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America Fantastica
At 11:34 a.m. one Saturday in August 2019, Boyd Halverson strode into Community National Bank in Northern California. “How much is on hand, would you say?” he asked the teller. “I’ll want it all.” “You’re robbing me?” He revealed a Temptation .38 Special. The teller, a diminutive redhead named Angie Bing, collected eighty-one thousand dollars. Boyd stuffed the cash into a paper grocery bag. “I’m sorry about this,” he said, “but I’ll have to ask you to take a ride with me.” So begins the adventure of Boyd Halverson—star journalist turned notorious online disinformation troll turned JCPenney manager—and his irrepressible hostage, Angie Bing. Haunted by his past and weary of his present, Boyd has one goal before the authorities catch up with settle a score with the man who destroyed his life. By Monday the pair reach Mexico; by winter, they are in a lakefront mansion in Minnesota. On their trail are hitmen, jealous lovers, ex-cons, an heiress, a billionaire shipping tycoon, a three-tour veteran of Iraq, and the ghosts of Boyd’s past. Everyone, it seems, except the police. In the tradition of Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain, America Fantastica delivers a biting, witty, and entertaining story about the causes and costs of outlandish fantasy, while also marking the triumphant return of an essential voice in American letters. And at the heart of the novel, amid a teeming cast of characters, readers will delight in the tug-of-war between two memorable and iconic human beings—the exuberant savior-of-souls Angie Bing and the penitent but compulsive liar Boyd Halverson. Just as Tim O’Brien’s modern classic, The Things They Carried , so brilliantly reflected the unromantic truth of war, America Fantastica puts a mirror to a nation and a time that has become dangerously unmoored from truth and greedy for delusion.
464 pages, Hardcover
First published October 24, 2023
About the author
Tim O'Brien
121 books3,086 followersTim O'Brien is an American novelist who served as a soldier in the Vietnam War. Much of his writing is about wartime Vietnam, and his work later in life often explores the postwar lives of its veterans.
O'Brien is perhaps best known for his book The Things They Carried (1990), a collection of linked semi-autobiographical stories inspired by his wartime experiences. In 2010, The New York Times described it as "a classic of contemporary war fiction." O'Brien wrote the war novel, Going After Cacciato (1978), which was awarded the National Book Award.
O'Brien taught creative writing, holding the endowed chair at the MFA program of Texas State University–San Marcos every other academic year from 2003 to 2012.
O'Brien is perhaps best known for his book The Things They Carried (1990), a collection of linked semi-autobiographical stories inspired by his wartime experiences. In 2010, The New York Times described it as "a classic of contemporary war fiction." O'Brien wrote the war novel, Going After Cacciato (1978), which was awarded the National Book Award.
O'Brien taught creative writing, holding the endowed chair at the MFA program of Texas State University–San Marcos every other academic year from 2003 to 2012.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 715 reviews
September 29, 2024
Oh, Mr. O'Brien, how I have loved your works over the years. There was no one that could come close to what it felt to be engaged in a bad war with stellar books like Going after Cacciato and The Things They Carried as well as The Lake in the Woods. But as hard as I tried, I found America Fantastica somewhat lacking. And it may be that I just didn't appreciate the dark humor and satirical bent, particularly during the COVID pandemic as hundreds of thousands of Americans were dying, it seeming like we were on our own. I understand why a satire on the alternate reality and mythomania of the Trump administration was tempting, but . . . Who can forget after the inauguration in 2017, we were shown altered and enhanced video of the crowd size. Later confronted with the lie, Kellyanne Conway, standing on the White House lawn said it was not a lie but an alternative set of facts, and so the mythomania, as told in this narrative by Tim O'Brien took hold.
And probably why I was so uncomfortable with this book was the essential truths that were coming through about the dire straits our country is now in as Tim O'Brien portrayed in a lot of craziness and snappy prose in this sometimes funny and sad satire that kept me engaged to the end.
"The lying contagion had swept across the American heartland, barreling across the cornfields of Nebraska westward into Wyoming, southward into Kansas and Colorado, eastward into Iowa, hooking up with the Mississippi at Davenport and traveling aboard tongues and lungs down the Father of Waters into the cotton fields of a resurgent Confederacy. In Hannibal, Missouri, mythomania claimed the town's Truth Teller historian, who denounced the 'God-hating Sam Clemens' as a 'Jew and closet Muslim.'"
"Was mythomania a virus or a curse or original sin or willful self-interest or egoism gone berserk or mean-spirited arrogance or convulsive incivility or neurotic bullyism or raw ignorance or pathological insecurity or a simple craving to replace the humdrum with the fantastic?"
"The minutes ticked away, casualties mounted, and all across America mythomania presented its daily butcher's bill. Mothers shamelessly lied to their daughters. Fathers lied to their sons and their daughters. Lawyers lied to clients, airlines lied to stranded travelers, and the liar in chief gamely lied about everything."
And probably why I was so uncomfortable with this book was the essential truths that were coming through about the dire straits our country is now in as Tim O'Brien portrayed in a lot of craziness and snappy prose in this sometimes funny and sad satire that kept me engaged to the end.
November 14, 2023
This book goes off in a million directions. I guess O'Brien wanted to get everything off his chest. He tried to hide the disconnectedness by patching it together as some zany caper, but the disguise was insufficient. The book just tried to be way too many things and often cribbed from other books in which the same tone, messaging, and storylines were better done. Frequently it jumps the tracks of satire into the bitter whining of an old man who feels he has lost control of the world.
I said in my updates that this is a second-rate The Crying of Lot 49, and in part it is. That turns out to be only one of the better books this one brings to mind. The second-rate Pynchon is glommed together with second-rate other things too. None of it feels like homage. It did make me want to go read some Pynchon and Vonnegut and Don Winslow, so I guess that is good.
One of the other great problems with this book is that everyone acts like it is 1963 even though the book is firmly set in 2019 and 2020. Men are the providers. Most of the women are housewives who dedicate themselves to spending their man's money or are trying to get to that lofty place. The rest of the women use their powers of seduction to bring down men, getting them to to their bidding with the power of the yoni. The men are assholes too, but in more varied ways. I was put off by the mash-up of midcentury (that would be the 20th) stereotypes and the ubiquitous anti-Trump rants (which were tiresome even to me, a person who is horrified and disgusted by that idiot and the people too lazy to care about facts or truth who support him.)
I do want to note that as someone who lived in Fargo for 2 years, it was nice to get some Western Minnesota humor. I haven't heard a good Bemidji reference since I left Fargo-Moorhead in 2018. Some of the stuff was dead on but some was just nasty and not representative of life in the region. Also there is not a single reference to a Paul Bunyan statue, which is just wrong if you are writing about Bemidji. There were also some scenes where O'Brien worked hard to make people look like idiots, and it did not read like satire. It read like the words of a pissy superior old man. One example: O'Brien had one of the Minnesota hicks refer to a Blackfeet man by some other name I cannot recall (maybe Blockfoot or something) and the Indian man corrects him and tells him it is "Blackfoot" but the hick is too stupid to remember the "right name." It was an unnecessary scene to give the reader a chance to point and laugh, but also, Mr. Snark is wrong. The tribe is not "Blackfoot" it is Blackfeet. He would say "I am a Blackfeet" not "I am a Blackfoot." I wouldn't have cared as much if the name was not wrongly stated in the middle of a snappish tirade about stupid White Minnesotans who don't know the name of a local nation. There are a lot of moments like that.
