see you at her flat tomorrow morning. Nine sharp. I think she wants to give you a reward. I'll write down the address."

The other detective patted his head. "Ein scharfsinniger Junge." A quick-witted youngster.

Dazed with delight, Pauli ran out of the building, then dashed toward Unter den Linden.


"And the policeman actually called you that, quick-witted?" Tonio Henkel said. He and Pauli were seated at a back table at Konditorei Henkel.

"Yes, he did," Pauli said with a shrug of false modesty. He stuffed another Othello into his mouth, disposing of it with a few bites.

Tonio smiled. His large, rounded forehead bobbed over the table. His head was too big for his frail body. Pauli and Anton Henkel had become fast friends in Grundschule, which Pauli had quit at Easter a year ago; the end of his seventh term. He had not been transferred to the Oberschule in his fifth year, as many bright pupils were. Remaining in the lower school marked him as one of those who would never receive a higher education at the Gymnasium. Aunt Lotte had made only minimal objections to his quitting; they needed whatever extra money he could earn.

Pauli's departure from school hadn't affected his friendship with Tonio. He liked Tonio's gentleness and good disposition. "I was scared when I got to Wertheim's and you were gone," Tonio said to him.

"Couldn't help it," Pauli said, taking another Othello and devouring it with his usual speedy efficiency. He glanced at the gilded wall clock. Almost ten. He had to get home, so he'd be sure to get up on time.

"When do you see the old lady who wants to reward you?" Tonio asked.

"Tomorrow morning, nine o'clock sharp."

"What do you think the old lady will give you? Anything you ask for?"

"Oh, I doubt that."

Tonio grinned. "Maybe she'll give you a ticket to America."

"Oh yes, I wish," Pauli said in a derisive way. Then: "I'd better leave. Aunt Lotte keeps track of my shifts. She'll be wondering why I'm late."

Tonio followed him to the front, his big head inclined forward like a heavy burden. "How's school?" Pauli asked.

Tonio seemed reluctant to answer. "School. Yes—well—I have bad news."

At the doorway to Unter den Linden, Pauli stopped. Lime trees along the curb swayed in the wind. Smart carriages rattled by. The evening was crisp and breezy; cool weather had rolled in from the North Sea. Pauli saw an uncharacteristic fear in his friend's eyes.

"You know how the doctor inspects us weekly for signs of infirmity or slowness?" Pauli nodded. "Today I was inspected and—uh—taken out. From now on I'm required to go to the special school. Actually they say it's more like a camp. I'll go there in the autumn. The doctor said he was sorry, but it's necessary."

"Tonio, that's awful." When a student was pulled from school because he was lame or feebleminded, there was no appeal. As the school doctor had once remarked when he was examining pupils, "It's the only way to keep up standards. It's the new German way."

If so, Pauli didn't like it much. Perhaps that was why he had such a strong interest in the country to which his uncle had emigrated years ago.

"Tonio, I'm really sorry."

"Yes, me too. But don't worry, I'll get along."

Pauli squeezed his friend's arm and left.


His heels clicked on the pavement as he walked along. Dark leaves rustled in the cool breeze. The streets resounded with the laughter and lively conversations of passersby, the raucous voices and thumped tankards of celebrants in beer halls, the tuneful grind of a street minstrel's Leierkasten, a barrel organ transported on a small two-wheeled wagon. With the appointment looming tomorrow, the night was full of anticipation and magic. Pauli loved Berlin again.

Well, why not? It was one of the world's great cities. A million and a half people crowded its old streets, creating constant noise and turmoil but at the same time a sense of energy, power, importance. The din of carriages and horse-cars wouldn't stop until early morning.

Athens on the Spree, the old residents called it. Because of the smoke, dirt, relentless industrial expansion, Rathenau, the electrics tycoon, called it Chicago on the Spree. Aunt Lotte had other, less flattering names. "This shithole of misery," for one.

On the streets you saw every sort of person. Elegant women and ragged gypsies. Travelers, officers, businessmen, Jews with their beards and hairlocks and long black gowns; Pauli had never spoken to a Jew, excepting those who were shopkeepers. You saw old Junkers in from their country estates, disdainful, and thin as their expensive cigars. Tonio's father said the Junkers ran the country, the new imperial Germany. He said the Iron Chancellor, Bismarck, had brought back something called the old steel and rye clique—the soldiers and the landowners. He said their influence was good for Germany, along with Bismarck's policy of promoting Germany through armed strength.

