An American Requiem - by James Carroll (Paperback)

About the Book

targets for American bombs. Joe's son, James, began adulthood by fulfilling his father's abandoned dream of joining the priesthood. But soon a father's hopes for his son--and a son's peace with his father--were ruined, when James chose to protest the war and all it stood for. Winner of the National Book Award. 18 photos.

Book Synopsis

A National Book Award Winner, New York Times bestselling author James Carroll's An American Requiem is "a tragic, moving book about a family torn apart by the Vietnam War, a young man looking for God, a writer finding his voice" (Boston Magazine).

An American Requiem is the story of one man's coming of age. But more than that, it is a coming to terms with the conflicts that disrupted many families, inflicting personal wounds that were also social, political, and religious.

James Carroll grew up in a Catholic family that seemed blessed. His father Joe had abandoned his own dream of becoming a priest to rise through the ranks of Hoover's FBI and then become one of the most powerful men in the Pentagon, the founder of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Young Jim lived the privileged life of a general's son, dating the daughter of a vice president and meeting the pope, all in the shadow of nuclear war, waiting for the red telephone to ring in his parents' house. He worshiped his father until Martin Luther King, Jr., the civil rights movement, turmoil in the Catholic Church, and then Vietnam combined to outweigh the bond between father and son. These were issues on which they would never agree.

Only after Carroll left the priesthood to become a writer and husband with children of his own did he come to understand fully the struggles his father had faced. In this work of nonfiction, the bestselling novelist draws on the skills he honed with nine much-admired novels to tell the story he was, literally, born to tell. An American Requiem is a benediction on his father's life, his family's struggles, and the legacies of an entire generation.

Review Quotes

"Autobiography at its best." -- Publishers Weekly

"A tragic, moving book about a family torn apart by the Vietnam War, a young man looking for God, a writer finding his voice." -- Boston Magazine

"I cannot recall being more touched by a book about a real family since John Gunther's Death Be Not Proud." -- The Washington Post

"A flawlessly executed memoir." -- National Book Award citation

"A work of the heart. . . . perhaps the most moving drama of fathers and sons that I have ever read."
-- Washington Post Book World

"A magnificent portrayal of two noble men who broke each other's hearts." -- Booklist

"A personal and political memoir in a class by itself. Rich in ideas and historical detail, a personal story that makes you think - about politics, parents, children and God." -- USA Weekend

"One of those books that even as you are reading it, you know you will never forget. James Carroll is well recognized as a master storyteller. In this, his own story, he touches us as only a gifted writer can, and more so because it is true." -- David McCullough

"Of all the memoirists who have set out to 'tell the truth' of a life and a crucial relationship, very few have ever succeeded so convincingly as James Carroll, in this poetic and achingly honest account of his lifelong struggle with his father to find a basis for mutual respect and love, an effort finally foundering on the Vietnam War. It is the story, never told better, of a generational faultline splitting households all across America. I couldn't put it down till its last, haunting sentence." -- Daniel Ellsberg