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American Rust

by Philipp Meyer (Goodreads Author)

3.58 of 5 stars 3.58 · rating details · 2,219 ratings · 519 reviews

BONUS: This edition contains a reader's guide.

Set in a beautiful but economically devastated Pennsylvania steel town,American Rustis a novel of the lost American dream and the desperation—as well as the acts of friendship, loyalty, and love—that arise from its loss. From local bars to trainyards to prison, it is the story of two young men, bound to the town by family, resp...more

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published February 24th 2009 by Spiegel & Grau (first published January 1st 2009)

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Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2009

23rd out of 100 books — 123 voters

Best Books of 2009

291st out of 1,225 books — 6,456 voters

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Oct 22, 2011 karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: littry-fiction

awwww poor boook. i am only feeling three stars here but i am giving it four because the other reviews are so unfair. (not the one that says there has been no good fiction published this century - that one is so much laughable curmudgeonly elitist bullshit i can't even acknowledge it) but it's not a bad book. as far as the "confusing narration" "who is speeeeaking??" hint: the chapter names are the names of the narrators. so - no great mystery there. the run-ons and lack of punctuation?? it's mo...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Con McVeety rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have been living in Pittsburgh for over seven years and in that time I have often visited the Mon River Valley south of the city of champions. Towns such as Monessen, Donora, New Eagle, Brownsville, Bell Vernon and others make up the Mon River Valley, They are towns nestled between the muddy brown Monongahela River and inspiring hillsides, each town has its own unique charm and the region is the setting of Philip Meyer's American Rust. Meyer's describes the valley strikingly well, I got a thr...more

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Jul 13, 2010 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

ARC received through the First Reads giveaway program.

I found American Rust to be very satisfying. It reminded me of Faulkner's writing, except for the part where Faulkner drives me crazy! I was also reminded a bit of Empire Falls, as both take place in towns that have fallen on rough times.

There is definitely a plot, and it does move forward, but at a slower pace than expected for a story revolving around a murder. Meyer takes his time and explores the minds of the characters, which I think was...more

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Dec 24, 2010 Kim rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I gave this book three stars for the literary value. I had trouble with it though, because the gratuitous sex bothered me. I guess, my prudishness can get in the way of books like this.

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May 23, 2011 Shelley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

I bought this book as a birthday gift for my husband and ended up reading it myself. This is the kind of book that, two years ago, I would have stayed up all night finishing in one sitting. Now I have a kid, so I had to settle for reading it over the span of a week. One of the minor sacrifices that comes with being a parent.

I had very high expectations for the book after reading only the epigraph, and, ultimately, I wasn't disappointed. My hat is off to Philipp Meyer for writing a book that is s...more I bought this book as a birthday gift for my husband and ended up reading it myself. This is the kind of book that, two years ago, I would have stayed up all night finishing in one sitting. Now I have a kid, so I had to settle for reading it over the span of a week. One of the minor sacrifices that comes with being a parent.

I had very high expectations for the book after reading only the epigraph, and, ultimately, I wasn't disappointed. My hat is off to Philipp Meyer for writing a book that is suspenseful, layered with meaning, thought-provoking - and one that is likely to stand the test of time. It's gritty, but, man, it's good.

Both the content and the form are compelling, and, in my estimation, far better than what you get these days from most contemporary novels.

Regarding the novel's form, the mode of narration is pure genius - nothing else would have done for this story. A great many novels these days are told "from multiple perspectives," so much so, that, frankly, I'm getting a little tired of it. Sometimes I wonder if the disappearing omniscient narrator is a sign of the times. The closer we move toward moral relativism, the less likely we are to trust a narrator who claims to have the market on objective truth. The god-like narrator is dying, a shame in my eyes. And herein lies the brilliance of Philipp Meyer. The mode of narration throughout is third-person selective omniscient; however, the "selective" part alternates from character to character. So, in a sense, the story is told from multiple perspectives, but we still have this sort of all-knowing narrator. Just fantastic!

