Is this a murder mystery? Political saga? Coming of age story? Historical fiction? Hard to say, but it is an interesting and captivating story with all of the above included. Corey Sifter, a young boy in upstate New York, becomes involved with a wealthy family who owns most of the land and runs the local business in town. The Metareys are industrious people, whose family emigrated from Scotland and became successful through hard work and ambition. They take in Corey, employ him, school him at private school and even help fund his college education at Haverford, outside of Philadelphia. Much of the story revolves around Senator Bonwiller's campaign for the Presidency in the early 1970's and Canin combines real candidates (Muskie, Humphrey, McGovern) with the fictional Bonwiller. It becomes pretty obvious that Bonwiller is fashioned after Teddy Kennedy, although I read an interview that disputed that obvious parallel.
The story drifts back and forth between the present, when Corey is a 50ish newspaper publisher. The story starts as he is attending the funeral of Bonwiller. Then Canin goes back to when Corey was a boy and he tells the story in bits and pieces, relaying it in a way that holds the reader's interest with mystery and a some drama. He reveals important pieces of information very subtly, for instance, the fact that his wife is a member of the Metary family, but not necessarily the one the reader would have expected him to marry.
I did enjoy this book. There were passages that seemed a bit long-winded, but overall, it was an enjoyable and very interesting read.
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