This is the interesting story about the 60s told from the perspective of 4 different people and what they experienced and what they wanted to be, to see and to do.

America, Mike Bond, author
Generally, once a book lover has read a few pages, they know whether or not it is a keeper. In this book, there is no doubt about it; the characters will lure you in from the get-go. The two boys, Troy and Mick, who meet in 1954, in an abandoned Army barracks, have endearing, innocent personalities. When they discover that they share the same birthday, both born March 29th, 1943, they decide they are twins. Soon to be 11, Mick is more mature and far wiser than most boys of his age in today’s society. His father was a Marine during the war, and it deeply affected him. His family has a working farm that has been in the family for many years. Each family member has responsibilities and does a share of the necessary work, milking cows, collecting eggs, chopping firewood, etc. The times are hard, though, and many farmers are succumbing to the economy that favors larger, more technologically advanced farms. Some are selling their property and moving on. Mick’s family is struggling to keep up.
Troy is an orphan. He has limited exposure to life outside the orphanage. His dad, a Marine, died fighting the Japanese. His mom died soon afterwards. He has escaped from the Boy’s Home where he lives with Native American boys that have been removed from their homes to be indoctrinated into the “American” way of life. It is a shameful environment, rather than one of community and faith. The boys are sometimes beaten and abused; they are underfed and sheltered inadequately. So, while the boys are the same age, they come from completely different vantage points.
When Troy meets Mick, he can’t believe his luck. Mick rescues him and takes him to his farm where Troy sees how a loving family lives, and he yearns for a family of his own that loves him too. When he is caught and returned to the orphanage, he doesn’t stay long. After being severely punished, he escapes again and finds his way back to Mick’s farm. The family welcomes him into their hearts and their home. He now has a “ma” and a “pa”, and he embraces all of them as he becomes an integral part of their lives, working alongside all of them on the farm.
Mick’s younger sister, a little jealous at first, is Tara. She is obsessed with music and has the voice of an angel. She embraces Elvis, the Beatles, Billie Holiday and prefers her music and those associated with it, to school. When she is old enough, she leaves home and travels to California where she becomes involved with a seedier lifestyle of nightlife and entertainment, drugs and alcohol. Troy loves her, but wonders if it is forbidden since she is like a sister to him. Theirs is a strange relationship.
Mick is infected with wanderlust and a desire for the freedom to travel the world. He loves and embraces danger. He pushes every envelope to its extreme. Although he is very intelligent, he wants to be free to roam where he pleases and to experience everything he can, ignoring his education to the disappointment of everyone that loves him. Studying bores him completely. He is in love with Daisy who had to move away with her family. A decade later, she embraces the Peace Corps and the Civil Rights Movement and one wonders, will they meet again?
Troy wants to be a pilot and spends his life working toward that goal. His room at the farm is decorated with model airplanes. As some say, though, man plans, G-d laughs. He is a serious student, but his life has many more bumps in the road for him to handle. The family loses the farm, and his eyesight betrays him. He returns home, infrequently, as he searches for a different road to follow.
Tragedies and trauma affect them all, as the decade, from the fifties to the sixties, is embraced and illuminated in the book. As the decade passes and each of the four critical characters goes off to college, the reader will become embroiled in their lives and their struggles. How will life work out for Tara alone, or for Tara and Troy? Will she become a famous entertainer? Will Mick and Daisy meet again? Will Troy find a life without a pilot’s license? Will he become a Marine like his father? Will Mick become more nationalistic and embrace America, although he is seriously part of the anti-war culture, the polar opposite of Troy who wants to fight for American interests, however ill-conceived? Will each of them find a way to give something back to his country, as President Kennedy suggested in his now famous speech, “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”? The book authentically depicts the time of turmoil in the world. World War II has ended, but the Korean War follows. The first Catholic President is elected. The Bay of Pigs is a disaster, the Berlin crisis occurs. There is unrest in Algeria. The Peace Corps is created. The President is assassinated. The Mafia is implicated. President Johnson takes over and sends troops to Vietnam as France gives up. He gets the United States embroiled in a war it cannot win. The Civil Rights movement explodes, Martin Luther King rises. Bobby Kennedy takes center stage.
The decade covered was a decade of change. Abortion rights were granted by the Supreme Court, the Russians interfered in American politics, organized crime reared its head, free love and drugs were in the headlines as a world in flux marched onwards. These historic moments lived large in the hopes and dreams of the characters as they came of age in this world filled with turmoil. The deaths of John, Martin and Bobby left scars on all, but was very heavy on the generation that was just coming of age. What will their future hold?
This book is a winner because it introduces our tumultuous history with characters we can identify with, admire and root for, even when we disagree with their positions and philosophy. Hopefully, the country will get to that point someday soon, as well. The book’s left-wing view is not subtle, but it is also not confrontational or condescending. It merely reflects the times and the influence those times have had on our present lives. Some may find the results disastrous, some opportune. I look forward to the next book in the series and the continuing lives of these unique characters, Tara, Mick, Troy, and Daisy. The four truly exemplify the era into which they were born, and following their lives and their development, with their differing philosophies, paves the way to introduce their future and ours, as well, as it illustrates the history that will lead them forward to our present day.
My major criticism of this book, that I truly enjoyed, was the addition of crude language and sex which did not enhance the story for me, but rather detracted from it. I would rather authors did not succumb to writing to the crowd for sensational appeal, instead of literary quality. It seems all too common today to include trash in what otherwise would be a book that contributes to society in a more positive way. This book is not about acquiescence to the mob, but it is about resilience, courage, perseverance, endurance and hope for the future of humanity and America. Americans adapt, pick themselves up and dust themselves off to find alternative ways when faced with roadblocks. This book seems to be setting the stage to show that America will endure as the great country she is, always encouraging the fulfillment of dreams.
So, while the book has a very Progressive slant, favoring Kennedy and FDR while it disparages Ike and Nixon, it faithfully follows the history and the effect of it on all of us. Class, sexual orientation, race, and poverty still divide the country, but we are still trying, decades later, to get it right. Perhaps as we follow the lives of these four characters, we will learn the lessons of history and not continue to make the same mistakes.
I received this book from Meryl Moss Media Group
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America is historical fiction told with extreme realism. The four characters the novel focuses on - Troy, Mick, Tara, and Daisy - are between 10 and 12 when the novel starts in the mid 1950s. The grow up into young adults in their early 20s over the course of the volume, with their lives intertwining, separating, twining, and separating again as they age and begin to go their separate ways. Mick and Tara are siblings, and Troy is adopted by their parents very early on in the book, so the three are much more present than Daisy, who moves away, moves back, and moves away again; she vanishes for much of the book, and I would have liked to have seen more of her story. Despite describing itself as the story of four young people growing up in the 1960s, it is much more the story of the three siblings, with Daisy showing up occasionally and then vanishing again; only when all four leave to begin their adult lives do we see Daisy as separate from the other three. It would also have helped if Daisy were not also the name of a cow present in the early part of the volume; while it was obvious which was which, it would have helped if their names were not the same.