The Things They Carried is one of my favorite books ever, it is brilliant, so my heart wants to restrict my brain to praising O'Brien. But though this has some enjoyable moments it really never comes together. I was pretty sure this was going to be a 3-star, but the last 50 pages were such a disaster. The story just limped to an exhausted close and given that a 2-star is the best I can do.
One last note -- with some reining in of peripheral stories and smoothing of characters to focus on Boyd and Angie (by a woman or by a man that does not look at women as an alien species who base their understanding of earthling women's behaviors on repeated watches of Gilligan's Island - Mrs. Howell, Ginger, and Marianne are all here), I think this is going to make a kick-ass Coen Brothers movie that I am going to watch repeatedly when it gets made.
I said in my updates that this is a second-rate The Crying of Lot 49, and in part it is. That turns out to be only one of the better books this one brings to mind. The second-rate Pynchon is glommed together with second-rate other things too. None of it feels like homage. It did make me want to go read some Pynchon and Vonnegut and Don Winslow, so I guess that is good.
One of the other great problems with this book is that everyone acts like it is 1963 even though the book is firmly set in 2019 and 2020. Men are the providers. Most of the women are housewives who dedicate themselves to spending their man's money or are trying to get to that lofty place. The rest of the women use their powers of seduction to bring down men, getting them to to their bidding with the power of the yoni. The men are assholes too, but in more varied ways. I was put off by the mash-up of midcentury (that would be the 20th) stereotypes and the ubiquitous anti-Trump rants (which were tiresome even to me, a person who is horrified and disgusted by that idiot and the people too lazy to care about facts or truth who support him.)
I do want to note that as someone who lived in Fargo for 2 years, it was nice to get some Western Minnesota humor. I haven't heard a good Bemidji reference since I left Fargo-Moorhead in 2018. Some of the stuff was dead on but some was just nasty and not representative of life in the region. Also there is not a single reference to a Paul Bunyan statue, which is just wrong if you are writing about Bemidji. There were also some scenes where O'Brien worked hard to make people look like idiots, and it did not read like satire. It read like the words of a pissy superior old man. One example: O'Brien had one of the Minnesota hicks refer to a Blackfeet man by some other name I cannot recall (maybe Blockfoot or something) and the Indian man corrects him and tells him it is "Blackfoot" but the hick is too stupid to remember the "right name." It was an unnecessary scene to give the reader a chance to point and laugh, but also, Mr. Snark is wrong. The tribe is not "Blackfoot" it is Blackfeet. He would say "I am a Blackfeet" not "I am a Blackfoot." I wouldn't have cared as much if the name was not wrongly stated in the middle of a snappish tirade about stupid White Minnesotans who don't know the name of a local nation. There are a lot of moments like that.
The Things They Carried is one of my favorite books ever, it is brilliant, so my heart wants to restrict my brain to praising O'Brien. But though this has some enjoyable moments it really never comes together. I was pretty sure this was going to be a 3-star, but the last 50 pages were such a disaster. The story just limped to an exhausted close and given that a 2-star is the best I can do.
One last note -- with some reining in of peripheral stories and smoothing of characters to focus on Boyd and Angie (by a woman or by a man that does not look at women as an alien species who base their understanding of earthling women's behaviors on repeated watches of Gilligan's Island - Mrs. Howell, Ginger, and Marianne are all here), I think this is going to make a kick-ass Coen Brothers movie that I am going to watch repeatedly when it gets made.
May 20, 2023
Dark humor at its best.
Tim O’Brien looked into the soul of America right now and this is what he saw.
He ain’t wrong.
Tim O’Brien looked into the soul of America right now and this is what he saw.
He ain’t wrong.
October 23, 2023
This book is a wild adventure. It is the mad mad world of liars. A humorous satirical tale told about the political and current events of 2019.
We meet Boyd Halverson who decided to rob a bank and take the bank employee as hostage.
He takes a trip cross country on the run from the police. Hold on to your hat as our robber and hostage journey to Mexico, Minnesota and California. We.meet all kinds of unsavory characters.
This is a captivating, thought provoking story. The prose is just beautiful. The descriptions of the landscape are breathtaking.
It is both humorous and sad at times.
If you like adventures, I think you will like this book.
We meet Boyd Halverson who decided to rob a bank and take the bank employee as hostage.
He takes a trip cross country on the run from the police. Hold on to your hat as our robber and hostage journey to Mexico, Minnesota and California. We.meet all kinds of unsavory characters.
This is a captivating, thought provoking story. The prose is just beautiful. The descriptions of the landscape are breathtaking.
It is both humorous and sad at times.
If you like adventures, I think you will like this book.
May 10, 2024
O'Brien is as fed up with the bullshit as the rest of us are. In his latest and supposedly last novel, O'Brien addresses the mythomania crisis that is devouring the country. 'America Fantastica' is a dark satire with a story that fits neatly into the American genre. That is, road trips, guns, gambling, sex and politics. O'Brien has a history of astutely portraying certain eras of America history, especially the 70's, and he has captured the zeitgeist of the last 8 years here in America. It's very good, but the satire is too thick at times, which makes certain aspects of the story too strange for my taste. The characters are really well done, and O'Brien certainly has not lost a step with his writing, but I cannot quite call this excellent. It's a strong three stars, and I think this book will be worth reading thirty years down the road when someone wants to understand what the hell was going on during this time in America. It reminded me that I want to go back and read some of his older work. I haven't read him since high school.
June 19, 2023
I adored O'brien's new novel! Fun, hilarious and a thought-provoking romp. Not since John Irving's latest have I enjoyed a novel so much; they both share a similiar perspective.
Been waiting for a new TB novel since Tomcat in Love. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
Been waiting for a new TB novel since Tomcat in Love. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
November 28, 2023
I'm pulling the plug with the book on page 168. Even though it is a chunkster, I've read enough to know that it is not for me. The satire is biting, but not funny. All of the characters are both dumb (there's no better way to put it) and morally challenged.
The one bright spot is Angie, a bank teller who is being held captive. She manages to inject a little humor into the story. She falls for her captor, Boyd. Boyd robbed the bank where she was a teller and took her with him on the lam. Angie discovers that Boyd has a "problem with telling the truth." While on the run, he also shoots up a bus with passengers on it, just for the h--- of it. Angie thinks he needs to find Jesus. The story goes along in this vein. There is also a whole cast of unsavory characters chasing after Boyd and Angie.
Unfortunately, there's not enough here to hold my interest. It's time to find another book.
The one bright spot is Angie, a bank teller who is being held captive. She manages to inject a little humor into the story. She falls for her captor, Boyd. Boyd robbed the bank where she was a teller and took her with him on the lam. Angie discovers that Boyd has a "problem with telling the truth." While on the run, he also shoots up a bus with passengers on it, just for the h--- of it. Angie thinks he needs to find Jesus. The story goes along in this vein. There is also a whole cast of unsavory characters chasing after Boyd and Angie.
Unfortunately, there's not enough here to hold my interest. It's time to find another book.
