The opening pages of American Rust, by debut American novelist Philipp Meyer, are stunning, revealing a richly textured style of concrete action and internal immersion, a style wonderful to read once its cadence is absorbed. In a dying Pennsylvania town gutted by its steel mill’s closure, two unlikely friends – geeky, smart Isaac English and short-fuse football star Billy Poe, take shelter in an abandoned factory. Tragedy eventuates, Billy ends up in prison and Isaac takes off as a hobo on Midwest trains. Both are wracked by confusion and conscience. The author then begins switching between six characters, including Sheriff Harris (easily imaginable as Tommy Lee Jones in No Country for Old Men), Isaac’s sister and Billy’s mother, all observed deep in their thoughts.
As the title presages, the surrounding environment, beautiful wilderness overlaid by ugly industrial America, is a key character in itself, and Meyer offers rich descriptions. Following a vein of American fiction stemming from Faulkner and Steinbeck, American Rust has the tinge of a minor masterpiece. But masterpiece this novel is not – my reading degenerated into a chore and the book’s ending was a genuinely minor key resolution. After putting down the book, it took me a while, and some discussions with friends, to identify the flaws of American Rust that negate its undeniable strengths. The trouble is, the overall plot is not strong enough to sustain the promise of the opener. In the end, little happens and the microscopic style aggravates this for the reader. A couple of characters plain bored me. And the climax is limp and resigned.
Watch out for Philipp Meyer’s next book and hope that the promise of American Rust is fulfilled.