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Novelists spend entire careers trying to write even one classic book. Philipp Meyer has accomplished that feat on his first attempt.
Meyer's debut novel, "American Rust," might one day be recognized as one of our great American novels. Time will tell that tale.
"American Rust" takes place in the heart of the Rust Belt, a western Pennsylvania river town formerly shaded by massive steel mills. All gone now.
Those high paying jobs have vanished. Meyer's characters are those who were left behind: the disabled, the unemployed, the down and out.
As the story begins two unlikely friends wander into an abandoned factory. Isaac is small in stature but has a brilliant mind. He has just stolen some money from his father and he is on his way out of town.
His friend Billy Poe is the dumb jock who is constantly getting into trouble. He could have had a football scholarship but he chose to stay home with his mother in their trailer. The only thing keeping Billy out of jail is his mother's romantic link with the town's police chief.
Billy doesn't want to enter that empty factory. For once his instincts are good. But he goes in anyway as this tragedy begins. Billy and Isaac get involved in an altercation with some vagrants and a man dies. This sets off the tragic chain of events which forms "American Rust."
Meyer's theme is profoundly disturbing because it could be ripped right out of our daily news. The society he depicts is one that is starting to unravel. The few jobs remaining are in home health care and fast food. As the local economy collapsed some residents turned to drugs and crime.
Billy Poe passed up that scholarship. He also squandered the opportunity to be hired for one of the few high paying jobs left, tearing down the remains of shuttered factories.
Meyer's descriptions ring painfully: "The work was all in the Midwest now, taking down the auto plants in Michigan and Indiana. And one day even that work would end, and there would be no record, nothing left standing, to show that anything had ever been built in America."
After the killing, Isaac flees the area. Billy refuses to talk to the authorities and ends up in prison. Meyer crosscuts his story by zooming in on the fugitive Isaac, the incarcerated Billy, the embattled police chief, and various relatives.
It does veer a bit close to home. A truck driver hands his passenger five dollars, "a few hours later he dropped Isaac off at an on-ramp in Dayton. As he got out the driver said, 'You wouldn't spend it on drugs or anything would you buddy?'"
"American Rust" burns with the molten fire of a steel furnace. Meyer's characters circle the flames, drawing ever closer to incineration. They could be your neighbors, your friends, our jobs. The glittering literary shards strewn about by Meyer are like shattered mirrors reflecting a society that is being crushed.
Book reviewer Vick Mickunas blogs daily about books at www.DaytonDailyNews.com/booknook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.
Posted by Vick Mickunas on 3/1/09; 4:24:27 PM
from the dept.
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