October 24, 2023
The author of the blockbuster collection of Vietnam War stories THE THINGS THEY CARRIED, has come out with his first new work in years. And it's completely different than I expected and gloriously ridiculously fun. You know it's going to be good, just from the title of Part I: "Cars, Guns, Crime, Casinos, Money, Movies, Skin Care, God, Monopoly, RVs, Talk Radio, Baseball, and Liars in Public Places." The tone is obvious from the start: farcical, satirical, and very funny. To compare the writing, which is smart and super sardonic, I would say it's closest to Percival Everett's work. O'Brien adopts the same kind of "humor as a vehicle for serious topics" style. A quick note about the length: this book reads much faster than it looks, mainly because about half the pages are dialogue.
Tim O'Brien skewers America on its own worst trait: the tendency to embrace the most absurd disinformation and claptrap that we know cannot possibly be true, but repeat anyway. His descriptions of America gone mad are over-the-top: hysterically funny hysteria. He absolutely nails it. I knew I was going to love this book from page one.
The narrative begins with the story of a man who tries to get unstuck from his own life, and the young woman who counsels him that there are worse things in life than boredom. They are ridiculous characters caught in a clown car of the absurd, a slice of American crazy pie.
What is it about America that makes the general population so susceptible to delusions, fantasies, and conspiracy theories? O'Brien plumbs the depths of the 21st century American Zeitgeist, via a bevy of hapless hopeless characters. Throughout the story, the author subtly excavates the allure of lies, why we gravitate to them, why we tell them, what assurances they give, and how they comfort us (especially when we lie to ourselves).
America Fantastica is a play on words, referring to Pseudologia fantastica (also known as mythomania or pathological lying). Since America went kinda nutso this century, the meaning of a lot of words, like *facts* changed, became more slippery and elusive. The author/narrator explains that even *mythomania* is an example of this; it used to mean somebody who loved legends and mythology, and not, let's say, pathological mendacity. If we were to reverse this terrible trend of addiction to propagating falsehoods, maybe we could make fabulism fantastic again. The narrator states that America is so fascinated by lies and lying, that it's our nation's version of addictive porn. And when you think about it, this country sports a lot of fans of fake things: fake wrestling, faux leather, Cubic Zirconia, fake names, fake piety, counterfeit money, and knockoff brand goods.
Of course, to completely represent the good ol' US of A, the author needs at least one crazy character who is prone to disturbing violence, one who is always looking for an opportunity, an excuse, to open a big can of whoop ass. You don't have to be Florida Man to go to Crazytown in America. The Theater of the Absurd is open every day, fairness is weakness, guns are freedom, and no one marries into money for happiness. You can take that to the bank, or from the bank, as the case may be.
All this madcap fun is balanced by some seriousness, a bit of poignancy swimming underneath it all. Foremost is the sobering conclusion that people are the worst contagion. Deeper still, is the realization that grief can cause a loss of self. That kind of grief can drive a soul to take on a quest towards the spectacular destruction they want, or even deserve. The explosive denouement is both predictable and surprising, though the real heart of the story is all about getting there, and about carving out a future everyone can live with.
O'Brien says that this will be his last book, and what a gift it is to all of us who have admired his writing for decades.
Thank you to NetGalley and to Mariner Books, an imprint of Harper Collins, for an ARC of this novel.
Tim O'Brien skewers America on its own worst trait: the tendency to embrace the most absurd disinformation and claptrap that we know cannot possibly be true, but repeat anyway. His descriptions of America gone mad are over-the-top: hysterically funny hysteria. He absolutely nails it. I knew I was going to love this book from page one.
The narrative begins with the story of a man who tries to get unstuck from his own life, and the young woman who counsels him that there are worse things in life than boredom. They are ridiculous characters caught in a clown car of the absurd, a slice of American crazy pie.
What is it about America that makes the general population so susceptible to delusions, fantasies, and conspiracy theories? O'Brien plumbs the depths of the 21st century American Zeitgeist, via a bevy of hapless hopeless characters. Throughout the story, the author subtly excavates the allure of lies, why we gravitate to them, why we tell them, what assurances they give, and how they comfort us (especially when we lie to ourselves).
America Fantastica is a play on words, referring to Pseudologia fantastica (also known as mythomania or pathological lying). Since America went kinda nutso this century, the meaning of a lot of words, like *facts* changed, became more slippery and elusive. The author/narrator explains that even *mythomania* is an example of this; it used to mean somebody who loved legends and mythology, and not, let's say, pathological mendacity. If we were to reverse this terrible trend of addiction to propagating falsehoods, maybe we could make fabulism fantastic again. The narrator states that America is so fascinated by lies and lying, that it's our nation's version of addictive porn. And when you think about it, this country sports a lot of fans of fake things: fake wrestling, faux leather, Cubic Zirconia, fake names, fake piety, counterfeit money, and knockoff brand goods.
Of course, to completely represent the good ol' US of A, the author needs at least one crazy character who is prone to disturbing violence, one who is always looking for an opportunity, an excuse, to open a big can of whoop ass. You don't have to be Florida Man to go to Crazytown in America. The Theater of the Absurd is open every day, fairness is weakness, guns are freedom, and no one marries into money for happiness. You can take that to the bank, or from the bank, as the case may be.
All this madcap fun is balanced by some seriousness, a bit of poignancy swimming underneath it all. Foremost is the sobering conclusion that people are the worst contagion. Deeper still, is the realization that grief can cause a loss of self. That kind of grief can drive a soul to take on a quest towards the spectacular destruction they want, or even deserve. The explosive denouement is both predictable and surprising, though the real heart of the story is all about getting there, and about carving out a future everyone can live with.
O'Brien says that this will be his last book, and what a gift it is to all of us who have admired his writing for decades.
Thank you to NetGalley and to Mariner Books, an imprint of Harper Collins, for an ARC of this novel.
November 13, 2023
This opus is a zany romp across today’s America where lying, or mythomania, “[c]onceived as a personality disorder in the late nineteenth century . . . proved as catchy as the latest chart-topping pop song. Like music, the disease was transmitted by the quake and quiver of vocal cords, by the twang of guitar strings and the rhythms of human expression; like the fairy tale, it was received as an improvement on tiresome reality; like the daydream, it appealed to a craving for the impossible or the unlikely or the deferred or the unfulfilled and unfulfillable. (157)”
I’m forcing myself to stop quoting the 2-page chapter (18) narrating the spread of mythomania—one of many interim chapters (tracking the lying epidemic) that serve to punctuate a complicated chase where bad guys are hounding bad guys across the U.S. of A.
Throw in a side of business school (discussion of business verticals and horizontals that explains the machinations of Trump and other dastardly sorts) and you are not only entertained but educated.
The book has a few belly laughs—mostly in those ingenious interim chapters about the spread of mythomania—but most of the humor is not sound-inducing. Rather it is exaggerated, satirical, and fun to read. Although the zaniness has a lightness to it, overall there is a kind of melancholy and despair at the nature of humanity and American culture.
I’m forcing myself to stop quoting the 2-page chapter (18) narrating the spread of mythomania—one of many interim chapters (tracking the lying epidemic) that serve to punctuate a complicated chase where bad guys are hounding bad guys across the U.S. of A.
Throw in a side of business school (discussion of business verticals and horizontals that explains the machinations of Trump and other dastardly sorts) and you are not only entertained but educated.
