REVIEW- American Rust by Philipp Meyer

Title: American Rust
Author: Philipp Meyer
Date: 2009

Philipp Meyer's debut novel depicts life in Buell, Pennsylvania, a rapidly declining steel town, from the perspective of six characters. Once a thriving town, the closure of the steel mills in Buell resulted in heavy unemployment and the inability to create new jobs. The story centers around 19-year-old Isaac, who wants to escape the town and his troubled family to attend college in California, and his friend Poe, once the high school's star quarterback, still living in his mother's trailer several years after graduation. Isaac's plan takes an unexpected turn, however, and leaves Poe in a life-altering position.

Although the story is told entirely in third person, chapters are divided among the six characters, and the voice used in each chapter usually changes accordingly. In addition to Isaac and Poe, the novel follows Lee, Isaac's sister who escaped Buell to attend an Ivy League university, Henry, Isaac and Lee's disabled and widowed father, Grace, Poe's disillusioned mother who works in order to support both herself and her son, and Harris, a cop of dubious ethics and friend to Grace. Telling the story from these various perspectives seems to lend itself to repetition (e.g. If a chapter about Grace explains her relationship with Harris, does it need to be explained again in a chapter about Harris?). While this can be frustrating, at times it adds to the sense that the characters are trapped in the same town with the same people with little change throughout the years.

The change in voice is most successful in the chapters about Isaac and Poe, who are also the most developed characters. Isaac's expectations about his runaway plot tend to be grandiose, and his personality ranges from quirky to troubling as he often ignores the grave consequences of his actions despite his intelligence. Poe's frustration and bitterness are laced throughout his chapters along with a disheartening resignation to the path his life has taken. At one point, Meyer writes of Poe, "I am giving up my life, he said aloud. But still the words brought nothing to his mind, no description, only a very faint feeling, he might have been saying I would like a glass of milk." While Poe's resignation is most extreme, this sense of futility, that any attempt to hope or escape will be thwarted, is typical of all the characters. Meyer captures the stagnation of life in a dying town, and it's interesting to observe how his characters make choices and justify their actions when faced with severely limited options