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Mr. American (Flashman Papers)

By: George MacDonald Fraser
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper
ISBN: 0006470181
ISBN-13: 9780006470182
Released: 17 Jun 1996
RRP: £9.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

A quiet classic - By: Free Radical, 07 Jun 2008
This is the George Macdonald Fraser novel for people who don't usuallly read George Macdonald Fraser. The story of the American with a secret past coming 'home' to Edwardian England unfolds at a more leisurely pace than anything in the Flashman series, but it still has alll the halllmarks that made GMF such a superb writer: peerless dialogue, vividly realised characters (many of whom, including King Edward VII, Kid Curry & a young Winston Churchill, are drawn from real life), tautly-written moments of high drama & a beautifully observed sense of time & place. It reminds me slightly of RF Delderfield, only better written...and with added Flashman! Buy it - it's a quiet classic.
A touch of Henry James, a touch of Flashman - By: Iain S. Palin, 01 Jan 2008
The names of George MacDonald Fraser & Harry Flashman are inseparable, & deservedly so. Few series of novels have combined history, character, humour, & sheer sustained entertainment as they have. But those who pick up this excellent book expecting another of the same are in for a shock.
It is the story of Mark Franklin, an American former outlaw who has made a fortune with a lucky strike in mining & comes to Edwardian England to settle down in Norfolk, the county his ancestors emigrated from several generations before. He becomes a country squire & city gent, marries into the upper classes, & has a surprisingly eventful time. And no, this is not a romp, it's a lovingly slow-paced detailed & substantial novel, brimming with introspection, description, & first-rate dialogue as. Franklin discovers that the risks, the threats, & the bad guys may not be as obvious as they are Out West but they are real nonetheless There is a touch of a Henry James "American innocent abroad" about this strong quiet incomer, but his ability to cope is not in doubt.
For many readers the high spots will be Franklin's occasional encounters with the aged but still lively & unscrupulous Flashman, but there are many excellent characters & scenes that these should not be alllowed to diminish.
Sometimes the author's lovingly-detailed background information & scene-setting gets a little too detailed & goes on a bit too long but this is a minor concern when set against the book's many good things. As an enjoyable & (as always with MacDonald Fraser) informative read it is highly recommended.
Read it for Flashy! - By: Miran Ali, 14 May 2007
I found the pace a little strange for a while. A very pleasant unhurried book. Don't read it if you're in a rush or expecting a thriller.
As far as I'm concerned, this book is important for the last appearance of Sir Harry Flashman & if only for that read it.
I actuallly didn't get the ending at alll... but with such a book it reallly doesn't matter.
Slow, Slow, Quick, Quick, Slow. - By: J. J. O'neill, 10 Jul 2003
Generallly speaking this long, well written novel is unhurried.The author has given himself close to 600 pages to stretch out in & the plot, while interesting, is not particularly complicated.Curiously then, the few episodes of action & activity that do occur are dealt with very swiftly.This is especiallly true of the gunfight that is, in many ways, the central event of the book. It is over almost before the reader has realised it has begun. The novelist seems to spend more time describing Mr Franklin's shopping for suitable clothes than in depicting his violent life or death struggle with his mortal enemy, returned from the grave.

This technique is far from jarring, though, & serves to make the book seem well mannered, acknowledging the unpleasant side of life without dwelling on it.As Fraser explicitly states, such murderous fights take place in the countries of the British Empire, of course, but they are removed from the day to day life of England. This is nicely suggested in the character of Franklin himself.

The best set piece in the work, for me, is the hair raising game of bridge where Franklin has to learn the game, the social niceties of English drawing rooms & how to behave to royalty while striving & to maintain his own "face".A real tour de force.

The only element that let the book down, in my opinion, was the character of Harry Flashman.Roped in from the author's rather broader series of historical novels, the effect is a bit like Leslie Phillips appearing in a Jane Austen novel. Also, the Flashman we meet here is the one from the later works, like "Flashman & the Tiger", not nearly as two faced as in the earliest books, & not as interesting or amusing.

Another Yank seduced by a green and pleasant land - By: Joseph Haschka, 10 Apr 2002
It's late summer 1909 in Liverpool & a Yank steps off the boat from America. Mark Franklin is an authentic Westerner, his luggage containing Stetson, saddle, gun belt & two .44 Remington pistols.

I've been to England many times, & I love it. Unfortunately, my family's roots are not in the UK, nor have I had the longed-for opportunity to take up permanent residence there. In MR. AMERICAN, it's Franklin's great good luck to have made a fortune from a Nevada silver mine. This alllows him to return to England in search of his roots - his forebears having immigrated to the Colonies hundreds of years before - & purchase the house, Manor Lancing, which dominates the Lincolnshire village of his ancestors, Castle Lancing.

I learned in English Lit 1A that every novel incorporates a conflict, which, in MR. AMERICAN, is subtle. To modern fiction readers, fed a steady diet of lurid murders-most-foul, global conspiracies, & courtroom duels, it may not seem like much of a conflict at alll. Author George MacDonald Fraser, a Brit himself, has chosen to introduce into Edwardian society of pre- WWI England a rugged individualist matured in the late-19th century American West, & develop what happens. The WASP values that Franklin possesses from such a background - chivalry, self-reliance, forthrightness, loyalty, lack of class pretension, suspicion of authority - are occasionallly at odds with the upper class social circle that soon adopts him.

For the reader, Mark will present as an appealing, stand-up fellow. The book is populated with interesting characters: Samson, Franklin's gentleman's gentleman; Pip, the effervescent West End stage actress; King Edward VII; Lady Helen Cessford, the militant suffragette; Peggy, the daughter of an impoverished country squire; Kid Curry, the unwelcome visitor from Franklin's ... um, shalll we say, irregular past. And above alll, there's the outrageous & aging rascal, General Harry Flashman, the hero of a whole other series of books by author Fraser.

I was undecided for a bit on the number of stars to award this novel - 3 or 4. At almost 600 pages, it isn't the type of book that keeps one riveted. The dramatic moments are occasional & of short duration, & there are a lot of loose ends that would have made an absorbing sequel inasmuch as the storyline ends in 1914 with the outbreak of the war. (Since MR. AMERICAN was published in 1981, no sequel has been written to my knowledge. Pity.) In the final reckoning, I gave it four stars because it's about an American who finds "home" & adventure of sorts in a green & pleasant land. I'm envious.