The book has a few belly laughs—mostly in those ingenious interim chapters about the spread of mythomania—but most of the humor is not sound-inducing. Rather it is exaggerated, satirical, and fun to read. Although the zaniness has a lightness to it, overall there is a kind of melancholy and despair at the nature of humanity and American culture.
Want to read
April 19, 2023I'm so excited for a new Tim O'Brien book! Can't wait to get my hands on this one!
October 30, 2023
Strange and satirical romp of modern MAGA Amerika that meanders for far too long. It’s a hoot but you just want it to end and when it’s finished you’re wondering what was the point. It’s like reading Elmore Leonard or Carl Hiassen but instead of Florida we’re in California, Minnesota, and Texas. Lots of ne’er do wells and a marathon of lies.
November 21, 2023
DNF and really shouldn’t even tack this on here, I can only recount my limping experience through the first 30 pages (minutes, audiobook) or so. A few notes I scrawled while listening below - I know no one asked or cares, I’m just struggling with connecting even this small segment with the author’s previous work.
I can’t really seem to glom on to the opening chapter/preamble, an overview of disease - or unease? - spreading through an America in free fall, poisoned by drumpf (though not named, correctly or otherwise) I think - this is my fault, not the writing - as soon as the orange lizard enters my field of vision, I click off. I gathered … MacBook, IRS, Walmart, alt-right, I stopped listening.
The protagonist is Boyd something. He’s wildly irritating, are we meant to dislike him? It doesn’t feel - intentional.
He was a writer, apparently. Now he’s a bank robber. In between these equally questionable careers, he worked at JC Penney. This bodes ill.
The first female character is a cutesy redheaded bank teller and a Pentecostal twit. Irritation mounting.
“The truth was that he had robbed a bank because he had nothing better to do.” I hope this gets turned on its head soon, I’m - close to baling.
The Very Ditsy (as in old Hollywood ditsy dame) kidnapped bank teller, is much younger than Boyd - but why do I feel certain she’s just old enough to become his - right, she’s coming on to him. So far he’s refusing. No comment.
Now they’re doing a pretty lousy Bogie and Bacall. Well, not Bacall. Bogie and Amanda Seyfried? Ow.
Whoever she is, she’s alternately belittling him for stealing so little money, and making financial demands - “Oh! And I’ll need an ankle bracelet… don’t get all stingy.”
He’s going out and ties her to a kitchen chair.
“I guess you’ll gag me too?” said Angie.
“I guess I’d better,” said Boyd.
Soooo, yah, I’m not the reader for this one.
I can’t really seem to glom on to the opening chapter/preamble, an overview of disease - or unease? - spreading through an America in free fall, poisoned by drumpf (though not named, correctly or otherwise) I think - this is my fault, not the writing - as soon as the orange lizard enters my field of vision, I click off. I gathered … MacBook, IRS, Walmart, alt-right, I stopped listening.
The protagonist is Boyd something. He’s wildly irritating, are we meant to dislike him? It doesn’t feel - intentional.
He was a writer, apparently. Now he’s a bank robber. In between these equally questionable careers, he worked at JC Penney. This bodes ill.
The first female character is a cutesy redheaded bank teller and a Pentecostal twit. Irritation mounting.
“The truth was that he had robbed a bank because he had nothing better to do.” I hope this gets turned on its head soon, I’m - close to baling.
The Very Ditsy (as in old Hollywood ditsy dame) kidnapped bank teller, is much younger than Boyd - but why do I feel certain she’s just old enough to become his - right, she’s coming on to him. So far he’s refusing. No comment.
Now they’re doing a pretty lousy Bogie and Bacall. Well, not Bacall. Bogie and Amanda Seyfried? Ow.
Whoever she is, she’s alternately belittling him for stealing so little money, and making financial demands - “Oh! And I’ll need an ankle bracelet… don’t get all stingy.”
He’s going out and ties her to a kitchen chair.
“I guess you’ll gag me too?” said Angie.
“I guess I’d better,” said Boyd.
Soooo, yah, I’m not the reader for this one.
August 8, 2023
I won an advance copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway!
What happens when you put a bunch of unlikable characters in a crazy COVID-era romp through America at the hands of a talented writer? You get America Fantastica - a fun, fast read that leaves you feeling a little dirty. This is fine, well-constructed satire, and while it had me laughing, rolling my eyes, and imagining the film version of the book, it was kind of an empty experience. Like doom-scrolling thru a Facebook news feed. I guess that’s the point. But reality leaves us feeling hopeless enough at times. Escaping into the fresh trauma of the last few years is more like a weird form of Stockholm Syndrome. Maybe it’s just too soon?
What happens when you put a bunch of unlikable characters in a crazy COVID-era romp through America at the hands of a talented writer? You get America Fantastica - a fun, fast read that leaves you feeling a little dirty. This is fine, well-constructed satire, and while it had me laughing, rolling my eyes, and imagining the film version of the book, it was kind of an empty experience. Like doom-scrolling thru a Facebook news feed. I guess that’s the point. But reality leaves us feeling hopeless enough at times. Escaping into the fresh trauma of the last few years is more like a weird form of Stockholm Syndrome. Maybe it’s just too soon?
November 12, 2023
There's a point late in America Fantastica where one character says to another, "I'm getting there."
The other character responds, "You're trying not to get there."
That pretty much encapsulates Tim O'Brien's sprawling, aimless, contemptuous, imitation-Elmore Leonard/Carl Hiassen "bank heist" novel. The plot exists mainly to service O'Brien's depiction of a broken country uninterested in truth. Problem is, that theme is explored far too bluntly. Had O'Brien told the story of bank robber Boyd Halverson and hostage Angie Bing (who falls in love with the man who kidnaps her?), the narrative would've been 25% shorter and twice as effective. Instead, O'Brien introduces too many characters and too many storylines, none of which ever seem to be moving anywhere.
I skimmed the last hundred pages out of obligation; I'd come this far. O'Brien's characters don't want their stories--their lies--to end. Apparently the author felt the same about this book.
The other character responds, "You're trying not to get there."
That pretty much encapsulates Tim O'Brien's sprawling, aimless, contemptuous, imitation-Elmore Leonard/Carl Hiassen "bank heist" novel. The plot exists mainly to service O'Brien's depiction of a broken country uninterested in truth. Problem is, that theme is explored far too bluntly. Had O'Brien told the story of bank robber Boyd Halverson and hostage Angie Bing (who falls in love with the man who kidnaps her?), the narrative would've been 25% shorter and twice as effective. Instead, O'Brien introduces too many characters and too many storylines, none of which ever seem to be moving anywhere.
I skimmed the last hundred pages out of obligation; I'd come this far. O'Brien's characters don't want their stories--their lies--to end. Apparently the author felt the same about this book.
January 19, 2024
Like many others, I became familiar with Tim O’Brien through his short story collection The Things They Carried and have continued to follow his writing since that exposure.
Knowing how Tim O’Brien takes his time with his offerings, I was quite excited upon learning of the publication of America Fantastica, especially since he mentioned in a contemporary interview how he believed his next book would be his last.
America Fantastica was a pleasant surprise almost from start to finish. I have to admit, upon reading the very opening to the novel, mostly out of bewilderment, I questioned what was to follow. As I went on, O’Brien’s writing flourished in ways I did not anticipate. Reading America Fantastica was like stepping into an old muscle car being driven by that one relative you could not always predict what was going to come next.