The historical piece of this book was very well done, and the fictional lives described fit well with the events in which they occur, with everything from the effects of a changing economy on the family farm to the Vietnam War. The earliest parts of the volume are appropriate for anyone; after about the first third, the rest, while equally well written, contains a great many detailed sex scenes that, while sociologically valid, are not appropriate for readers under about 16. Without those, this would be a fabulous book to use in high school history classes, to show how students might have actually lived at the time; with them - many of which could have been left out, or mentioned in much less detail, without impacting the plot in any way - it is simply not appropriate for such usage. That part aside, this is a very accurate depiction of what it might have been like to grow up in the mid 1950s to late 1960s, showing how the characters' understanding of the history they lived through changed as they aged and became more aware of the wider world. I will look for the next volume, to see what happens to these characters next, but I will hope that the gratuitous sex scenes will be fewer.

Thanks to netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. I was expecting a boring history book, but quickly realized it is much more. As you follow the characters through new and exciting times in our country and in their lives you can see yourself and ask would I do the same? would I feel the same? Time have changed and will continue to change but at our core, we are still America.

This is the story of Troy, Tara, Mick, and Daisy during the years of the early 1950s to about 1964, as they grow from 10 and 11-year-olds into adults.
This is book one in a seven-book series. I am not sure that I will finish out the series. There are some character and plot things that I am curious about, but I don’t know if I am interested enough to continue with the remaining books. The writing is done well, and the characters are very developed, but I don’t know if I’m hooked enough to find out what comes next.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow Publishing for the ARC. I was really looking forward to reading this book. A coming-of-age story in the 60’s...sounds great. I made it to 35% (only made it that far because I started skimming) and there still hasn’t been anything that really tells you this is the 60’s. Seems like it could be any poor farming town in any era. This is a DNF for me.