The content of the novel is so rich, cut from the same mold as other existentialist-type stories I've really enjoyed, like The Stranger, Siddhartha and The Plague. The universe in which the characters find themselves is a godless one, and, as a result, they are constantly bumping up against the absurdity of their existence as they try to make moral choices, define themselves and live honorable, dignified lives. Dripping from every page is this sense of total despair at the seeming irrationality of it all. The ideas that anchor the book combined with the author's knack for verisimilitude make this a chilling read. I felt like I was transported to the setting of the novel.

There is some Christian imagery used throughout that is either hopelessly irreverent or interesting and meaningful. I'm still trying to figure that one out.

Besides that, there is only one reason why I can't give this book five stars, even though I really, really wanted to. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. The ending of the novel let me down. For 300+ pages, the author hands you this very well-crafted blob of despair, that I truly believe extends logically from atheistic presuppositions, and then, in last few pages of the book, he wraps it up with a pretty, red bow, that seems to say, "Hey, there's no God, and no point to our existence, our choices are all arbitrary and devoid of moral value, but isn't it nice that we have friends?" I humbly believe that a better ending would have been the classically tragic one. Why not make the characters forfeit their own lives in an effort to live up to some irrational ideal that can only be a subjective illusion in an atheistic world? As Sartre says, "Man is nothing other than his own project. He exists only to the extent that he realizes himself, therefore he is nothing more than the sum of his actions, nothing more than his life." In light of this compelling quote, I propose the following utterly tragic ending: Poe pays the penalty for Issac's crime, a crime he didn't commit, because of the completely irrational delusion that this is what a hero would do, Grace dies of starvation (some kind of irrational penance for her son's deeds), Harris relinquishes his career to save the two boys (the innocent one paying the price and the guilty one going free) and Issac, to use Sartre's categories, successfully "lives in good faith," and escapes to California, unpunished. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think that makes for a much richer, darker, more tragic, more absurd ending. And one that is more consistent with the major themes I got from the book.

All in all, a compelling novel. As a theist, I found it to be a cathartic experience. Not recommended for those who don't do well with gritty and depressing story lines.

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Keshav Let me preface this by saying that I have not read the book. I agree with your basic point that in the absence of gods, it is logically incoherent to...more
updated May 24, 2011 08:33pm

Shelley Keshav, comments like this one remind me of why you were among my most favorite students at SBHS! Yes, I agree with your explanation for why we are dr...more
May 29, 2011 12:21pm

Keshav This brings back memories of the existentialism unit when we read Siddhartha! Anyway, as for your question "what is the moral thing to do when the fri...more
May 29, 2011 10:06pm

Feb 22, 2009 Krista rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

The tag for this book talks about beauty, dreams, and inspiration, and it has been compared to Russell Banks' picture of the Great Depression and John Steinbeck's exploration of America. Unfortunately, those descriptors were more lofty and pure than the actual story, so I ended up entering the giveaway of a book for which I probably wasn't the intended audience. I'm sure my rating reflects this, so read the review and interpret it as you will.

My take on the book: The background was a financiall...more

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Mar 18, 2009 Lisaruss rated it 1 of 5 stars

Why can't the crop of young American writers learn to write properly constructed literature? Fyodor Dostoevsky's take on the subject, for God's sake. When the sum total of someone's experiential modus operandi has involved cell phones, laptops, iPods, electronic devices, 24/7 cable TV, football half-time shows, virtual carnal knowledge, scanners, bar codes, reality TV, et al., to ad infinitum, then what can one really expect from such a cultural meltdown?

