For Kings and Planets: A Novel

by Ethan Canin

Book Overview

Ethan Canin, the acclaimed author of America America and The Palace Thief, is "one of the best fiction writers of his generation" (The Miami Herald). For Kings and Planets follows the lives of two... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679419632
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Random House
• Length: 335 Pages
• Weight: 1.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.0" x 1.0" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Fine thread of suspense

Because we know and use fiction craft, authors can often see behind the curtain of another author's book. That's why I loved the fine thread of suspense by which Ethan Canin kept me reading to find out what would happen to his enigmatic characters who behaved as if they weren't sure who they were, and therefore the reader isn't sure. Canin kept them on the elusive edge of excess and poetry and irrationality. I couldn't stop reading until I knew if they'd fall off. For me it's rare to find a novel I can't put down -- perhaps because I've been reading them since I was six. It's rare to find descriptions that linger after the book is read. This was my first Canin. Next time I want to be engrossed, I'll pick up another of his books.J. R. LankfordAuthor, The Crowning Circle

My first by Canin-- and not the last

I really loved this book-- and I'm surprised by the polarity of reviews here. Some of the criticism amazes me; Canin is criticized for writing about family conflict: "tension between family members is normal," chides one reviewer. Is this to say that writers should only tackle abnormal subjects? Others seem to criticize him for not being Waugh, Updike, or whomever.I found this book a delight. It gave me the same feeling I had reading "A Separate Peace" 30 years ago. It artfully accounts the trials and traumas of the college experience; the remarkably diverse cultures we have within the boundaries of this country; the benefits, dangers, and costs of friendship; the deceit one will use to mask reality and build a facade. This is the first work I've read of Canin's. If this truly is Canin's worst, as several here say, I can't wait to get my hands on his other works.

best of the breed

"For Kings and Planets" is a great novel, and Ethan Canin is certainly among the best writers of this generation. His ability to combine flawless prose with an inciteful view into what motivates people living in the latter part of the 20th century makes him a treasure. I just wish he'd hurry up and get finished with his next book.

I loved this book

I bought this book partly because I was intrigued by the comments on this page. People seem to have either loved this book or hated it. (Sign of an important piece of art, if you look back through recent history) And the reviews from major professional reviewers have been equally hot or cold. (I've listed a few here so you see what I mean.) The two best reviewers, in my opinion (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of the NY Times and Alan Cheuse of NPR) both loved it unequivocally, but Rand Cooper (whoever he is) really hated it in his review in the Times Book Review, and Salon did too. So I bought it (used,I admit, but the paperback wasn't out yet and I spend too much on books). So here is my opinion: I consider myself a well-read person (a book a week for the past twenty years), and I would say that this book is one of the two or three most powerful, intelligent, courageous novels that I have read in as long as I can remember. Others I would put in this category are Philip Roth's "American Pastoral" and Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead". It is gorgeously written, psychologically complex, and emotionally unflinching. I just don't see, in the end, why the reviews seem to be so split. It occured to me that younger reviewers might not like the book because it is not hip. That's okay, but if you are, like me, looking for a mature, thoughtful, character-driven novel, then I would say this is a book for you. I could't recomend it more highly.Here, for your interest, are some of the contrary reviews:Cristopher Lehmann-Haupt (The New York Times)   Shimmering...luminous...For Kings and Planets leaves you wounded and healed.   Rand Richards Cooper (NYTimes Book Review)   . . .[A] greedy monster of a novel that swallows up its creator's virtues and leaves only weaknesses on display. . . .[it has a] discomfort with form: a welter of narrative summary; important characters who exist solely as props for the protagoist; a bland and pedantic narrative voice.   San Jose Mercury News "For Kings and Planets" is wide and deep, intelligent, subtle but clear, and profoundly satisfying. A wonderful book by a major American writer.Newsday  To this year's list of outstanding American novels, we must now add Ethan Canin's For Kings and Planets. Never before has Canin been so surehanded a storyteller. Given the achievement of For Kings and Planets, Scott Fitzgerald himself would have been honored by his company. Canin's novel speaks with a hard-earned grace worthy of the master.Elizabeth Judd, SALON Magazine "Canin pretends that the fate of Orno's soul is up for grabs, when no one -- not even the world's biggest hayseed -- could mistake which way the wind is blowing. Apparently, the moral of "For Kings and Planets" is not that nice guys finish first or last, but that they speak in clichés and graduate at the middle of their dental school class." Alan Cheuse (NPR All Things Considered) "The most mature and accomplished novelist of his genera

One of the Best books I've read in a Long time

I was amazed by this book. While so many of the other reader reviews seem to be stuck on the story and the characters that Ethan Canin has either crafted or distroyed, (depending on which review you decide to settle on)what held me transfixed was more his use of language and words. It has been a long time since I have enjoyed and been truly in awe of a mind that could think up such imagery.Thank you Mr. Canin---as for the rest of the reviewer refocus and start again!