It is also a novel one laments if read in electronic form because there are so many wonderfully crafted sentences throughout the book that one might just want to highlight many of them for future recollection.
The novel follows Boyd Halverson in the time of COVID and of decent people trying to simply exist in times of the explosion of myth as fact in modern-day America. Halverson, quite the milquetoast and sad sack, has caused a wild pursuit because of an act he committed that was both impulsive and well thought out. With him on this chase and at first against her will, is Angie Bing. Bing, a fireball of a petite and attractive good-hearted woman who is in search of a normal life of picket fences and green lawns, has been scooped up in Boyd’s life, which now involves the two being chased across America by an odd-ball collection of killers, gangsters, and other amusing gadflies.
Halverson, a compulsive liar of the highest order, was once a respected journalist until his lies caught up with him eventually sending him on an amusing downward spiral where a soft landing is anticipated by no one, including himself.
America Fantastica is like Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities mixed in with the dour witticism of Charles Bukowski and with dashes of the madness of James Ellroy and Hunter Thompson.
America Fantastica is highly recommended to readers who enjoy novels with flawlessly crafted sentences, flowering words, and one a reader is not in too big of a hurry to finish.
Knowing how Tim O’Brien takes his time with his offerings, I was quite excited upon learning of the publication of America Fantastica, especially since he mentioned in a contemporary interview how he believed his next book would be his last.
America Fantastica was a pleasant surprise almost from start to finish. I have to admit, upon reading the very opening to the novel, mostly out of bewilderment, I questioned what was to follow. As I went on, O’Brien’s writing flourished in ways I did not anticipate. Reading America Fantastica was like stepping into an old muscle car being driven by that one relative you could not always predict what was going to come next.
It is also a novel one laments if read in electronic form because there are so many wonderfully crafted sentences throughout the book that one might just want to highlight many of them for future recollection.
The novel follows Boyd Halverson in the time of COVID and of decent people trying to simply exist in times of the explosion of myth as fact in modern-day America. Halverson, quite the milquetoast and sad sack, has caused a wild pursuit because of an act he committed that was both impulsive and well thought out. With him on this chase and at first against her will, is Angie Bing. Bing, a fireball of a petite and attractive good-hearted woman who is in search of a normal life of picket fences and green lawns, has been scooped up in Boyd’s life, which now involves the two being chased across America by an odd-ball collection of killers, gangsters, and other amusing gadflies.
Halverson, a compulsive liar of the highest order, was once a respected journalist until his lies caught up with him eventually sending him on an amusing downward spiral where a soft landing is anticipated by no one, including himself.
America Fantastica is like Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities mixed in with the dour witticism of Charles Bukowski and with dashes of the madness of James Ellroy and Hunter Thompson.
America Fantastica is highly recommended to readers who enjoy novels with flawlessly crafted sentences, flowering words, and one a reader is not in too big of a hurry to finish.
July 12, 2024
Today’s political atmosphere is very toxic. As an elderly observer and participant, I believe this current absurdity had its creation in the Sixties with the election of JFK. It has twisted and turned been purloined and manipulated to where we are today—facing the destruction of democracy. If you fall more toward the conservative, right-leaning political philosophies, this is not the book for you. I am so proud of Tim O’Brien and our one degree of separation. And God help all those who suffer from mythomania.
November 12, 2023
Tim O'Brien's brilliant wisecracking is reminiscent of Elmore Leonard -- but when the book is mostly dialog and all the characters keep cracking wise the same way, it becomes a little tedious. The intermittent "Mythomania" chapters, in which he breaks from the narrative to send up our current post-truth age, provide an amusing backdrop.
July 22, 2023
Written to read like a Coen Brothers film, this book is a hoot to read. Disclaimer, lots of violence and murder appear, but still worth the time and effort. Taking place from California to Nevada to Texas to Minnesota, and a few places in between, the characters - many but not all - become very endearing in their own dysfunctional way.
December 25, 2023
This is the first thing I’ve read from Tim O’Brien since The Things They Carried (which I read way back in something like the eighth grade), and it was such a pleasant surprise.
The book is an interesting commentary on the arbitration of truth and how misinformation spreads, but mostly it’s just a really good story.
I love a good bank heist, especially the kind where you end up rooting for the bank robber, and this book achieved that perfectly. The story is exceptionally well plotted and well paced, and the characters are wonderfully drawn.
I loved the humor of this, and the subtly sweet feel good nature of the story. One of my favorite reads of 2023.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
The book is an interesting commentary on the arbitration of truth and how misinformation spreads, but mostly it’s just a really good story.
I love a good bank heist, especially the kind where you end up rooting for the bank robber, and this book achieved that perfectly. The story is exceptionally well plotted and well paced, and the characters are wonderfully drawn.
I loved the humor of this, and the subtly sweet feel good nature of the story. One of my favorite reads of 2023.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
November 19, 2023
Ouch. Where to begin reviewing this travesty of contemporary fiction. Here goes.
This book is relentlessly smug. O’Brien’s condescending tone towards the imbecilic peasantry of flyover country leaps off every page. Apparently he’s trying to accomplish two things- a madcap tale of Americana hijinks and shenanigans set around 2019 - 2020 and provide satirical insight on the fake news/conspiracy theory phenomenon.
So firstly, the tale. It’s slow moving and unnecessarily convoluted. Some characters seem to be introduced just to embody another moronic trait he believes to be widespread in today’s America. In fact all his characters are silhouettes, none will demonstrate any complexity beyond what they display on first appearance. This isn’t necessarily a problem- masters of the harebrained saga genre like Tim Dorsey or Carl Hiaasen write similarly however both of these writers treat their characters with affection and good will. O’Brien essentially sneers “check out these halfwits”.
Secondly, the social commentary. It’s cringey. Despite O’Brien’s contempt for fake news he mixes real news (the El Paso shooting for example) with news stories he invents. 71 million Americans are QAnon believing, swastika adjacent racists? That’s some heavy-handed satire. Except over the (excessive) length of the book the satire becomes doubtful and it comes across as something O’Brien genuinely believes. It appears he’s overcompensating for being late to the social justice festivities- insert Steve Buscemi “hello fellow kids” meme here.
It’s unfortunate that O’Brien’s likely final work is so poor. I enjoyed The things they carried and If I die in a combat zone. I know it’s difficult for editors to intervene radically with late career legendary writers (see Cormac McCarthy) but it would have been a favor to him for someone/anyone to say “cut the word count by 30% and dial back the snark”.
But nobody did. So we have what we have. Hard pass.
This book is relentlessly smug. O’Brien’s condescending tone towards the imbecilic peasantry of flyover country leaps off every page. Apparently he’s trying to accomplish two things- a madcap tale of Americana hijinks and shenanigans set around 2019 - 2020 and provide satirical insight on the fake news/conspiracy theory phenomenon.
So firstly, the tale. It’s slow moving and unnecessarily convoluted. Some characters seem to be introduced just to embody another moronic trait he believes to be widespread in today’s America. In fact all his characters are silhouettes, none will demonstrate any complexity beyond what they display on first appearance. This isn’t necessarily a problem- masters of the harebrained saga genre like Tim Dorsey or Carl Hiaasen write similarly however both of these writers treat their characters with affection and good will. O’Brien essentially sneers “check out these halfwits”.
