American Rust: A novel

by Philipp Meyer
Spiegel & Grau, 367 pp., $24.95

Philipp Meyer, a recent graduate of the University of Texas’ Michener Center for Writers, has impeccable, even prescient, timing with his first novel. Not only does bestseller-list resident Patricia Cornwell plug American Rust in her latest novel (they share an agent), but our recently recognized economic woes get the microcosm treatment in the author’s crumbling Pennsylvania town, which lives and dies with the rise and fall of the steel industry – what Meyer calls the “ugly reverse of the American Dream.” The novel centers on two college-aged friends of the opposites-attract mold: Poe, the broad-shouldered, ex-football star, and Isaac, an anemic brainiac who decides to run away from home and his invalid father. These best-laid plans are thwarted by a killing, and the plot is kicked into action.

The steel town’s decline takes place on the macro scale, with the battered economy leaving houses dilapidated and Camaros – once a sign of American excess – sitting dormant in fields. Moral and emotional decline, on the other hand, are tracked in the form of infidelity, murder, and denial, as character flaws become deep cracks. Meyer writes his characters’ thoughts into the prose, showing how a town’s battery of shattered dreams can alter actions in drastic ways.

Fittingly, Isaac’s sister picks up a copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses then looks for works by Henry James. Both authors defined and perfected modernism’s ability to get into characters’ heads to better elucidate action. Meyer is not yet worthy of that particular company but still has startling and recognizable insight into diverse characters’ thought patterns that speaks to a talent of great promise. The passing whims of wandering minds are often engaging, but the circular and repetitious nature of some passages frustrates at times. Perhaps this is a testament to Meyer’s ability to write thoughts realistically, but it drags in spots. Nevertheless, by book’s end you are left with lush, detailed, and ultimately believable characters – characters who know love and loyalty are a rare commodity in their town, where fading hopes create strong personal bonds.

Philipp Meyer will be at BookPeople on March 13 at 7pm.

This article appears in March 13 • 2009.

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James graduated from Columbia University in 2000 and moved to Austin a year later. Ever since, he has followed the arts and video game scene in ATX, editing and writing stories for the Chronicle along the way. Over his more than 20 years with the paper he has climbed the "corporate" ladder from lowly intern to managing editor.