Uncle Sam

The main character of the book is Uncle Sam; yes, that's right, the Uncle Sam that has been used as a symbol of the U.S.A. for over a hundred years. But the Uncle Sam we follow through the book isn't the proud, clean cut, aging Uncle that always seems so forthright and bold. Instead, he is a drunken bum that has lost all sense of who he is and what he stands for. It is only through a series of flashbacks (to the revolutionary war, to the slaughtering of Native American Indians, and to numerous other times and places, both real and fictitious), that Sam realizes who he once was and the potential he once possessed. The climax of the book is a showdown between the real Uncle Sam, the one who stands for freedom, liberty, and democracy, and an imposter, who represents the interests of big business and political sell-outs. The real Uncle Sam wins, but only because he is able to destroy the fake Uncle Sam's fraudulent front by helping modern Americans realize they are being deceived on numerous fronts, including the media and advertising.

My Comments:

Uncle Sam is essentially an extended comic book, which I wasn't quite expecting. Despite agreeing with the basic premise (at least, my interpretation of the intended premise, which is outlined above), I wasn't wholly impressed by the book.

The main reason I was not impressed is because the authors, though they obviously have an agenda, don't make it very clear at times. Sometimes it seems like they are trying to criticize everything about America and at other times it seems like they are trying to say that America is a great country. For instance, the authors level a strong criticism at Caucasians (the majority of Americans), "The white men do not scalp the head. They do worse. They poison the heart." Then the authors turn around and say stuff like, "At that point, America had two options. Either correct our mistakes and learn from them... or live behind a wall held together with cynicism and brute force and deny everything." So, which is it? Are Caucasians really the problem (a claim similar to Michael Moore's in `Stupid White Men', which, ironically, suffers from the same ambiguity) or have Americans just made some mistakes and still have the potential for greatness? (Note, I'm not equating American and Caucasian; that implication is made by the authors.) The book doesn't have a definitive answer.

My second criticism is that the story is a bit hard to follow. The slightest thing can launch Sam into the past or bring him back to the future or even send him into some nether region where national mascots (Brittania, Columbia, etc.) actually exist. You don't ever really know where he is going, and it takes at least a few scenes in order to figure it out. Sometimes it never really even makes sense why he went there in the first place, other than perhaps to make a seemingly unrelated point (e.g., backstabbing Indians).

The book is generally engaging, but because it is hard to follow and isn't always completely clear, I don't think this is a great novel. Yes, the graphics are pretty cool. And it's nice that there is an effort made to criticize America by pointing out some remediable problems. But the arguments could have been clearer. I generally recommend this novel, but warn potential readers that it isn't very clear.