Like Philip Roth and Robert Penn Warren, Ethan Canin won the Houghton Mifflin Fellowship for rising stars whose first books hit big. His luminous 1988 story collection, Emperor of the Air remains a must-read, but his second novel, For Kings and Planets, is nonetheless recognizably part of the Canin constellation. He repeatedly features a straight guy (an accountant or other sober type) transfixed by the spectacle of an out-of-control guy (a delinquent and/or child-prodigy brother or brother figure to the main character). This time, it's Orno Tarcher, a Missouri farm boy thunderstruck by his Columbia University classmate Marshall Emerson, a theatrically bratty, sometimes suicidal Manhattan genius. "I grew up with farmers and insurance salesmen," says Orno. "I grew up with Kennedys and insurance salesmen," says Marshall. "I grew up with pigs everywhere," says Orno. "And we had that in common," Marshall replies. (In keeping with their characters, Orno becomes a sensible dentist and Marshall a cynical, coked-up Hollywood producer.)

Canin sensitively evokes Orno's prosaic world--you'd have to read Jane Smiley's The Age of Grief for better fiction about dentistry. But Orno mostly exists to relate Marshall's appealing, appalling antics: his manic raps about his childhood amid the ruins of Istanbul, his sabotage of his own (and Orno's) love life, his Oedipal strife with his chilly, brilliant parents. "Our family seal is a snake twisted in knots," says Marshall's lovely sister. And, reader, Orno marries her. Page for page, Canin's stories better show off his gift for epiphany, but the novel gives him room to develop character, entangle plots, and make a stab at the heart of the family romance. --Tim Appelo


From Publishers Weekly
Many qualities that make a novel masterful are present in Canin's fourth book: richly nuanced characterizations, a sensuous sense of place, easy dialogue, controlled pacing and a story that is a classic parable of the human condition. The narrative vigor of this coming-of-age tale is enhanced by Canin's (Emperor of the Air; The Palace Thief) compassionate view of daunting moral complexities and by his acute sensibility about the strengths and flaws that can determine the future of a promising life. When Oren Tarcher comes to Columbia University from a tiny Midwestern town, another freshman, sophisticated New Yorker Marshall Emerson, befriends him. The friendship is unlikely: Oren is earnest, naive, plodding ("He felt the word Missouri written on his forehead"), while Marshall, the son of two eminent Columbia professors, is charming, cynical, brilliant and possessed of an astonishing eidetic memory that indelibly records everything he's ever read. Oren is further awed when he meets the rest of Marshall's family, though he is disturbed by the rancorous exchanges between Professor Emerson and his son. Though Marshall abandons him for months at a time, Oren is always freshly seduced when his mercurial friend lures him from diligent study to debauched gatherings and sexual liaisons, bringing Oren into contact with something chaotic and undisciplined in his own nature. Even when he understands Marshall's essential vulnerability and begins to fathom Marshall's manipulative and self-destructive behavior, Oren is envious of his friend's undoubtedly spectacular future. Oren himself is for a long time unable to find his own vocation, but he finally muddles into dentistry, where?as he apologizes to Marshall, who has quit college to write a novel?teeth are "not named for kings or planets. They are merely numbers." By the time Marshall adopts the dissolute life of a major Hollywood producer, Oren has fallen in love with his sister, Simone, and is witness to the last acts of a family tragedy. While the plot unfolds with tragic inevitability, Canin doesn't force the pace of his narrative, subtly providing Oren with insights appropriate to his strong moral upbringing and slow maturation. Meanwhile, he creates a rich gallery of characters and offers a potently atmospheric evocation of New York City and, to a lesser extent, small communities in Cape Cod and Maine. What will most impress readers of this engrossing narrative, however, is the dignity and integrity with which Canin writes about fallible human lives. BOMC and QPB selections; author tour. Agent, Maxine Grofsky; editor, Kate Medina. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
On his second day in New York and at Columbia University, Missouri-born Orno Tarcher is befriended by charismatic and worldly Marshall Emerson. Through his interaction with Marshall and the rest of the brilliant Emerson family, Orno attempts to develop his own identity and discover his place in the world. He stands in awe of Marshall, who seems to move effortlessly through life. However, as we learn in this very fine adaptation of Canin's (Emperor of the Air) latest novel, the self-destructive Emerson clan constructed public identities vastly different from reality. Narrator Gregory Gorton's presentation adds much to this engaging story. Recommended for larger audio collections.-Stephen L. Hupp, Urbana Univ., OH Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Rand Richards Cooper
For Kings and Planets is a greedy monster of a novel that swallows up its creator's virtues and leaves only weaknesses on display.


