American Rust by Philipp Meyer

I was guided to this book by the search engine of Amazon and it was a good choice. The reviews I have read state that the book has a Steinbeck like quality. High praise indeed. After having read the book I will say that it is very good. At times when reading it it was surely a page turner.

The book centers around the town of Buell, Pennsylvania, a town devastated by the downfall of the American steel industry. Our main characters are Isaac and Poe. Isaac a young man whose father lost his steel mill job and then becomes crippled when he is injured working in a non union plant. His mother has committed suicide by drowning, with then pounds of rocks in her pockets to make sure she is successful. Isaac is a genius, 1560 on his SAT's but he has now two years out of high school not made it out of town. His older sister did, she went to Yale, and has now married into New England society. Isaac feeling he is boxed in, taking care of his father, steals four thousand dollars from his fathers desk and prepares to leave.

Poe is a former high school football player who did not accept a scholarship to Colgate. He has lost every job he has gotten, has a penchant for getting into fights and is going nowhere. Unlikely friends Poe tells Isaac he will not leave town for him but agrees to escort him out of town. On that way out of town seeking shelter out of the rain they run into some homeless men. What happens changes everything.

From there the repurcussions of that incident revertabrate out to the local Sherriff Harris, Poe's Mom Grace , and Isaac's older sister Lee. This book tells about family, expectations. dreams we have and dreams we give up.

This is a very good book. I would have called it a great book but for the ending. I do not mind ambivalent endings, I love short stories, this I believe wants us to understand the ending but in doing so makes it too ambivalent for clarity. Still a good book and it is a surprise I have not heard much of this author before or after.