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Title details for American Rust by Philipp Meyer - Available

American Rust

by Philipp Meyer
Tom Stechschulte
Audiobook
38 of 38 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
38 of 38 copies available
Author Philipp Meyer presents his astounding debut American Rust—a powerful, morally complex novel of two friends struggling to face an uncertain future in a crumbling western Pennsylvania steel town.
Twenty-year-old Isaac feels trapped by circumstance after his mother's suicide and his genius older sister's departure to Yale. His best and only friend Poe is a high school football hero who made some bad choices and is going nowhere fast.
When Isaac resolves to leave town for good, Poe walks with him for a while down the tracks before a sudden downpour forces them to seek refuge in a vacant factory. In that dark place, a series of harrowing events is set in motion, beginning with an act of self-defense that will change their lives forever.
Favorably compared to Pete Dexter, Russell Banks, and John Steinbeck, Meyer vividly evokes the plight of one of America's abandoned industrial heartlands—a majestic natural landscape pockmarked by the rusting remains of another time and inhabited by people whose futures have long since been sold out.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 12, 2009

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781456108717
      • File size: 373419 KB
      • Duration: 12:57:57

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Philipp Meyer's compelling debut novel begins in Buell, Pennsylvania, a once-thriving steel town whose recent misfortunes are alluded to in the title. The story follows Isaac English and Billy Poe, two young men whose fates are altered forever by an unpremeditated act of violence. Tom Stechschulte's gritty delivery suits the setting well, and he adjusts his tone with surprising agility. The novel shifts between the points of view of several characters, including two women, and Stechschulte's subtle vocal changes reflect this technique effectively. He even does accents--including those of some African-American prisoners--which go just far enough, adding flavor to the narrative without slipping into caricature. D.B. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 15, 2008
      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.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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