I really loved parts of this book and I really disliked parts of this book. I loved reading about American history from the 50’s through the 60’s, from the perspective of 11 year old boys as they grow. I disliked the misogyny and racism. Perhaps that is part of our history, but it was portrayed as matter of fact. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I really enjoyed the start of this book, the meeting between Mick and Troy at 11 years old, Troy being adopted by Mick’s parents and then the introduction of Mick’s sister Tara and girlfriend Daisy. However, as the book progressed with the characters maturing, I found it rather hard going and forced myself to continue reading to the end, at the time of Vietnam. I don’t think I will continue with this series, although I have really enjoyed the previous Mike Bond books that I have read.
Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for this advanced reader copy.

There’s nothing I like better than a good historical fiction novel to bring history to life. For me, anything before the 1970’s is history, and America Volume 1 (Amazon) (AbeBooks) in a seven-part series, takes place in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. I received an Advanced Reader’s Copy from NetGalley, Big City Press and Mike Bond Books in exchange for my honest review.

At the beginning of the book, I had a little trouble reading the dialect of the two 10-year old boys, Mick and Troy. But I trudged on, and the first 40% of the book was really interesting, telling a coming-of-age story of two boys in New York state, as well as Mick’s sister Tara. Mick and Tara live on a farm with their parents, and know many stories of the Revolutionary War battles that happened nearby. Mick meets Troy, who has run away from an orphanage run by pedophile priests. Soon Troy is welcomed into the O’Brien home.

Like I mentioned, the first part of the book was compelling, up until the boys reach about age 12. Then Mick becomes obsessed with sex. In fact, after that point, all the kids become obsessed with sex. I’m no prude, but the constant mentioning of sex acts was a real turn-off for me. Then, as the kids turn into teenagers, they start having philosophical arguments with themselves and others. Instead of coming off as enlightened kids, they sound like pretentious snobs who certainly were not raised to be that way. Another turn-off. And when they are not prosthelytizing about life, they’re busy having random sex.

Throughout the book, starting with the hatred of Eisenhower as president, there’s a very liberal left-leaning slant to the book. More conservative or Christian values are looked upon with scorn. That’s something to be aware of if you’re thinking about picking up this book. Democrats mostly good, Republicans bad. Kennedy–hero (and not just quoted, full passages of his speeches are given. I’m a huge Kennedy fan, but I thought that was excessive), Nixon awful, Johnson and Vietnam War bad (although, let’s face it, most of us can agree that the Vietnam War, in hindsight, was a bad idea.) I’m not saying I agree or disagree with the sentiments in the book, but it’s information that could be helpful in whether or not you’d get enjoyment out of the book.

As the 1960’s continued and the kids go off to college and air force academy, there’s more sex, and now drugs and rock ‘n roll thrown into the mix. A minor character in the early part of the book, Daisy, is revived to bring home the civil rights battle going on in the southern United States. Daisy had been a love interest to Mick until her family moved to Iowa. Now she’s organizing voter registration in the south through her college contacts. Troy wants to be an astronaut and is doing well in the air force academy until one day, he’s not. His vision changes for the worse, and he’s grounded. So he decides the next best thing is to become a Marine like his dad had been and get to Vietnam so he can kill some people, even though while growing up, he hated shooting deer and killing turkeys on the farm, even though it meant food for the family. It makes no sense.

For the last 20% of the book, I found myself skimming because I just wanted it to be over with. I did not care about these characters and where they were going in their lives, despite initially liking them when they were younger. Included with the ARC is the first chapter of volume 2 in the series. I think I’ll pass.

America, Volume 1, goes on sale to the general public on May 4, 2021.

I really like this book, the first in what is to be a series of seven. Four young kids, starting in the late fifties, lives intertwine in a way that is hugely realistic. They flirt with death, rebellion, love and loss while determining and figuring out who they are. Quiet and introspective, smart and seizing every chance given to him, unsure and insecure. I enjoyed the character development and story, looking forward to the rest of the series!

America is the first book in what has been billed as a 7-part series by Mike Bond. The story begins with O'Brien's living in a rural farming community during the 1950's/1960's. The course of the story follows Mick the eldest at 11, Tara his sister and Troy an orphan who becomes Mick's best friend and later his adopted brother. It is a story of their youth that is turbulent, exciting and challenging to the morals of their upbringing.

