Review of Peter Conrad, 'How the World Was Won: The Americanisation of Everywhere'. London, Thames and Hudson, 2014, 336 pages.

Abstract

In the "experimental art novel" 'Unamerica' (2014), by the multi-modal, cross-genre performance artist Momus, the mock-heroic narrator, Brad, receives direct instruction (by letter) from God to "uninvent America [because] the earthly paradise has become an unparadise." To this end, God, who suffers from late-onset Alzheimer's disease, instructs Brad to embark on an important voyage in his coracle, named the "UnAmerica": "The whole situation has to be reversed. America has to be undiscovered. People need to turn their backs on all its stands for. People need to learn about - and learn from - the rest of the world ... You Brad ... must learn - and teach the world - how to become as unAmerican as possible." (11-12) Momus satirically inverts the story of Saint Brendan of Clonfert's fabled journey, a quest that involved the sixth-century saint traveling from Ireland in a boat with twelve handpicked disciples in search of the Isle of the Blessed. The novel playfully rehearses oft-voiced European skepticism about the United States and its vaunting claims to moral superiority and historical preeminence as self-appointed savior of the human race.