My suggestion to the potential readers o...more

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Feb 21, 2009 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is wonderfully visceral. The description is very meaty and really makes the setting come alive. What I like most is how Meyer juxtaposes the characters off of each other. The chapters present focuses from alternating characters' points of view, but Meyer doesn't alternate just to present a different take on the events of the novel. Rather, the characters develop in relation to each other. I felt not only the conflicts in the character in dealing with the events that occur, but the conf...more

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Dec 18, 2011 Alexandra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: belletristik, usa, rezensionsexemplare

Immer wenn ich in den Kritiken oder am Cover vom grossen amerikanischen Roman lese, bin ich sofort auf der Hut, denn meistens bedeutet dies ewig episch breites Herumgefasel sprachlich gut präsentiert und eine mittelmässige total langweilige amerikanische Mittelschicht mit aufgebauschten Durchschnittsproblemen, über die es sich eigentlich nicht wirklich lohnt, ein Buch zu schreiben.

Dieser Roman ist da aber total anders und hat mich sehr positiv überrascht. Meyer besschreibt in ROST die Schattense...more

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Apr 06, 2009 Kirsta rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009

For a book based on a great reality of our times, I found the characters to be completely unrealistic. The writing, from multiple characters points of view is muddled. How is it that so many people, who apparently don't communicate with one another at all, can have such identical, deeply profound thoughts? They are all thinking the same things about their home and times, yet when they communicate with one another, they aren't talking about anything, they are just cussing and then sleeping togeth...more

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Feb 17, 2009 Autumn rated it 1 of 5 stars

I think that Philipp Meyer has potential as an author but he has chosen to take a bit too many risks within this novel. Now I will say that the copy I was given was an uncorrected version. I did not find any spelling errors but there were many odd grammar uses and too many changes in the narrations point of view. when you would go within the thoughts of the characters, and you would get an odd listing of words which clearly meant something to the author but held no context to a reader not listen...more

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Feb 28, 2009 Proud Book Nerd rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book was OK. Not one of the best I've read. Not an instant classic. Not something I couldn't put down. The story was all right. It had promise. The characters were interesting. But, that's about it. I didn't like the writing style. I thought it was kinda neat to have the perspective of so many characters. I did like that. I liked that each chapter took one character's take on everything. I liked that we learned a lot about each character because we got to see inside their heads. I did not l...more

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Mar 28, 2009 Mara rated it 1 of 5 stars

We get inside the head of a lot of characters in this book. However, despite spending a lot of time inside their head, we rarely get any insight into their decision-making processes, which is unfortunate, since many of the characters make fairly dramatic decisions in the course of the narrative. Also, most of the characters seem somewhat mentally unstable, which is fine, if they're supposed to be, but I don't think they were. So overall it's just a bunch of unpleasant people running around makin...more

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Mar 09, 2009 Wendi rated it 2 of 5 stars

This novel is about a dying Pennsylvanian small town, with two young men who become involved in the murder at the forefront. It was an interesting read, although the short chapters (each with a different characters' point of view) was sometimes disconcerting. To be honest, I enjoyed the atmosphere of this book (the trailers, dive bars and trains) more than the plot itself, which at the end seemed rushed and a bit convoluted. I also found myself disbelieving some of the characters' motivations, e...more

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Feb 28, 2009 Sheila rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, mystery

I received this book as a Goodreads First Read, and I must admit that while this isn't a book I would have normally picked up, it hooked my attention in the first chapter. Definately not a slow starting novel. The letter from the publisher that came with the book compares the author to Cormac McCarthy and to John Steinbeck, but the author that came to mind for me as I was reading this book was Ernest Hemingway. American Rust is a story about fate and choices, friendship and family, and looking a...more

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Apr 13, 2013 James rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I did not finish reading American Rust. I threw in the towel on page 107 of American Rust's 367 pages. The book is divided into chapters, each of which is filled with the interior monologue of one of the 4-5 main characters. Occasionally, a dialogue between two characters or some plot action advances the story, but largely I was reading paragraph after paragraph, page after page, of the characters' musings, most of which I did not find interesting, surprising or worth spending more time with. Af...more

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Mar 17, 2009 Lynn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Meyer's vivid descriptions of the former Pennsylvania steel towns were so accurate I had to check to see if he had actually grown up in western Pennsylvania. HIs comment that the earth is reclaiming some of the land is true. It was so overcast and grimy driving into Pittsburgh in the 1960's. Now you can see the sun. Former mills are turned into office lofts, entertainment centers, or are crumbling and the trees and grasses are covering them.

