SOURCE: Bemrose, John. “State of the Sinful Union: Two Authors Take the Pulse of Uncle Sam.” Maclean's 114, no. 44 (29 October 2001): 60-1.

In the following review of A Multitude of Sins, Bemrose praises Ford's exploration of the inner lives of his characters and his examination of the heart of middle-class America.

First, there was free trade, and now we've joined our American neighbours on a military adventure, the results of which no one can safely predict. We've tied ourselves increasingly to the fate of the great republic to the south, but our familiarity with Americans is often superficial, gleaned mainly from their entertainment industry and the odd holiday. For some deeper insights into the workings of the American mind, better to turn to that old-fashioned artifact, the book. The adventures of the mad Captain Ahab—the protagonist of Herman Melville's 1851 novel, Moby Dick, which chronicles the pursuit of a great...