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Q&A | May 20, 2013

Michael Marder: IMG Powell’s Q&A: Michael Marder

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Describe your latest work. When I started working on Plant-Thinking in 2008, I had no idea that the project would turn out to be as broad as it did.... Continue »
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    Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life

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American Rust

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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Set in a beautiful but economically devastated Pennsylvania steel town, a lush landscape as deceptively promising as the edifices of the abandoned steel mills that once provided the livelihood of generations, American Rust is a novel of the lost American dream and the desperation that arises from its loss. From local bars to train yards to prison, it is the story of two young men bound to the town by family, responsibility, inertia, and the beauty around them, who dream of a future beyond the factories, abandoned homes, and polluted river.

Evoking John Steinbeck's novels of restless lives during the Great Depression, American Rust takes us into the contemporary American heartland at a moment of profound unrest and uncertainty about the future. It is a dark but lucid vision, a moving novel about the bleak realities that battle our desire for transcendence, and the power of love and friendship to redeem us.

Review:

"In his unrelentingly downbeat debut, Meyer offers up a character-driven near-noir set in Buell, a dying Pennsylvania steel town, where aimless friends Billy Poe and Isaac English are trapped by economic and personal circumstance. Just before their halfhearted escape to California, Isaac accidentally kills a transient who tries to rob Poe. The boys return to the crime scene the next day with plans to cover up the crime, setting the plot in motion. Poe is soon under suspicion, and Isaac, distraught after discovering Poe has been carrying on a relationship with Isaac's sister, Lee, sets off for California alone. Meanwhile, Poe's mother, Grace, mourns her own lost opportunities, broods over her son and pines for her on-again-off-again love, the local sheriff. A fully realized tragic heroine, Grace is the poignant thrust of the novel, embodying enough rural tragedy to nearly atone for the novel's weakness: a sense that some of the plot mechanics are arbitrary. Still, Meyer has a thrilling eye for failed dreams and writes uncommonly tense scenes of violence, and in the character of Grace creates a woeful heroine. Fans of Cormac McCarthy or Dennis Lehane will find in Meyer an author worth watching." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"Philipp Meyer's American Rust is written with considerable dramatic intensity and pace. It manages an emotional accuracy, a deep and detailed conviction, in its depiction of character. It also captures a sense of a menacing society, a wider world in the throes of decay and self-destruction." Colm Tóibín, author of The Master and The Blackwater Lightship

Review:

"[A] grimly powerful hybrid: provocative literary fiction crossed with a propulsive thriller." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"A Pandora's box of debate for book clubs....[S]trongly recommended." Library Journal

Review:

"A novel as splendidly crafted and original as any written in recent decades, American Rust is both darkly disturbing and richly compelling. Philipp Meyer's first novel signals the arrival of a new voice in American letters." Patricia Cornwell, author of Scarpetta

Review:

"With its strong narrative engine and understated social insight, American Rust is reminiscent of the best of Robert Stone and Russell Banks. Author Philipp Meyer locates the heart of his working class characters without false sentiment or condescension, and their world is artfully described. An extraordinary, compelling novel from a major talent." George Pelecanos, author of The Turnaround

Review:

"This is strong, clean stuff. Philipp Meyer deserves to be taken seriously." Pete Dexter, author of Paper Trails

Review:

"American Rust announces the arrival of a gifted new writer — a writer who understands how place and personality and circumstance can converge to create the perfect storm of tragedy." Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

Review:

"In contemporary fiction Meyer...most resembles Andre Dubus, Dennis Lehane or Richard Price. Bleak and nasty." Dallas Morning News

Review:

"[F]ull of a sorrowful hope that is graced by a profound respect for struggle and the unrelenting courage necessary to carry on." Kansas City Star
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About the Author

Philipp Meyer grew up in Baltimore, dropped out of high school, and got his GED when he was sixteen. After spending several years volunteering at a trauma center in downtown Baltimore, he attended Cornell, where he studied English. Since graduating, Meyer has worked as a derivatives trader at UBS, a construction worker, and an EMT, among other jobs. His writing has been published in McSweeney's, The Iowa Review, Salon.com, and New Stories from the South. From 2005 to 2008 Meyer was a fellow at the Michener Center for Writers in Austin, Texas.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 5 comments:
lupoman, March 15, 2009 (view all comments by lupoman)
When I received an advanced copy of this novel, a note from Cindy Spiegel, the publisher, was included, and she compares this author to John Steinbeck.
After reading this page-turner, I was pleasantly surprised that I couldn't put this book down and each character was named as the title of each chapter, alternating until the fast-paced end. The novel is well written, and for a first book of the author, it has Pulitzer Prize written all over it.
The next John Steinbeck? Read this book and you be the judge. 5 stars
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OneMansView, March 12, 2009 (view all comments by OneMansView)
Tough times in Pennsylvania (4.25*s)

This is a distressing story centered on a region, western Pennsylvania, where the near total closing of almost all of area’s huge steel mills in the 1980s and 90s has left behind profound economic devastation and widespread despair in individuals and families, who were solely dependent on the good wages of the steel mills. This book, looking at the situation a few years after the closings, is mostly concerned with the severe impacts that the economic turn of events has had on lives: the unrelenting stresses placed on families and the difficult choices, if they really are that, that have to be made.