Secondly, the social commentary. It’s cringey. Despite O’Brien’s contempt for fake news he mixes real news (the El Paso shooting for example) with news stories he invents. 71 million Americans are QAnon believing, swastika adjacent racists? That’s some heavy-handed satire. Except over the (excessive) length of the book the satire becomes doubtful and it comes across as something O’Brien genuinely believes. It appears he’s overcompensating for being late to the social justice festivities- insert Steve Buscemi “hello fellow kids” meme here.
It’s unfortunate that O’Brien’s likely final work is so poor. I enjoyed The things they carried and If I die in a combat zone. I know it’s difficult for editors to intervene radically with late career legendary writers (see Cormac McCarthy) but it would have been a favor to him for someone/anyone to say “cut the word count by 30% and dial back the snark”.
But nobody did. So we have what we have. Hard pass.
September 13, 2023
America Fantastica, the latest from Tim O'Brien, will be published October 24, 2023. Mariner Books, a Harper Collins imprint, provided an early galley for review.
While look through titles for upcoming ordering, the cover of this one jumped right out at me. Then the description was equally intriguing. I put it on my list to check out.
The story is contemporary with a backdrop of familiar current events at the time of writing. O'Brien uses the narrative parts to provide a bit of commentary on the state of those affairs here in the States as he discusses the grip mythomania (an abnormal or pathological tendency to exaggerate or tell lies) on our nation. The underlying themes of lies and truth are weaved throughout this novel.
The cast of characters, which swells right out of the gate, is varied and highlights the darker, morally questionable approaches to getting by in challenging situations. We're talking some truly ruthless people for fittingly ruthless time. On occasion, I found it difficult to keep track of everyone without a score card. O'Brien's dialogue reminds me of films by the Coen Brothers or Quentin Tarantino - where everyone is snappish and sarcastic.
At times, I felt this one didn't work for me but pressed on. In the end, I'm glad I did. This is one of those tales that will have you thinking about in the back of your mind long after you've finished the final page.
While look through titles for upcoming ordering, the cover of this one jumped right out at me. Then the description was equally intriguing. I put it on my list to check out.
The story is contemporary with a backdrop of familiar current events at the time of writing. O'Brien uses the narrative parts to provide a bit of commentary on the state of those affairs here in the States as he discusses the grip mythomania (an abnormal or pathological tendency to exaggerate or tell lies) on our nation. The underlying themes of lies and truth are weaved throughout this novel.
The cast of characters, which swells right out of the gate, is varied and highlights the darker, morally questionable approaches to getting by in challenging situations. We're talking some truly ruthless people for fittingly ruthless time. On occasion, I found it difficult to keep track of everyone without a score card. O'Brien's dialogue reminds me of films by the Coen Brothers or Quentin Tarantino - where everyone is snappish and sarcastic.
At times, I felt this one didn't work for me but pressed on. In the end, I'm glad I did. This is one of those tales that will have you thinking about in the back of your mind long after you've finished the final page.
October 19, 2023
What an enjoyable (and biting) read. Here’s a story entirely made up of truths, partial truths, and lies. Playing off of this nation’s current fixation of anything said by anyone must be true if it is hurtful, far-fetched, or furthers something we want to believe is true. The author calls it “mythomania” and it has swept this country and much of the world. He uses satire very effectively so it delivers a lot of smiles and head shaking when you understand what his actual meaning is.
This is also a commentary on identity: who think we are, who we want to be, and the lengths we will go to avoid a painful past. Mixed into the book are lots of gems: a conservative religious girl who doesn’t blink at murder, uber rich moguls who deal in nerve gas, bankers who cheat everyone—even themselves, and the star—a master liar who means no harm. I enjoyed every page and often found myself reading parts aloud to my husband!
Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for the ARC to read and review.
This is also a commentary on identity: who think we are, who we want to be, and the lengths we will go to avoid a painful past. Mixed into the book are lots of gems: a conservative religious girl who doesn’t blink at murder, uber rich moguls who deal in nerve gas, bankers who cheat everyone—even themselves, and the star—a master liar who means no harm. I enjoyed every page and often found myself reading parts aloud to my husband!
Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for the ARC to read and review.
May 12, 2024
This isn't Tim O'Brien's masterpiece by far - that distinction is held by 1990's - The Things They Carried. However America Fantastica was one hell of a ride and read for me.
Start with a bank robbery and a kidnapping in Fulda, California. Which sparks a satirical adventure through an America plagued with deceit, delusion and greed.
On their trail are hitmen, jealous lovers, ex - cons and everyone except the police.
Mythomania - an abnormal or pathological tendency to exaggerate or tell lies.
The underlying story here is how the Author masterly paints a picture of our country being blatantly manipulated by disinformation issued by government organizations ( The White House ) to a power of the Media ( CNN ) in 2019.
Start with a bank robbery and a kidnapping in Fulda, California. Which sparks a satirical adventure through an America plagued with deceit, delusion and greed.
On their trail are hitmen, jealous lovers, ex - cons and everyone except the police.
Mythomania - an abnormal or pathological tendency to exaggerate or tell lies.
The underlying story here is how the Author masterly paints a picture of our country being blatantly manipulated by disinformation issued by government organizations ( The White House ) to a power of the Media ( CNN ) in 2019.
November 22, 2023
RTC, but what a ride. Spanning a year from August 2019 to August 2020, it is hilarious and heart-breaking all at the same time, and way over the top of no-holds-barred satire.
January 18, 2024
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---
HOW DOES THE PUBLISHER DESCRIBE AMERICA FANTASTICA?
HarperCollins.com says:
HOW WAS THE NARRATION?
It was fine—any problems I had with the book weren't on Wyman's side. He didn't work too hard on making each character stand out from the others with a distinct voice so that in each scene you knew immediately who was talking, but this isn't the kind of book that lends itself to that. Also, the book didn't become hard to follow because of that—nor did individual scenes. That's all I really care about (as much as I might enjoy very distinct characters when the narrator does that).
The one heavily accented character's accent didn't sound quite right to my ears, but I'm not precisely sure what their accent should've sounded like. And...well, in context, I'm not sure their accent should've sounded right.
Basically, Wyman did well enough, and I'd easily listen to something else he narrated.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT AMERICA FANTASTICA?
I'm going to sound a little self-contradictory here. I think I missed most of the point of this book/narrative, and O'Brien was as subtle as a pallet of bricks.
There are intercalary chapters/sections (I'd have to see the print version to know for sure) describing the spread of "mythomania" across the nation like an infection (to be followed by COVID). And this is very clearly what the book is supposed to be about—contemporary America's hunger for lies, half-truths, alternative facts, myths, whatever you want to call it. I'm not disinclined to argue with this as a whole—I just found these portions wanting. I'm not sure what it was I didn't respond to here--lack of nuance and a feeling that O'Brien was trying to be too clever, come close, but really I just can't put my finger on it.
Then there's the narrative—narratives. I didn't connect with any of them for very long (if ever). I kept going because many of them seemed to be on the verge of paying off, or at least giving me something to sink my teeth into. If I didn't know this was a satirical novel from the description, I wouldn't have picked up on it. I'm not really sure I get everything that was being satired (and really don't care). The best way I can describe the storylines was that someone took a bunch of discarded ideas from disparate Elmore Leonard novels and mashed them together, whether they fit or not, and without Leonard's skill/craft—then threw COVID into it at the end.
