Though most of American Gospel is set beside the aptly named Last Lake in rural northwestern Minnesota, the backdrop of the political drama that was the end of The Nixon Administration looms over a novel that explores the themes of family and faith.
On the precipice of a career-making assignment to cover the last days of the Nixon Administration, journalist Peter Bywater is informed that his father is in the hospital having suffered heart attack. Not knowing whether his father is dead or alive, Peter flies from New York City to Minnesota and finds his father, a preacher, alive, but he believes not for much longer. In his moment of near death, Enoch Bywater was bestowed a vision of the rapture. According to Peter’s father, The End of Days will occur on August 19th, thirteen days from the beginning of the novel (the chapters are conveniently titled by the day of the week and dates). Peter never has faith in his father’s vision, and as this is a realistic novel set decades in the past, the reader is never in suspense about whether or not Enoch’s premonition will come to pass. The drama instead is a personal one, as Enoch, in preparing for the end has invited Peter’s high school sweetheart, Annie Magnussen turned movie star Melanie Magnus, and the son they put up for adoption, Willie to his ranch on Last Lake.
But Peter is initially more interested in salvaging his career than he is in reconnecting with Melanie or meeting his son. He uses Melonie’s presence at Last Day’s Ranch to write a story and create media attention. All of the ingredients are present for a fiasco of biblical proportions, but the novel stops short of a reconning. This is, in the end, a novel on the human scale, and as humans they have to learn how to accept and care for each other.
-Eimile Campbell