This novel is mostly about friendship. Isaac Englist w...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Annieblue rated it 4 of 5 stars

This novel is set in Buell, a small steel town in Pennsylvania, which lies in ruins. The novel depicts the economic decline in America and the tarnishing of the American Dream.

The book follows two young men, best friends from high school as they deal with the lost American dream. Isaac English, brainy and socially awkward, was supposed to go to University and become a scientist, but instead finds himself stuck in a declining town looking after his invalid father. Billy Poe is a talented football...more This novel is set in Buell, a small steel town in Pennsylvania, which lies in ruins. The novel depicts the economic decline in America and the tarnishing of the American Dream.

The book follows two young men, best friends from high school as they deal with the lost American dream. Isaac English, brainy and socially awkward, was supposed to go to University and become a scientist, but instead finds himself stuck in a declining town looking after his invalid father. Billy Poe is a talented footballer with a turbulent temper, who was given the opportunity of an athletic scholarship but instead choses to stay in Buell with his mother. One day Issac impulsively decides to run away from his father and go to California to begin a new life, but this decision sets off a series of events, which ultimately ends up depicting their futures for them.

Philipp Meyer creates a richly layered narrative from the multiple perspectives of six different characters, enabling the reader to gain a deep understanding of their complexities. He entwines the intimate portraits together to show the reader the complex relationship between people and place and individuals and community.

This book took me on a roller coaster of emotions as I empathised with each of the characters. It ultimately challenged me by highlighting the way society can instinctively judge people from past events, social backgrounds etc and this social opinion can end up depicting your course in life. It demonstrates how society do not seek truth in a situation but respond to social opinion. It also shows how hard it is to break from the cycle that society traps you into and what they make you subconsciously think of yourselves. This book shown me how important it is to be honest with yourself and the people close to you and stop trying to be what others want or expect you to be.

This book comes highly recommend for a reason, it is a well written complex book in which the characters have depth and it shows America at a moment of profound unrest and uncertainty about the future. It is a moving novel about the bleak realities that battle our desire for transcendence.

To sum the book up in a sentence from the book it would be "the truth will set you free"
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Nov 19, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 2 of 5 stars

Okay, we get it. America has no jobs, the Rust Belt felt the worst of it, our youth is flailing without a direction, and we need to reach inside ourselves to find a future. Anyone who has lived in America for the past five years knows that, and while the situation in the old industry centers is pitiable, we need to move on now, kay? Thanks.

Philipp Meyer's novel American Rust attempts absolutely nothing daring. Novels of the times are all too common, and it's not like any of us don't know what's...more Okay, we get it. America has no jobs, the Rust Belt felt the worst of it, our youth is flailing without a direction, and we need to reach inside ourselves to find a future. Anyone who has lived in America for the past five years knows that, and while the situation in the old industry centers is pitiable, we need to move on now, kay? Thanks.

Philipp Meyer's novel American Rust attempts absolutely nothing daring. Novels of the times are all too common, and it's not like any of us don't know what's happening in the factories and mills of the old production towns. We've all stepped inside what it means to be an American in these times, when the American Dream is dead and we need to find a new dream to pursue. Meyer is not touching any new ground here; in fact, he may even be wallowing in the past, depending on how you look at it.