America concludes at the height of the United States entry into the Vietnam War. Each character grows in respectfully throughout the book in thought, experiences, goals and outlook on life as young adults. The first half of the book was enthralling but after it slowed way down with sex consuming more pages than necessary. It also was an info dump of happenings weaved in the pages which made it heavier than necessary - found myself skimming just to get back to main plot with Mick, Tara and Troy.

America
By Mike Bond

This book is a coming of age story – the story of a brother and sister and an adopted brother. But it is also a coming of age story of America. It begins in the 1950s America of Dwight Eisenhower, when men were just returning from the Korean War and families were trying to succeed in a country that was leaving them and their way of life behind.

Mick and Tara are farm kids on a small dairy farm in New York. Troy is an orphan living in a Catholic orphanage and being abused by the priests. Through a series of adventures, Troy and Mick become as close as brothers – and Mick's parents take Troy into their home and their hearts.

Over the years each of the three kids strives to understand what is happening to their country. Each journey toward enlightenment goes through a different path. One sibling wants to join the military, believing in the rightness of his country's cause. One struggles with trying to reconcile what we are told to believe with what is actually true. And one opts out from the mainstream in favor of "drugs, sex and rock 'n' roll".

For readers who were not young during the 50s and 60s, this book presents a clear picture of the complexities faced by the youth of the era. And for readers like me, who actually lived through that time, it brought back the struggles we faced trying to make sense of it all.

I really liked this book and would recommend it to all readers who find themselves struggling to understand what is going on around them in today's America. I look forward to the 2nd book of "America".

America, Volume I (2021)
By Mike Bond
Big City Press, 383 pages.
★★★

Is innocence a good thing? I suppose it depends on how you measure what we choose to ignore. America, Volume I is as advertised, a fictional waltz through the decades after World War II through the late 1960s. Mike Bond’s twist is to focus his tale on two boys and two girls as they come of age in a nation quite different from that of their childhood. (It is the first of a planned multi-volume saga.)

A simplistic–and wildly inaccurate¬–take is that the United States went from victory culture and world leadership in the ‘50s to a nation divided in the ‘60s by radicals, hippies, and protesters. In said view, the 1950s were a values-centered golden age, and the 1960s one in which permissiveness, disrespect, and chaos ruined the country. An alternative view is it the ‘60s tackled real problems previously swept under the rug: racism, sexism, poverty, cultural sterility, and eco-degradation – not to mention an inane Cold War.

The first part of Bond’s novel, though set in New Jersey, riffs off of Huckleberry Finn. y. Troy, whose father died in the war against Japan, hates the Catholic orphanage where he is housed. The priests are sadistic, the place is like a prison, and he's a frequent runaway. In one of his leave-taking sojourns, he meets Mick, a Tom Sawyer-like risk-taker. He and Troy hit it off, but Troy is caught and returned to the orphanage. In another attempt, he and Mick meet again and decide to run away to Florida. They have many harrowing adventures and it would have been worse had they not met two African-American tramps, Joe and Molly, who shared their food and showed them how to hop trains. Eventually though, they abandon their quixotic quest and Mick's father brings them back to New Jersey. He and his wife decide that Troy can live with them, and he becomes the brother Mick never had, though he has a sister named Tara. As part of the extended O'Brien clan, Troy is as focused and goal-driven as Mick is carefree and careless. The O'Briens live on a farm and are both down-to-earth and earthy. Dad is self-reliant and distrusts authority, Mom is kind, and various relatives pop in and out to flesh out a 1950s panorama. Despite their suspicions, the O'Briens believe in the American Dream and are deeply patriotic.

Filmmaker Michael Apted (from Aristotle) once said, “Give me a child until he is seven and I will you the man.” He didn't say girl and woman, but he should have. Troy, Mick, Tara, and Mick’s girl crush Daisy fall into Apted’s category. Readers may find the first part of Bond’s novel the least realistic. The O'Briens and Troy talk as if they are indeed from Twain’s Missouri; their speech is certainly not like any New Jersey dialect I’ve ever heard. I don't agree with Bond’s linguistic strategy, but he is setting us up for loss of innocence. At one point, Dad remarks, “religion causes wars." Call it folk wisdom or a political screed, but religion takes it on the chin in the book. And so does the cherished myth that hard work pays off. I don't wish to disclose too much, but I will say if there's a reason you don't hear much about small farmers in New Jersey anymore.