The New York Times, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
An almost banal tale based on nearly trite verities then. But in Canin's luminous prose, the story reads as if told for the first time.


From Booklist
Canin's opening line is a great hook: "Years later, Orno Tarcher would think of his days in New York as a seduction." However, there is little about the story that follows that will seduce the reader. From Missouri, Orno has come to New York to attend Columbia University. The first person he meets is Marshall Emerson, a local boy whose life is to intersect, for better or worse, with Orno's for many years to come. Orno is smart; Marshall is brilliant, almost diabolically so. For the first two years of their college career, Orno views Marshall as often more of a problem than he is worth, but "there was something about Marshall, the most unreliable person [Orno had] ever been friends with, that kept bringing him back." Marshall leaves school to be a writer in Hollywood. Orno develops a serious relationship with Marshall's sister and eventually marries her. Orno becomes a dentist, and Marshall succeeds as a screenwriter. At one point, Marshall congratulates Orno for having something inside him--a soul, or so we presume that's what he is referring to--which Marshall admits he doesn't possess. But this novel has so little inside it that rises above cliche . Still, based on the popularity of Canin's previous books, which include the celebrated short story collection Emperor of the Air (1988), librarians should expect curiosity and demand. Brad Hooper


Review
"[For Kings and Planets] is made substantial by Canin's gift for describing the secret wonderment of everyday experience, a quality that gives his writing strength and beauty."--Mary Gaitskill, Harper's Bazaar

"Breathtaking...moves with a smooth, almost stately assurance...Never before has Canin been so sure-handed a storyteller."--Dan Cryer, Newsday

"A sympathetic, finely detailed novel evoking the perils of friendship and the necessary pain of self discovery."--Greg Johnson, Washington Post Book World

"Stands quite beautifully on its own, exploring Canin's provocative take on the themes of Fitzgerald and Wolfe with fully realized characters."--David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle

"Wide and deep, intelligent, subtle but clear, and profoundly satisfying. A wonderful book by a major American writer."--Beth Gutcheon, San Jose Mercury News

"Classic...Ethan Canin is one of those amazing people who, with no apparent effort, turns out one thoughtful, well-crafted book after another."--Irene Rawlings, Rocky Mountain News

"Canin establishes his characters seductively and in rewarding depth, with layers of detail and compelling atmosphere."--Lindsay Heinsen, Houston Chronicle



Book Description
From the celebrated author of The Palace Thief and Emperor of the Air, comes this stunning novel about the relationship between two very different men. Orno Tarcher travels from a small town in Missouri to New York City to attend Columbia University, where he begins a new life feeling unsophisticated and insecure. He soon strikes up a friendship with Marshall Emerson, a seductive and brilliant New Yorker whose sophistication dazzles Orno. As time passes, Marshall is revealed to be bent on destruction, and Orno's involvment with Marshall's worldly sister further complicates their friendship. Carefully crafted and skillfully informed by the works of Fitzgerald and Waugh, For Kings and Planets is a remarkable novel. A New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, and Minneapolis StarTribune bestseller, and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1998.