O'Brien had some very clever ideas, some nice writing, and a good line here and there. But the ideas didn't pay off, the writing went nowhere, and the good lines weren't worth the effort to get to them.
Maybe this was the right book at the wrong time for me and if I'd read/listened to it a few months ago—or a few months from now—I'd be recommending it, maybe even raving about it. But I listened to it now, so that's what we're stuck with. So the me of "now" says that it was an endurance race for me. A determined effort for me to understand why I should like this. A reminder that the sunk cost fallacy is something that I'm very susceptible to.
I'm more than prepared for people to come along and tell me why I should've appreciated this. But I can't recommend this to anyone, and I would recommend you look elsewhere for a good commentary on the U.S.
---
HOW DOES THE PUBLISHER DESCRIBE AMERICA FANTASTICA?
HarperCollins.com says:
At 11:34 a.m. one Saturday in August 2019, Boyd Halverson strode into Community National Bank in Northern California.
“How much is on hand, would you say?” he asked the teller. “I’ll want it all.”
“You’re robbing me?”
He revealed a Temptation .38 Special.
The teller, a diminutive redhead named Angie Bing, collected eighty-one thousand dollars.
Boyd stuffed the cash into a paper grocery bag.
“I’m sorry about this,” he said, “but I’ll have to ask you to take a ride with me.”
So begins the adventure of Boyd Halverson—star journalist turned notorious online disinformation troll turned JCPenney manager—and his irrepressible hostage, Angie Bing. Haunted by his past and weary of his present, Boyd has one goal before the authorities catch up with him: settle a score with the man who destroyed his life. By Monday the pair reach Mexico; by winter, they are in a lakefront mansion in Minnesota. On their trail are hitmen, jealous lovers, ex-cons, an heiress, a billionaire shipping tycoon, a three-tour veteran of Iraq, and the ghosts of Boyd’s past. Everyone, it seems, except the police.
In the tradition of Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain, America Fantastica delivers a biting, witty, and entertaining story about the causes and costs of outlandish fantasy, while also marking the triumphant return of an essential voice in American letters. And at the heart of the novel, amid a teeming cast of characters, readers will delight in the tug-of-war between two memorable and iconic human beings—the exuberant savior-of-souls Angie Bing and the penitent but compulsive liar Boyd Halverson. Just as Tim O’Brien’s modern classic, The Things They Carried, so brilliantly reflected the unromantic truth of war, America Fantastica puts a mirror to a nation and a time that has become dangerously unmoored from truth and greedy for delusion.
HOW WAS THE NARRATION?
It was fine—any problems I had with the book weren't on Wyman's side. He didn't work too hard on making each character stand out from the others with a distinct voice so that in each scene you knew immediately who was talking, but this isn't the kind of book that lends itself to that. Also, the book didn't become hard to follow because of that—nor did individual scenes. That's all I really care about (as much as I might enjoy very distinct characters when the narrator does that).
The one heavily accented character's accent didn't sound quite right to my ears, but I'm not precisely sure what their accent should've sounded like. And...well, in context, I'm not sure their accent should've sounded right.
Basically, Wyman did well enough, and I'd easily listen to something else he narrated.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT AMERICA FANTASTICA?
I'm going to sound a little self-contradictory here. I think I missed most of the point of this book/narrative, and O'Brien was as subtle as a pallet of bricks.
There are intercalary chapters/sections (I'd have to see the print version to know for sure) describing the spread of "mythomania" across the nation like an infection (to be followed by COVID). And this is very clearly what the book is supposed to be about—contemporary America's hunger for lies, half-truths, alternative facts, myths, whatever you want to call it. I'm not disinclined to argue with this as a whole—I just found these portions wanting. I'm not sure what it was I didn't respond to here--lack of nuance and a feeling that O'Brien was trying to be too clever, come close, but really I just can't put my finger on it.
Then there's the narrative—narratives. I didn't connect with any of them for very long (if ever). I kept going because many of them seemed to be on the verge of paying off, or at least giving me something to sink my teeth into. If I didn't know this was a satirical novel from the description, I wouldn't have picked up on it. I'm not really sure I get everything that was being satired (and really don't care). The best way I can describe the storylines was that someone took a bunch of discarded ideas from disparate Elmore Leonard novels and mashed them together, whether they fit or not, and without Leonard's skill/craft—then threw COVID into it at the end.
O'Brien had some very clever ideas, some nice writing, and a good line here and there. But the ideas didn't pay off, the writing went nowhere, and the good lines weren't worth the effort to get to them.
Maybe this was the right book at the wrong time for me and if I'd read/listened to it a few months ago—or a few months from now—I'd be recommending it, maybe even raving about it. But I listened to it now, so that's what we're stuck with. So the me of "now" says that it was an endurance race for me. A determined effort for me to understand why I should like this. A reminder that the sunk cost fallacy is something that I'm very susceptible to.
I'm more than prepared for people to come along and tell me why I should've appreciated this. But I can't recommend this to anyone, and I would recommend you look elsewhere for a good commentary on the U.S.
November 2, 2023
Over the last two decades, the peerless Tim O’Brien has given us only one publication, an enlightening memoir titled Dad’s Maybe Book, replete with sorrow, joy, humor, and concern, which succeeded in offering reminisces that were candidly personal, keenly observant, and scholarly in reflection. The seminal work of his career is, of course, his modern classic The Things They Carried, arguably the best piece of literature addressing the trauma and aftermath of the Vietnam War, and a book that deserves every accolade it has received.
Now after his long hiatus O’Brien returns with a novel America Fantastica, and although it has his signature combination of strident wit and ethical concerns throughout, it doesn’t match the level of his earlier fiction. The premise of this epic rollicking caper starts with a bank robbery carried out by the listless Boyd Halverson, a guy down on his luck and life, who chooses to carry out a crime as mere entertainment. As a hostage, he takes along Angie Bing as a somewhat willing participant, a petite redhead who chatters nonstop. Their escapades take them from Northern California to Mexico to Los Angeles to Minnesota, while they become entangled in the messes of pursuers both jealous and vengeful.
The action starts immediately and the adventures roll out as fast as the fluidity of O’Brien’s ecstatic prose, but this tale comes off too whimsical and farcical to be taken seriously. The satirical element of the novel is obvious with O’Brien exposing and rejecting the contagion of “mythomania” caused by the disastrous and dangerous Trump presidency and the tragedy MAGAs have produced with validating hate and misinformation for the purposes of endorsing white supremacy and ruining democracy. The best parts of the novel are when O’Brien breaks into his diatribes of indignant concern about the regression of America heading towards fascism and authoritarianism at the behest of a bigoted, maniacal POTUS.
However, I didn’t develop much of a liking for Boyd or Angie who felt more like inane caricatures than interesting characters, and their adventures offer only a tepid drama and suspense that amount mostly to a plot of fluff. Others may find America Fantastica more entertaining, but I found its length a slog, albeit with superb moments of O’Brien showcasing his brilliance at confronting those trafficking in the current era of hate and misinformation infecting America.
Now after his long hiatus O’Brien returns with a novel America Fantastica, and although it has his signature combination of strident wit and ethical concerns throughout, it doesn’t match the level of his earlier fiction. The premise of this epic rollicking caper starts with a bank robbery carried out by the listless Boyd Halverson, a guy down on his luck and life, who chooses to carry out a crime as mere entertainment. As a hostage, he takes along Angie Bing as a somewhat willing participant, a petite redhead who chatters nonstop. Their escapades take them from Northern California to Mexico to Los Angeles to Minnesota, while they become entangled in the messes of pursuers both jealous and vengeful.
