This book and its story as well as his characters is big and bold and loud. I adored the writing in this book, it’s beautiful and the way everything is described and written in general just hits as a perfect book. I love that the story spans so many generations of this one family, and it takes place in multiple countries around the world making this such an epic and widespread story. It’s one of the most beautiful pieces of writing I’ve read in a while, and it’s some thing that you’re not going to want to miss.

Truly beautiful writing in this epic novel spanning multiple continents and generations. I found the non chronological storytelling technique a little hard to follow, it seemed to jump back and forth too much. I really wanted to like this one, but couldn't get past the midway mark.

This book is, at its core, a story of generational trauma. The writing is beautiful with its details, and the narrative voice is a distant one that is critical of its characters. This makes it a bit difficult to find a connection with them, but the sense of momentum comes from the momentum of escapes. The why of them is known to the reader, but it's taken me five months to get as far as I did through this book. This is a very dense read, and it can be a bit slow in the mundaneness of the details.

I found myself skimming through the second half of this book, but I want to take Netgalley for providing me with the arc.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read and review this title. I will review this title at a different date.

This book was a whirlwind and I almost gave up on it part of the way through, but I’m so glad I stayed the course. It all comes together in the end and I’ll be thinking about it for a while.

Storytelling is rich and paints a vivid image from the very beginning. The author drops in small pieces of information that would occur in the future, in direct foreshadowing.

The book opens with a father telling a story to his three children. The three children are Madeleine, Marc and Luc. As the oldest and only girl, Madeleine is her fathers favorite and hangs on his every word. Marc is like his father, and Luc, we are told, would die early but was a vulgar child.

One evening, their father begins to tell the story of Madeleine, the American Fiancée. The story, told in third person, is intriguing and Madeleine’s character is very mysterious. We don’t get her POV at all. While her story is brief, it is impactful all the same.

The scene changed in part two. Madeleine (the child) is all grown now. The reader is brought along Madeleine’s journey.

THE AMERICAN FIANCEE is a wonderful novel for the serious reader. It is a long, luscious read. It is the exactly the kind of book to dive into when you want a mental vacation. Dupont has a great sense of place; I have never traveled to either Quebec or Berlin but I feel like I have after reading this book. The novel has many quirky plot elements but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The cover and the description grabbed my attention however the novel fell short. This one seemed like a series of short stories about the Lamontagne Family that didn't really hold my attention.. I really wanted to like this one.
Thanks NetGalley & HarperCollins Publishers for this ACR.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this. I will be posting a full review to Goodreads, Amazon, and Instagram.

The premise of this book sounded intriguing. However, reading this book is tedious. The title character only existed for a very short time. The book is actually a family saga. But one that gets bogged down by death (or not?), allusions, religion, and perceptions. Some of the characters are almost well developed. But once again are hindered by what's not said instead of what should be said. Same with plot development. Just when things are starting to make sense, things either jump forward or back without being fully developed.

"The American Fiancee," is a compelling narrative of family and the stories that weave their lives together. But, it was a bit of a slog to get through. I generally read books quite quickly, and I kept setting this book down and walking away. It is a "long and winding road," but if you can stick it out, it is a good read.

A well written novel a story of a family a rich complex novel.A book that kept me turning the pages in this multi layered story.If you enjoy family sagas this one is for you.#netgalley#theamericanfiancee,

This isn't a bad book, it's just not the book for me. It started really strong with great storytelling (it's really more a series of short stories that each revolve around a character or family member than a true novel) and I really enjoyed that format. I also loved the use of family lore/legend that been passed down so many times you aren't sure if it's true anymore, that was a truly unique way of writing a multi-generational story. Nonetheless the farther I got the less I was interested in picking it up. I also didn't love the gratuitous use of incest or more importantly the whimsical tone in which it was written. I didn't hate it and I'm sure there are many that would adore it, I'm just not one of them.

The American Fiancee by Eric Dupont took me three days to complete and I am happy to say it was worth it. In this novel we follow three generations of the Lamontagnes family. I’m not even sure how to describe what happens here, but what I will say is Dupont’s prose are everything! And the second half of the book had to be my favorite.
Thank youHarperCollins/HarperVia, for gifting this ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review Overall this was a 4/5 star read.

"In this extraordinary breakout novel - a rich, devastatingly humorous epic of one unforgettable family - award-winning author Eric Dupont illuminates the magic of stories, the bonds of family, and the twists of fate and fortune to transform our lives.

Over the course of the twentieth century, three generations of the Lamontagnes will weather love, passion, jealousy, revenge, and death. Their complicated family dynamic - as dramatic as Puccini’s legendary opera, Tosca - will propel their rise, and fall, and take them around the world...until they finally confront the secrets of their complicated pasts.

Born on Christmas, Louis Lamontagne, the family’s patriarch, is a larger-than-life lothario and raconteur who inherits his mother’s teal eyes and his father’s brutish good looks and whose charms travel beyond Quebec, across the state of New York where he wins at county fairs as a larger-than-life strongman, and even in Europe, where he is deployed for the US Army during World War II. We meet his daughter, Madeleine, who opens a successful chain of diners using the recipes from her grandmother, the original American Fiancée, and vows never to return to her hometown. And we end with her son Gabriel, another ladies’ man in the family, who falls in love with a woman he follows to Berlin and discovers unexpected connections there to the Lamontagne family that re-frame the entire course of the events in the book.

An unholy marriage of John Irving and Gary Shteyngart with the irresistible whimsy of Elizabeth McCracken, The American Fiancée is a big, bold, wildly ambitious novel that introduces a dynamic new voice to contemporary literature."

I'm all for generational family sagas!

Thank you to Harper Collins and Netgalley for the advanced copy for my honest review.

I love the cover and the description of the book. Unfortunately that was about it. The book is long.... and sometimes that’s great if the story is engaging. However after reading about 1/4 of the book I simply could not go on. I couldn’t really understand the book or want to. I really wanted to like this one too!!!

I don’t understand this book. Incoherent nonsense. Is there a story here or just a bunch of random stories all bunched into 600+ pages. I cannot stay focused on this at all as it seems so lost on me.

Thank you Netgalley for the Arc.

*Thanks to the publisher for an early copy of this one.* A sweepingly gorgeous, multi-generational family saga that will stick with me for a long time. I loved the characters (The Horse! Gah! I loved him!) and the writing - the story hooked me from the very beginning. Although it is definitely a chunky book at over 600 pages, I find that books like this tend to resonate more deeply and affect me much more intensely. I think, by spending so much more time with the characters, you become more invested in their lives...they feel much more real to you. I was so sad to leave them!

Wow this is a Doozy of a book and certainly ebbs and flows quite a bit. Extremely long and I found myself wondering where this book was going (it did not go anywhere in my opinion). At some times I was comparing this to Barkskins by Annie Prioux but this book gets lost in itself most of time. It is slow and I am sure there are people who will love this, but it was a little too slow for me.

This book shines on every level: sentence after sentence is beautiful and precise. The characters are complicated and sympathetic, the ideas are sweeping and profound, but are never too overt. It’s a rare novel that is as accomplished in its meaning as it is in its storytelling while also succeeding wildly on the language level as well! A novel to lose yourself in and then reflect upon again and again.