Absolutely American

Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point is a 2003 book by American author David Lipsky.

Absolutely American

First edition
Author	David Lipsky
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	Houghton Mifflin
Publication date	July 4, 2003
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	384
ISBN	1-4000-7693-5

Summary

The book recounts four years in the lives of students at the United States Military Academy.

Plot

The book's genesis was a piece Lipsky wrote for Rolling Stone[1]—the longest article published in that magazine since Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The book follows cadets in one West Point company, G-4, from their arrival to graduation. As Newsweek noted, composition of the book required "14,000 pages of interview transcripts, 60 notebooks and four pairs of boots."[2] As The New York Times wrote, Lipsky was not initially well disposed toward the military: "He was, like most young people, entirely cut off from military life. The Army was the one profession his father absolutely refused to let him consider."[1]

Reception

Absolutely American was enthusiastically received. In Time, novelist and critic Lev Grossman wrote that it was "fascinating, funny, and tremendously well-written. Take a good look: this is the face America turns to most of the world, and until now it's one that most of us have never seen. A mesmerizing and powerfully human spectacle."[3] Newsweek called the book "addictive." In the New York Times Book Review, David Brooks called the book "wonderfully told," praising it as both "a superb description of modern military culture, and one of the most gripping accounts of university life I have read."[4] The work was a New York Times best-seller, and was selected as required reading for the incoming class at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.[5] Film and television rights were acquired by Disney.[6]

Awards and honors

The book was an Amazon.com and Time magazine best book of the year.

References

1. Brooks, David, "Huah!" The New York Times Book Review, July 13, 2003.
2. Gegax, Trent, "Getting The Point," Newsweek, July 7, 2003.
3. Grossman, Lev (2003-07-06). "Life On The Long Gray Line". Time. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
4. Brooks, David (2003-07-13). "Huah!". New York Times Book Review. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
5. Associated Press, "UNC committee picks book about West Point for reading program," February 25, 2004.
6. Sauriol, Patrick, "ABC Goes West Point," Variety, August 13, 2003.

Further reading

• David Brooks in The New York Times Book Review on Absolutely American
• Lev Grossman in Time on Absolutely American
• Lipsky speaks about David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster on NPR
• Excerpt from Absolutely American on This American Life
• Lipsky at University of North Carolina Summer Reading Program
• David Lipsky and Absolutely American on Charlie Rose
• Lipsky on Honor, Character, Duty and Country, for NPR
• David Lipsky Interview on Powells.com
• Booknotes interview with Lipsky on Absolutely American, August 17, 2003