To return to the idea that personalities are formed early, Mick, who hates school, nonetheless does well without studying much. He remains addicted to danger, just like the kid who jumped from railroad trestles, got close to venomous copperheads, and drove fast cars. Troy, who romanticizes his dead father, wishes to enlist in the military. Tara, a rebel at early age, will go to UCal Berkeley, and if you know history, you will recognize it is a place where conformity was on the outs. Daisy will also wend her way through trials and transformations.

Bond salts the novel with the events of the day. The assassination of President Kennedy was, for many, a turning point. Mick observes, “Like a walking cadaver, America carried on in a stunned, hollow and bereaved world …. Sorrow remained but fury grew." We read of other traumas: civil rights unrest, the murder of icons, Mississippi Freedom Summer, drugs, etc. If the first part of the book is about innocence, the last part is the death thereof.

The novel is equal parts fascinating and uneven. It's a bit like Mick in that it's philosophical yet opinionated. Bond has given himself an ambitious task and there is a decided tonal change from the folksy quasi-Twain opening chapters and the historical whirlwind of the last part of the novel. It's an open question as to whether this shift is too mechanistic. I suspect, though, the crux lies in Bond’s choice quote from Nietzsche: “To the extent an ideal has been falsely worshiped, reality has been robbed of his value, its meaning and its truth."

Rob Weir

I enjoyed the time period of this book as well as the author's ambition to create four characters to take the reader on a journey through the past few decades. The author is clearly a deep intellectual, and I respect his opinions that were threaded throughout the storyline. Some made me think, and some I did not agree with, but it was overall interesting to see his viewpoints. He is clearly passionate about his beliefs and was able to create a backdrop of different times and places that were descriptive and believable.


Thank you to Netgalley, Big City Press, and Mike Bond for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am a great fan of Mike Bond and this novel, the first of a series, is quite a change from his other works. There are four main characters Mick, Troy, Tara and Daisy and the book follows their lives from pre-teens to young adults. I really enjoyed Bond's description of life on the farm for Mick, Troy and Tara but found the losing of the farm which had been in the family for generations, lacked the gravitas it should have had, especially as their mother was buried on the land there. Mick, very spirited with a touch of delinquency about him, seemed to have rallied academically, possibly unrealistically so but still has the big outdoors bursting out of his soul. Tara I found much more believable and Troy, willingly adopted by the family, strives for recognition and thanfulness for his rescue from the Fathers. I must confess it had me thinking this could be a an American contemporary version of Laurie Lee's Cider With Rosie, When I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and part of A Moment Of War. However, I guess all coming of age and skirmish with adulthood anecdotes follow similar paths in everyone of us but few get to write about it. I shall look forward to the next book in the series.

I thought this book had a lot of promise and I was really looking forward to the time period the story takes place in. The writing style, pacing and character development didn’t work for me. It appears this is book one in a series. I don’t think I will continue with the series. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Couldn't get past the stiff writing that didn't connect me to the two male characters. Stopped at about a quarter of the way. I grew up in the sixties and this just didn't relate to my life. Maybe times were like this but just too many things just didn't make sense.

Mike Bond is a master, building his characters bit by bit. This is a realistic saga of growing up in rural America during the sixties. Entertaining and realistic, I can't wait for the next chapter.

Another entertaining story from acclaimed author Mike Bond. This is the first of his books I have read and will look forward to continuing this series. It's the story of four young people Troy, an orphan, Tara, a rock'n roll star, Mick, his closest friend and Daisy who wants to join the Peace Corps. Each of these characters is interesting in their own right but their stories meld together perfectly. You wont be disappointed; I plan to read the whole seven book series.

Too few novels are written about life in America after World War II leading up to the Vietnam War. This book was intriguing because the four characters were growing up during the 1950’s and 1960’s. The early part of the book was plot driven with stories of orphaned runaway Troy, his adoptive brother and sister Mick and Tara, and Mick’s girlfriend Daisy. The plot gradually became more introspective as the teens and young characters turned toward antiestablishment ideas. Overall, the novel seemed to be geared toward young adult readers. Thanks to Mike Bond and Net Galley for providing this early reader’s copy.