Billy Poe, as a jock, and Isaac English, in intelligence quotient, were two of the more talented graduates of their local high school, yet two years later they are still in town and simply drifting. While there is no denying that specific family circumstances have played a role, there is little doubt that the ramifications of economic hard times have permeated their psyches, never really allowing them to consider life-changing possibilities. It’s only fitting that their chance encounter with vagrants in a closed outbuilding of a steel mill, unfortunately resulting in a death, gives the book impetus to scrutinize life in this bleak environment. In addition to the two young men, the author alternates chapters from the perspective of Billy’s mother Grace, Isaac’s sister Lee, and Sheriff Bud Harris. The reader is privy to their thoughts about trying to understand the directions that their lives have taken and their more immediate concerns of Isaac being on the run and Billy’s arrest and incarceration. One of the most compelling story lines is the precarious romantic involvement of Grace and Bud given the complications in their lives.

The book is a bit drawn out – repetitious. The observations of the closed steel mills and the rolling green hills are repeated so often that it becomes a mantra. The author employs a free-form stream of consciousness that can be awkward, but is consistent with the pervasive psychological dissonance. There is no doubt that prospects are bleak for these characters: there are no tidy resolutions available. Yet, there is a certain resoluteness, even toughness, displayed that redeems them despite their fallibilities and failures in the face of very harsh and arbitrary conditions.

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danielcasey, March 9, 2009 (view all comments by danielcasey)
Is it possible to read a novel about the working class and/or working poor that doesn't in some way slide into stale ideologies or crass sentimentality? I do think so. Perhaps, Meyers does as well.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780385527514
Subtitle:
A Novel
Publisher:
Spiegel & Grau
Author:
Philipp Meyer
Author:
Philipp Meyer
Subject:
Murder
Subject:
Fayette County (Pa.)
Subject:
General
Subject:
Mystery & Detective - General
Subject:
Mystery fiction
Subject:
General Fiction
Publication Date:
20090224
Binding:
Hardback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
384
Dimensions:
9.48x6.60x1.13 in. 1.46 lbs.
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Related Subjects

Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
Fiction and Poetry » Literature » Sale Books
Fiction and Poetry » Mystery » A to Z

American Rust
0 stars - 0 reviews
$ In Stock
Product details 384 pages Spiegel & Grau - English 9780385527514 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "In his unrelentingly downbeat debut, Meyer offers up a character-driven near-noir set in Buell, a dying Pennsylvania steel town, where aimless friends Billy Poe and Isaac English are trapped by economic and personal circumstance. Just before their halfhearted escape to California, Isaac accidentally kills a transient who tries to rob Poe. The boys return to the crime scene the next day with plans to cover up the crime, setting the plot in motion. Poe is soon under suspicion, and Isaac, distraught after discovering Poe has been carrying on a relationship with Isaac's sister, Lee, sets off for California alone. Meanwhile, Poe's mother, Grace, mourns her own lost opportunities, broods over her son and pines for her on-again-off-again love, the local sheriff. A fully realized tragic heroine, Grace is the poignant thrust of the novel, embodying enough rural tragedy to nearly atone for the novel's weakness: a sense that some of the plot mechanics are arbitrary. Still, Meyer has a thrilling eye for failed dreams and writes uncommonly tense scenes of violence, and in the character of Grace creates a woeful heroine. Fans of Cormac McCarthy or Dennis Lehane will find in Meyer an author worth watching." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Review" by , "Philipp Meyer's American Rust is written with considerable dramatic intensity and pace. It manages an emotional accuracy, a deep and detailed conviction, in its depiction of character. It also captures a sense of a menacing society, a wider world in the throes of decay and self-destruction."
"Review" by , "[A] grimly powerful hybrid: provocative literary fiction crossed with a propulsive thriller."
"Review" by , "A Pandora's box of debate for book clubs....[S]trongly recommended."
"Review" by , "A novel as splendidly crafted and original as any written in recent decades, American Rust is both darkly disturbing and richly compelling. Philipp Meyer's first novel signals the arrival of a new voice in American letters."
"Review" by , "With its strong narrative engine and understated social insight, American Rust is reminiscent of the best of Robert Stone and Russell Banks. Author Philipp Meyer locates the heart of his working class characters without false sentiment or condescension, and their world is artfully described. An extraordinary, compelling novel from a major talent."
"Review" by , "This is strong, clean stuff. Philipp Meyer deserves to be taken seriously."
"Review" by , "American Rust announces the arrival of a gifted new writer — a writer who understands how place and personality and circumstance can converge to create the perfect storm of tragedy."
"Review" by , "In contemporary fiction Meyer...most resembles Andre Dubus, Dennis Lehane or Richard Price. Bleak and nasty."
"Review" by , "[F]ull of a sorrowful hope that is graced by a profound respect for struggle and the unrelenting courage necessary to carry on."
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