At nearly 1200 pages John Jakes Homeland is a wrist sprainer even in paperback. Set in Chicago of the 1800’s it follows the story of a young German lad who travels half way round the world to start a new life in the home of his uncle who owns a brewery. Although he has adopted America as his home Joseph Crown, his uncle, maintains strong old-world values and expects to be respected as the head and decision maker of his household. His loyal wife runs an orderly German household but has mixed feelings about her husband’s product and is beginning to entertain new feminist ideas. Their oldest son has unionist leanings and isn’t particularly enthusiastic about working his way up from the bottom in the family business. His younger siblings are even less inclined to follow the party line when it comes to their father’s wishes. Enter their cousin Paul who encounters prejudice at school and does not prosper there resulting in his being diverted to work in the family business. Like all Jakes works these fictional characters are worked into a backdrop of the rich and famous historical actors on the Chicago scene.
What is remarkable for a book published in 1998 is the fact that the language in the book is as Victorian as the period which it describes. When a young man sees a stunningly beautiful woman he doesn’t get a hard on, his body reacts. There may be scenes of war and bloodshed but it all seems rather bloodless. Men may be maimed and hospital conditions may be wretched but the descriptions seem rather antiseptic and undisturbing. Even in tropical heat with the wounded ravaged by land crabs the author barely breaks a sweat. We are told of heinous acts but it would seem we are not to be disturbed by them. And in keeping with the times, woman do not have menses, they have ‘that time of the month’. I suppose it’s all in keeping with the era in which the book is set, but it makes it seem like a book that was published at least a century ago.
Joseph Senior’s oppressive regime drives his son Joe to run away from home only to return after being crippled in a union picket bashing. Paul, the cousin, is banished and sets out on a career making news reels worldwide. Carl drops out or is expelled from College where his defiance of authority and preference for football over academics does not sit well and gravitates first to car racing and then barnstorming in a plane. Fritzi goes to New York to seek her fortune on stage but ends up in California where Hollywood is in its formative stages. Joseph Senior joins Teddy Roosevelt in the battle of San Juan Hill in Cuba to get away from his demons. All meet up with the cultural and social icons of the day often before they became famous. These outcomes are revealed in the sequel called American Dreams. Though published only two years after the first this book is entirely different in style and tone. Although it follows the lives of the next generation it does not flow seamlessly as a continuation of its precursor.
