Mr. American

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A quiet classic - Rated
This is the George Macdonald Fraser novel for people who don't usually read George Macdonald Fraser. The story of the American with a secret past coming 'home' to Edwardian England unfolds at a more leisurely pace than anything in the Flashman series, but it still has all the hallmarks that made GMF such a superb writer: peerless dialogue, vividly realised characters (many of whom, including King Edward VII, Kid Curry and a young Winston Churchill, are drawn from real life), tautly-written moments of high drama and a beautifully observed sense of time and place. It reminds me slightly of RF Delderfield, only better written...and with added Flashman! Buy it - it's a quiet classic.

A touch of Henry James, a touch of Flashman - Rated
The names of George MacDonald Fraser and Harry Flashman are inseparable, and deservedly so. Few series of novels have combined history, character, humour, and sheer sustained entertainment as they have. But those who pick up this excellent book expecting another of the same are in for a shock.
It is the story of Mark Franklin, an American former outlaw who has made a fortune with a lucky strike in mining and comes to Edwardian England to settle down in Norfolk, the county his ancestors emigrated from several generations before. He becomes a country squire and city gent, marries into the upper classes, and has a surprisingly eventful time. And no, this is not a romp, it's a lovingly slow-paced detailed and substantial novel, brimming with introspection, description, and first-rate dialogue as. Franklin discovers that the risks, the threats, and the bad guys may not be as obvious as they are Out West but they are real nonetheless There is a touch of a Henry James "American innocent abroad" about this strong quiet incomer, but his ability to cope is not in doubt.
For many readers the high spots will be Franklin's occasional encounters with the aged but still lively and unscrupulous Flashman, but there are many excellent characters and scenes that these should not be allowed to diminish.
Sometimes the author's lovingly-detailed background information and scene-setting gets a little too detailed and goes on a bit too long but this is a minor concern when set against the book's many good things. As an enjoyable and (as always with MacDonald Fraser) informative read it is highly recommended.

Read it for Flashy! - Rated
I found the pace a little strange for a while. A very pleasant unhurried book. Don't read it if you're in a rush or expecting a thriller.
As far as I'm concerned, this book is important for the last appearance of Sir Harry Flashman and if only for that read it.
I actually didn't get the ending at all... but with such a book it really doesn't matter.

Slow, Slow, Quick, Quick, Slow. - Rated
Generally speaking this long, well written novel is unhurried.The author has given himself close to 600 pages to stretch out in and the plot, while interesting, is not particularly complicated.Curiously then, the few episodes of action and activity that do occur are dealt with very swiftly.This is especially true of the gunfight that is, in many ways, the central event of the book. It is over almost before the reader has realised it has begun. The novelist seems to spend more time describing Mr Franklin's shopping for suitable clothes than in depicting his violent life or death struggle with his mortal enemy, returned from the grave.

This technique is far from jarring, though, and serves to make the book seem well mannered, acknowledging the unpleasant side of life without dwelling on it.As Fraser explicitly states, such murderous fights take place in the countries of the British Empire, of course, but they are removed from the day to day life of England. This is nicely suggested in the character of Franklin himself.

The best set piece in the work, for me, is the hair raising game of bridge where Franklin has to learn the game, the social niceties of English drawing rooms and how to behave to royalty while striving and to maintain his own "face".A real tour de force.

The only element that let the book down, in my opinion, was the character of Harry Flashman.Roped in from the author's rather broader series of historical novels, the effect is a bit like Leslie Phillips appearing in a Jane Austen novel. Also, the Flashman we meet here is the one from the later works, like "Flashman and the Tiger", not nearly as two faced as in the earliest books, and not as interesting or amusing.

Another Yank seduced by a green and pleasant land - Rated
It's late summer 1909 in Liverpool and a Yank steps off the boat from America. Mark Franklin is an authentic Westerner, his luggage containing Stetson, saddle, gun belt and two .44 Remington pistols.

I've been to England many times, and I love it. Unfortunately, my family's roots are not in the UK, nor have I had the longed-for opportunity to take up permanent residence there. In MR. AMERICAN, it's Franklin's great good luck to have made a fortune from a Nevada silver mine. This allows him to return to England in search of his roots - his forebears having immigrated to the Colonies hundreds of years before - and purchase the house, Manor Lancing, which dominates the Lincolnshire village of his ancestors, Castle Lancing.

I learned in English Lit 1A that every novel incorporates a conflict, which, in MR. AMERICAN, is subtle. To modern fiction readers, fed a steady diet of lurid murders-most-foul, global conspiracies, and courtroom duels, it may not seem like much of a conflict at all. Author George MacDonald Fraser, a Brit himself, has chosen to introduce into Edwardian society of pre- WWI England a rugged individualist matured in the late-19th century American West, and develop what happens. The WASP values that Franklin possesses from such a background - chivalry, self-reliance, forthrightness, loyalty, lack of class pretension, suspicion of authority - are occasionally at odds with the upper class social circle that soon adopts him.

For the reader, Mark will present as an appealing, stand-up fellow. The book is populated with interesting characters: Samson, Franklin's gentleman's gentleman; Pip, the effervescent West End stage actress; King Edward VII; Lady Helen Cessford, the militant suffragette; Peggy, the daughter of an impoverished country squire; Kid Curry, the unwelcome visitor from Franklin's ... um, shall we say, irregular past. And above all, there's the outrageous and aging rascal, General Harry Flashman, the hero of a whole other series of books by author Fraser.

I was undecided for a bit on the number of stars to award this novel - 3 or 4. At almost 600 pages, it isn't the type of book that keeps one riveted. The dramatic moments are occasional and of short duration, and there are a lot of loose ends that would have made an absorbing sequel inasmuch as the storyline ends in 1914 with the outbreak of the war. (Since MR. AMERICAN was published in 1981, no sequel has been written to my knowledge. Pity.) In the final reckoning, I gave it four stars because it's about an American who finds "home" and adventure of sorts in a green and pleasant land. I'm envious.