Yes, Berlin was a pageant, all right. But he was no longer sure that Berlin would be his permanent home. He'd begun to think often of America. Of a particular city, Chicago, and of the uncle he'd never met. The uncle who was a brewer, and rich.

Also, he disliked his job in the kitchen at the famous and elegant Hotel Kaiserhof. There Pauli swabbed the tiled kitchen floor, emptied trays of dirty dishes and smelly buckets of preparation scraps while avoiding the fists and kicks of the short-tempered chefs. Sometimes he worked days, and sometimes half the night, but the drudgery never varied. The single compensation was the opportunity to spend a few minutes with Herr Trautwein, the hall porter, a burly bachelor who crawled into the beds of female guests whenever possible. He was also an enthusiast about modern inventions of every kind, and talked endlessly but interestingly about the new age of mechanization that would enlighten the world in the next century.


In Müllerstrasse, the sanitary workers—women—clanked the lids of the sewer tanks as Pauli approached. Someone leaned out a window to complain about the noise. The reek of waste filled the drab street. Only the warm hearty smells that blew down from the Norddeutsche Brauerei several blocks away relieved the pervasive stench of dung and dirt.

The bell of the Catholic church on the next street sounded the quarter hour. Pauli hurried down the steps to the door of the cellar flat he occupied along with Aunt Lotte and her innumerable Herren. For a long time, before Aunt Lotte made a decision about entertaining Herren, a corner of the sitting room had been occupied by one or two Schlafburschen, renters who came and went by day and slept behind a temporary curtain at night. Now every guest wound up in Aunt Lotte's room.

Pauli let himself in. The flat was small, with a painted plaster ceiling that pressed down oppressively. The inevitable yellowing lace curtains masked what few windows there were. Dark furniture crowded the sitting room, where Pauli found his aunt in her best flowered wrapper, together with her visitor, an American who showed up about every six months.

"You're late, where have you been?" Aunt Lotte said. "You look even messier than usual." Lotte was forty-three, a handsome and full-bosomed woman with auburn hair like a tight cap of curls, pale blue eyes, and a deformed left foot. Her shoe had a sole several inches thick, and when she walked she exerted enormous effort to avoid listing from side to side. Pauli always thought it was the foot that had robbed her of a good life. Of course she was willful too; very independent and full of herself, which he found strange for someone in poor circumstances.

Intimidated by her question, Pauli didn't know where to start. Lotte waved her glass. "Well, come on, what's the explanation?"

"I was held awhile at the police station—"

"Police!" she cried. "My God, what have you done now?"

"Hey, let the kid explain," said the guest. He rose to pour himself another glass of the champagne he always brought. Phil Reynard traveled through Europe selling Globus sewing machines. He was a gangly, paunchy man who used dye to keep his hair a sleek glossy brown. His German was excellent.

"Explain, then, and be quick about it," Aunt Lotte said. Pauli told the story.

"Not bad, not bad. Got a reward out of it," Reynard said, chuckling.

Aunt Lotte poured herself more champagne. "All right, I guess you did the correct thing. It doesn't excuse the fact that you could have been injured. Don't make a habit of interfering with criminals, Pauli. One more thing. Tomorrow, if the nature of your reward is open for discussion, ask for money. Now go to bed and leave us alone."

Pauli walked down the long dark corridor to his room. There he lit the lamp—no electrification for this cellar yet. He shut the door and latched it with a hard push.


(Continues...)

Excerpted from Homeland by John Jakes. Copyright © 1993 John Jakes. Excerpted by permission of OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Contents

Part One BERLIN,
Part Two STEERAGE,
Part Three CHICAGO,
Part Four JULIE,
Part Five PULLMAN,
Part Six LEVEE,
Part Seven FLICKERS,
Part Eight TAMPA,
Part Nine WAR,
Part Ten HOMECOMING,
Afterword,
Author's Note,
A Biography of John Jakes,

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