The action starts immediately and the adventures roll out as fast as the fluidity of O’Brien’s ecstatic prose, but this tale comes off too whimsical and farcical to be taken seriously. The satirical element of the novel is obvious with O’Brien exposing and rejecting the contagion of “mythomania” caused by the disastrous and dangerous Trump presidency and the tragedy MAGAs have produced with validating hate and misinformation for the purposes of endorsing white supremacy and ruining democracy. The best parts of the novel are when O’Brien breaks into his diatribes of indignant concern about the regression of America heading towards fascism and authoritarianism at the behest of a bigoted, maniacal POTUS.
However, I didn’t develop much of a liking for Boyd or Angie who felt more like inane caricatures than interesting characters, and their adventures offer only a tepid drama and suspense that amount mostly to a plot of fluff. Others may find America Fantastica more entertaining, but I found its length a slog, albeit with superb moments of O’Brien showcasing his brilliance at confronting those trafficking in the current era of hate and misinformation infecting America.
October 24, 2023
Happy Tuesday, everyone! Please take a moment to help me congratulate Tim O'Brien on AMERICA FANTASTICA's book birthday. It's an absolute triumph and a powerhouse of a novel.
The easy synopsis of the novel would be that a snubbed and doxxed journalist robs a bank to exact his revenge against the person behind the doxxing, and the whole plan goes horribly wrong. While that would be right, it leaves out the nuances, the writing style, the depth of the story, the layers of the story, the subtleties and dualities of right and wrong, truth and fiction, corruption, greed, lust, love, and more.
It's a smart read---highly intellectual and well-wrought but also witty, humorous, and dark, in stark contrast to the more vulnerable and even tragic moments of the novel. For me, it held up a mirror to the things wrong in the world and shined its refracted light all over the good things that we hold out hope for.
If you can't tell, I loved it---adored it, even. It's stunning. It made me cry. It made me laugh. It made me think and ponder and remorse and weep and laugh again. It's nearly 500 pages, and instead of lagging like many longer novels tend to do, it keeps turning and surprising you with new bits of information, new things happening, and always something complex to feel.
I truly hope you'll check it out. You won't regret it for a minute.
You can read the full book review and exclusive interview with Tim O'Brien here over at Lit Shark Magazine: https://litshark.com/tim-obrien-ameri...
Thanks again to Mariner Books for sharing an advanced reader copy of AMERICA FANTASTICA with me to conduct this interview over at Lit Shark Magazine. It's such an honor to be involved in Tim's special day and to have the opportunity to talk with him about this triumph.
The easy synopsis of the novel would be that a snubbed and doxxed journalist robs a bank to exact his revenge against the person behind the doxxing, and the whole plan goes horribly wrong. While that would be right, it leaves out the nuances, the writing style, the depth of the story, the layers of the story, the subtleties and dualities of right and wrong, truth and fiction, corruption, greed, lust, love, and more.
It's a smart read---highly intellectual and well-wrought but also witty, humorous, and dark, in stark contrast to the more vulnerable and even tragic moments of the novel. For me, it held up a mirror to the things wrong in the world and shined its refracted light all over the good things that we hold out hope for.
If you can't tell, I loved it---adored it, even. It's stunning. It made me cry. It made me laugh. It made me think and ponder and remorse and weep and laugh again. It's nearly 500 pages, and instead of lagging like many longer novels tend to do, it keeps turning and surprising you with new bits of information, new things happening, and always something complex to feel.
I truly hope you'll check it out. You won't regret it for a minute.
You can read the full book review and exclusive interview with Tim O'Brien here over at Lit Shark Magazine: https://litshark.com/tim-obrien-ameri...
Thanks again to Mariner Books for sharing an advanced reader copy of AMERICA FANTASTICA with me to conduct this interview over at Lit Shark Magazine. It's such an honor to be involved in Tim's special day and to have the opportunity to talk with him about this triumph.
November 11, 2023
I had been so excited to read O’Brien’s latest, but this book was a disappointment. Too long by half, too angry to be funny, and too cynical to serve as a satire of the mendacious times it sought to skewer. I finished it from a pure sense of stubbornness as I stopped caring about the characters before the book was even halfway through. With more heart and less spleen this could have been a worthy successor to Vonnegut’s work or even HST’s gonzo road trip fantasies. Instead it felt like a few hundred pages staring at the “check engine light.”
July 20, 2024
True story. Back in 1998, when I was homeless and living in my car, I went to Elliot Bay Bookstore in Seattle, to hear Tim O'Brien read from his new novel, "Tomcat in Love." After the reading I went up to him and chatted with him, telling him about my current circumstance. He listened thoughtfully, and then told me to "stay away from balconies." I've never forgotten those words. "America Fantastca," his first novel in 20 years, and reputedly his last, is a satirical romp that takes aim at the mendacity of the Trump years, or as O'Brien coins it, the national affliction of "mythomania" that has kicked truth to the curb.
It's a verbally vertiginous roller coaster of a read, led by the "Bonnie and Clyde" bank robbing duo of pathologically lying Boyd Halverson and incessantly, sometimes annoyingly so, sermonizing Angie Bing. This is a gonzo joy ride that the reader will be happy to go on, and if this is indeed O'Brien's last novel, he's going out with an entertaining bang.
It's a verbally vertiginous roller coaster of a read, led by the "Bonnie and Clyde" bank robbing duo of pathologically lying Boyd Halverson and incessantly, sometimes annoyingly so, sermonizing Angie Bing. This is a gonzo joy ride that the reader will be happy to go on, and if this is indeed O'Brien's last novel, he's going out with an entertaining bang.
December 27, 2023
2.6
How do you write satire in a world gone mad ? Obrien has attempted a farce/ crime caper/ road trip with hijinks novel that simply can't match what's going on in reality. In his view,America is held captive by the contagion of mythomania, lies and the lying liars who tell them, and the bigger the lie the better. Of course he's not wrong and there are many quips and quirky characters acting out their grandiose fantasies. Some of this is quite funny. Other parts of the saga just linger too long on hapless, hopeless, eccentric people who develop no farther than cartoons. If there is depth or meaning to be found in the premise that everybody lies all the time, I guess I'm missing it. The world is a tapestry of clowns and jokers, and I'm stuck in the middle with them. Sure, laugh at Obriens scenarios and cry your way home, when you realize that this is the country you used to love.
How do you write satire in a world gone mad ? Obrien has attempted a farce/ crime caper/ road trip with hijinks novel that simply can't match what's going on in reality. In his view,America is held captive by the contagion of mythomania, lies and the lying liars who tell them, and the bigger the lie the better. Of course he's not wrong and there are many quips and quirky characters acting out their grandiose fantasies. Some of this is quite funny. Other parts of the saga just linger too long on hapless, hopeless, eccentric people who develop no farther than cartoons. If there is depth or meaning to be found in the premise that everybody lies all the time, I guess I'm missing it. The world is a tapestry of clowns and jokers, and I'm stuck in the middle with them. Sure, laugh at Obriens scenarios and cry your way home, when you realize that this is the country you used to love.
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