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The story of a family. The story of an empire. The story of a nation. Moving from Mississippi to Paris to New York and back again, an epic saga of family, ambition, passion, and tragedy that brings to life one unforgettable Southern dynasty-the Forsters, founders of the world's first major soft-drink company-against the backdrop of more than a century of American cultural history. The child of immigrants, Houghton Forster has always wanted more-from his time as a young boy in Mississippi, working twelve-hour days at his father's drugstore; to the moment he first laid eyes on his future wife, Annabelle Teague, a true Southern belle of aristocratic lineage; to his invention of the delicious fizzy drink that would transform him from tiller boy into the founder of an empire, the Panola Cola Company, and entice a youthful, enterprising nation entering a hopeful new age. Now the heads of a preeminent American family spoken about in the same breath as the Hearsts and the Rockefellers, Houghton and Annabelle raise their four children with the expectation they'll one day become world leaders. The burden of greatness falls early on eldest son Montgomery, a handsome and successful politician who has never recovered from the horrors and heartbreak of the Great War. His younger siblings Ramsey and Lance, known as the "infernal twins," are rivals not only in wit and beauty, but in their utter carelessness with the lives and hearts of others. Their brother Harold, as gentle and caring as the twins can be cruel, is slowed by a mental disability-and later generations seem equally plagued by misfortune, forcing Houghton to seriously consider: who should control the company after he's gone? An irresistible tour de force of original storytelling, American Pop blends fact and fiction, the mundane and the mythical, and utilizes techniques of historical reportage to capture how, in Nathaniel Hawthorne's words, "families are always rising and falling in America," and to explore the many ways in which nostalgia can manipulate cultural memory-and the stories we choose to tell about ourselves.… (more)
User reviews
Reminiscent of Joyce Carol Oates's "We
When Houghton Forster was a teenage boy helping out at his father's drug store, he accidentally invented a cola soda unlike anything ever seen before. Around the same time, he was courting the daughter of one of the most prominent families in town. Parlaying his invention into a popular business venture, he won the girl and created a prosperous business that would allow his future family decades of fame and fortune.
The first of its kind, Panola Cola - or PanCola - named after the southern town where it was invented, became a nationwide hit. As Houghton's family grew, so did the business. Their eldest son, Montgomery, has a life-altering secret that he keeps from his wife and family. The middle children, twins Lance and Ramsey, go through life as privileged spoiled brats who eventually grow up after years of cavorting without a care in the world. The youngest son, Harold - known as Haddie - has a mental handicap that renders him somewhat useless and therefore largely ignored by the rest of the family.
The book jumps around so much it can be very hard to follow. I referenced the family tree in the beginning of the book many times, even after I was familiar with how each family member related to the others. Jumping time frames as well as jumping character to character made for a confusing read. However, I also really liked how the story was told because it kept me on my toes and the chapters were short enough that there was always something happening that revealed itself to be relevant to the other tales within the book.
The family looms large within the story, of course, but so does the family business. One could almost believe that PanCola was truly the forefather of Coke and Pepsi. And one could almost believe that this was a biography told by a historian researching the Forster family. But it's not, and that's part of the beauty of this spectacular tale. I won this book from LibraryThing.
This is an "all happy families/each unhappy family" novel and the Forsters make a lively bunch as
The narrative is not linear and at times it almost seems as if the author is telling you the story through a biographer's lens. The jumping around from the present to the future and then way back to the past and matter-of-fact unfolding of some plot lines can be disorienting. But if a reader can stick with it the book will they will be rewarded with a often sad but always interesting tale.
When Houghton Forster developed a cola drink to serve in his father's pharmacy, he had no idea that it would be so popular. Houghton's a savvy businessman, though, and quickly takes advantage of the soda's popularity to make it a national product that becomes a standard beverage throughout the US and the world. Although firmly rooted at their home in Mississippi, the money that Panola Cola's success brings with it means that the next generation can move comfortably in high society, but not necessarily that they, or the following generation, have what it takes to keep the family business profitable.
Ranging from Panola County, Mississippi, to the battlefields of WWI France, to New York, to Hollywood and the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, American Pop also jumps back and forth through the timeline, so that a character's death is described before his first kiss, or a divorce before the marriage. It's a hard trick to pull off, juggling all the characters and their lives in a non-chronological way, but Wright pulls it off. The novel is pure entertainment that manages not to lose the story in all of that intricate structure.
I received an arc from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
by Snowden Wright
2019
Harper Collins
3.5 / 5.0
A story of a family´s rise to wealth through a family owned corporation, Panola Cola of Mississippi. Sounds like a great story.
Like a soda that has lost its carbonation, this just pours flat. It is very s...l....o....w.. , to many
This is not a bad bool, parts were very good, but the formatting had it hard to get engaged in the story. I did like Imogene and Ramsey, tho.