From the Publisher
"Shimmering...luminous...For Kings and Planets leaves you wounded and healed." --Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times "The most mature and accomplished novelist of his generation. For Kings and Planets stands head and shoulders above the crowd." --Alan Cheuse, "All Things Considered" "Breathtaking...outstanding...Scot Fitzgerald himself would have been honored by his company." --Dan Cryer, Newsday "Brilliant...richly lyrical...An homage to the Golden Age of American Romanticism." --David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle "Masterful...A classic parable of the human condition." --Publishers Weekly

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Orno Tarcher arrives in New York City from a small town in Missouri, feeling unsophisticated and disadvantaged by his family's bedrock values. He meets Marshall Emerson, the charismatic gem of a worldly family, a seductive and brilliant New Yorker who is revealed, as time passes, to be bent on destruction. The novels explores with depth and sophistication the conflicts of character at the heart of every life, the desire for grandeur and the lure of normalcy, the tension between rivalry and friendship, fathers and sons, love and betrayal. For Kings and Planets is the story of a man who thinks of himself as moral, and who tests his character against power, deception, and seduction. It is also the story of a friendship fractured by love.

FROM THE CRITICS

Elizabeth Judd - Salon

In his latest novel, Ethan Canin tells the story of a potentially Faustian bargain -- a story in which the hero, from first chapter to last, is tempted to mortgage his soul. Canin recognizes that selling out to the devil is old hat as themes go and that the truly interesting version of this story focuses on the pitting of integrity against charisma. For Orno Tarcher -- a self-described "hayseed" from Cook's Grange, Mo., who comes east to attend Columbia University -- the glamour and intellectual diversions of New York City are "a seduction." At the heart of that seduction is Marshall Emerson, a fellow freshman with an academic family, a liar's charm and a photographic memory -- he dazzles friends by reciting whole pages of their textbooks verbatim.

Orno worships Emerson's sophistication: "The world of influence seemed astoundingly close and even more astoundingly pedestrian, tossed off by Marshall with a nonchalance that Orno soon found himself cultivating." Thralldom is among Canin's central subjects. In Emperor of the Air, his first short story collection, men and boys, mesmerized by larger-than-life individuals, must come to grips with their attraction to a wildness they don't seem to share. Canin is intrigued by the suspect nature of the worshiper and by the worshipee's uncanny ability to understand and exploit admiration. In his story "American Beauty," an erratic and sometimes sadistic man tells his adoring 16-year-old brother, "You're a bastard, too ... You just don't know it yet."

Orno is no bastard, and therein lies one of the novel's strengths. To Canin's credit, the love affairs, drinking and one-upmanship of Marshall's set are not the primary charms of the story. Equal time and affection are lavished on describing Orno's academic struggles. A midterm in dental school, where Orno winds up after a less-than-brilliant undergraduate career, is unaccountably riveting. Even teeth -- which are numbered, "not named for kings or planets" -- ave their own romance. In half a line, Canin perfectly captures how ambivalent his hero is about overreaching; Orno, atop the Empire State Building, finds that "the overpowering views [fill] him with fear not of falling but of flying upward."

For Kings and Planets is clearly intended as a paean to the beauty of leading an ordinary life. Unfortunately, Orno's sturdiness is so overdrawn that it sometimes feels like a put-on (which, alas, it isn't). Arriving in New York with "hopes of deeds and glory," he remembered thinking, "I am no longer among my own." Such B-movie lines undercut the novel's force and complexity. Canin pretends that the fate of Orno's soul is up for grabs, when no one -- not even the world's biggest hayseed -- could mistake which way the wind is blowing. Apparently, the moral of For Kings and Planets is not that nice guys finish first or last, but that they speak in clichés and graduate at the middle of their dental school class.

Greg Johnson

Canin's new novel, For Kings and Planets, will surely please those who are already fans of his work, and it deserves a reading by anyone interested in watching an earnest and gifted young author as he develops his craft....This new book suggests that the short story remains the genre that best exploits his particular gifts as a writer....For Kings and Planets is a sympathetic, finely detailed novel evoking the perils of friendship and the necessary pain of self-discovery. Although Ethan Canin seems still to be searching for his own artistic character, he is likely to attract an ever-growing readership along the way.
-- Washington Post

Newsday

To this year's list of outstanding American novels, we must now add Ethan Canin's For Kings and Planets. Never before has Canin been so surehanded a storyteller. Given the achievement of For Kings and Planets, Scott Fitzgerald himself would have been honored by his company. Canin's novel speaks with a hard-earned grace worthy of the master.

New York Times

One of the most satisfying writers on the contemporary scene.

San Francisco Chronicle