American Canto

Helen Lewis's review in The Atlantic described the book as a "tell-nothing memoir", criticizing it as being written in haste and for displaying a fundamental lack of honesty; Lewis contends that Nuzzi avoids directly confronting the "sheer desperation of her love for Kennedy" and instead attempts to elevate the scandal into mythic or literary significance: "The language seems tortured by Nuzzi's efforts to rewrite her life-upending crush into a mutual whirlwind of passion, to turn herself from Ophelia into Juliet." Lewis also criticizes Nuzzi as having "no real, believable regret" and dubbed American Canto a "portrait of losing your soul," and a bid to gain favorable media coverage and revive her career.^[5]

The New York Times's Alexandra Jacobs similarly critiques the book as "not a tell-all, not yet a memoir." Jacobs had followed Nuzzi's work prior writing that "the prose ... conveying access to some of most powerful people in the world — including President Trump — with uncommon verve and detachment. Though Nuzzi is only 32, she has for years reminded me of old-fashioned New Journalists like Tom Wolfe and Gay Talese." However, American Canto proceeds without chapters and is "scattershot.... "[w]afting and unfocused in a manner that makes you long for the sweet relief of a detailed policy paper."^[6]

Sales of American Canto were lower than expected. CNN reported it hit number 6,709 on Amazon's bestseller list,^[7] selling only 1,165 copies in hardcover its first week.^[8]