John Jakes became firmly established as the master of American historical fiction with the phenomenal success of his eight-volume KENT FAMILY CHRONICLES in the 1970s, followed by THE NORTH AND SOUTH TRILOGY in the 1980s. In the early '90s he returned with the epic novel HOMELAND which introduced the Crowns, a German-American family who settled in Chicago and became a dynasty of beer barons in the late nineteenth century. Now, with AMERICAN DREAMS, Jakes continues the Crown family saga focusing on the next generation --- Fritzi, her brother, Carl, and cousin, Paul.

Fritzi Crown dreams of being an actress --- not a respectable profession in the early 1900s and wholly unsuitable for a woman of her social status. She lives in an age when daughters are expected to marry well and have children. Women's rights are nearly nonexistent; pants are a distasteful fashion and smoking in public is a violation. Sexual harassment is largely ignored.

Fritzi's resolve to determine her own destiny creates a painful rift with her domineering father and compels her to flee to the seedy theater district of New York.  As she stubbornly struggles to find a foothold in the legitimate theater, fate directs her path to the fledgling motion picture industry and eventually the raw western community of Hollywood, California.  Besieged with self-doubt and frustrated by the direction her career has taken, Fritzi draws strength from the prophetic advice of a friend that reflects the core of AMERICAN DREAMS:

"Go forward, for that's where the future lies.  Ahead of you.  You will never find it by going back."

Jakes paints a provocative portrait of a lonely young woman, coping with self-doubt and fleeting love, while confronting the ugly realities of being an independent woman at the turn of the twentieth century.

Equally estranged from their father is Carl Crown, a drifter with no direction in life until he discovers the thrill of race-car driving.  But in the early 1900s the Indianapolis Speedway was just a faint vision on the horizon and racing cars was more of a carnival sideshow, entertaining to its audiences, but offering a bleak future to the participants.  Carl eventually grows weary of the sordid life and seeks adventure in the newest form of transportation --- the airplane.  Becoming an accomplished pilot, he soon finds himself taking risks for profit in mercenary ventures during the Mexican Revolution.  As this, too, becomes unfulfilling he turns his attention to Europe where the dark threats of war are beginning to rumble.

Paul and his family are living in England where he has become a notable world photographer, filming live events for movie newsreels.  As his travels crisscross Europe and America, we see all three young Crowns becoming disillusioned by the political aggression occurring in Europe.  As events escalate into a world war, each agonizes with their own demons as the tension threatens to rip the Crown family apart.

"Though proud in many respects to be German, Paul had no illusions about what it meant.  Dark streams of poison ran in German blood.  There was a fury in the German makeup stoked by national paranoia and heightened by arrogance born of exceptional past accomplishments in science and literature, music and education -- the whole Kultur about which Germans could be so overbearing.  The worst of German character was reflected in their high command, the Prussian Junkers.  They wanted war and one way or another, he was convinced, they would bring it."

AMERICAN DREAMS is a magnificent story of this turbulent era at the threshold of the century when America is glowing with promise, exploding with social movements, and expanding into a world power.  Mingled with the lives of these vivid characters are delightfully detailed recreations of the development of the auto industry, motion pictures and other historic events.  As in every John Jakes novel, you'll encounter familiar names --- Charlie Chaplin, Pancho Villa, Henry Ford, Hermann Goering.  It's a classic tale of chasing the American dream, embellished with a rich tapestry of human experiences and Jakes' unflagging devotion to depicting every colorful facet of our American heritage.

   --- Reviewed by Ann Bruns

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