I finished reading Chris Bachelder's U.S.! this morning. The book is half about Upton Sinclair, the muckraking journalist turned socialist novelist, who is continuously assassinated by right wing anti-socialists only to be exhumed (repeatedly) by leftist optimists. The other half is about America (the title is a pun!). Funny story about me checking this book out of the library: I read that P.T. Anderson's next movie is based on Sinclair's Oil!, though it will not be called that. I was curious so I planned to check it out, but saw Bachelder's book. The exclamation point got me, and the design. I read the back and find that it's about Sinclair. I got both, plus a number of others, as usual (No, I never read them all). I couldn't get into Oil!, though I'm sure I will love the movie.
Funny story, huh? Back to the book. I thought it was entertaining, but not anything exciting. It's sort of a driving book. Like certain music is good to drive to. Only I cannot read in the car. The first half is written in the same vein as Dos Passos' USA trilogy (one chapter is called "The Camera Eye"). Bachelder also improvises on other American writer's like Raymond Carver ("What We Talk About When We Talk About Liberal Arts"), and if I knew more I'd tell you about it.
Bachelder is definitely commenting on 50s era America and McCarthyism. He's created a world where resurrection is accepted, assassins are exonerated and socialism is still an abomination.
It sounds interesting, and it is, but it didn't say anything on a personal level and I didn't really feel for any of the characters. Which, after all, is the only reason I enjoy reading. Well, it's a big reason anyway.
All of that said, give it a shot. It is pretty funny.