American Rust: A Novel
by Philipp Meyer
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Book Summary Information
Author: Philipp MeyerEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deckle Edge
Published: 2009-02-24
ISBN: 0385527519
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Book Reviews of American Rust: A Novel
Book Review: "American Rust" -- A tale of a once proud and prosperous part of America
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Philipp Meyer's debut novel, "American Rust", masterfully captures the reality of life in the depressed Rust Belt of America. Set in the Pittsburgh area, the novel creates vivid imagery of what was once the thriving, economic engine of America, that now is a faded tapestry of deserted main streets, shuttered factories and dashed dreams.
Through Meyer's rich characters, the hopes, aspirations and mostly unfulfilled dreams of the heartland of America stir the mind. It is the characters that make this novel so wonderful and sad at the same time. The plot centers on the unlikely friendship of Poe and Isaac, high school football star and introverted brainiac. Isaac has been planning to leave for California and an accidental murder propels the plot forward. We encounter Lee, Isaac's older sister, who left the area to attend Yale, married a into a wealthy Connecticut family, and is back in Buell to help her disabled father find home health care. The father, Henry English, rode the ups and then downs of the steel industry and is now left confined to a wheelchair, a paraplegic from a work accident at a steel mill. Grace, Poe's mother, spent years thinking Vergil, her deadbeat husband would truly change and become the type of husband and father she always wanted. She's finally realized the years of waiting were in vain and is struggling coming to grips with this as she finds herself in the midst of a relationship with the local sheriff Harris.
While the plot comes close at times to being too predictable and devolving into the suspense genre, Meyer is too adept at amazing character and place development to let this book slip. Ultimately, it is the characters and locale that overwhelmingly succeed that make this such a wonderful and compelling debut novel. You come to empathisize with these people, realizing that while a few will leave, many will remain for the friendships, family and hopes of a better future that resemble the past -- while we know that the outcome is likely to be a much more depressing reality.
Meyer perfectly captures all the detail and nuance of each of these characters -- we empathsize with those we know, in spite of the greater hopes, are confined to this beautiful land, but one that has seen its better days and won't any time in the near future, provide a place that can come close to fulfilling all the grander dreams that each of them carry.
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