The novel runs like the ripples in a pond-- a story of aftereffects. At the very beginning of the story, twenty year-old genius Isaac English has already stolen $4,000 in cash from his crippled father and strikes out into the dark with his best friend, Billy Poe, to make their way out of their economically crippled Pennsylvania town of Buell. However, a run-in and subsequent fight with some homeless men leaves one dead, and the two boys must face how that small act of desperate, poorly considered violence will change their lives forever.

Poe's mother Grace, police chief Bud Harris, and Isaac's sister Lee also tell chunks of the story from their perspective, but all speak from the same voice: stagnant hopelessness. Even Lee, who has escaped from Buell and married into a rich family in Connecticut, has little direction and feels trapped by her past. Grace has slid into her present with little ambition, and now regrets her choices, and Bud has tried his hardest to prevent Poe's inevitable time in prison. The novel plays out in bad choice after bad choice, all of which make sense at the time, but have negative consequences in the long run.

Shadows of the Great Depression are nearly tangible throughout the novel. The most omnipresent wound in Buell's wallet is the closure of the steel mills in the 80s, which shut down the entire Valley where the town is located. Poe, Isaac, and Lee often comment on how beautiful the landscape is despite the heavy air of economic suffering on the town, but they talk about little else. Meyer certainly understands what it's like to have little money and no job, but he doesn't seem to understand much else.

The one interesting facet of this novel is writing style. Told in stream-of-consciousness, the style is evocative of James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. In fact, Meyer is probably a Joyce fan, as he slips in a subtle mention of the author in one of Lee's segments. The format lends the novel an element of sensitivity, like stepping inside the minds of the characters, bringing them to the human level the reader sitting in their heated home with enough to eat and an alarm system.

However, that is the only humanizing thing about American Rust. Very little of it seems real, and the author may argue that that's how it really is, but having lived in America all my life, this seems rather romanticized and farfetched. None of the characters is relatable, or even realistic: Isaac the genius, removed from society, Poe the jailbait, Lee the nostalgic rebel, and Grace the regretful waiting mother. All of them neatly fit into stereotypes that we expect in a novel about a crumbling society, and though they may exist somewhere in the world, people tend to be a great deal more complicated than Meyer makes them out to be.

Bud Harris the only interesting bright spot. He is conflicted about his life, stagnated, and unsure of why he does what he does. His chapters, rife with a kind of sadness about the state that both his country and his life are in, bristle with a resigned anger, and that is the only unique thing about this book. If the whole novel had been about Bud, it would have been time better spent.

American Rust is available for the Kindle for $11.99, or $10.20 in paperback from Amazon. It's three years old now and 367 pages long, so skip buying it if you can and check your library. Overall, a pretty dull read, and dragged out far longer than it should have, but the writing style is worth a shot if you want something simple and gritty to get you through your Thanksgiving break.

On that note, happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Read a book. If you're looking for some good ones, try An Imperfect God, or if you're in a fiction mood, The Whiskey Rebels is fantastic. Or, I've heard The Jefferson Lies is great, but I haven't gotten my hands on it yet. Enjoy your break!(less)

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May 15, 2012 Carl Brush rated it 5 of 5 stars

It’s barely halfway through the year, but if any other book beats out American Rust for the Writer Working book of the year, it’ll have to be so good I don’t think I’ll be able to stand reading it.

Phillipp Meyer’s evocation of the rusting Pennsylvania steel industry and its parallel with the deterioration of institutions in a collapsing society, or the collapsing part of a society, is so powerful it shakes your heart. When institutions die, of course, people and families die with them. Such deat...more

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Apr 19, 2012 Jonathan Briggs rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Buell, Pa., may not have been the proudest imaginary town never put on a map, but at least it was working steadily once upon a time. Then the steel mills closed, and in that death, so died the surrounding community. As in many of America's gutted towns, the very young and the old stay, but "all the smart ones leave." Lee and Isaac English are two of the smart ones. Lee went to college at Yale and married rich, leaving her younger brother to take care of their father, Henry, disabled in a mill ac...more Buell, Pa., may not have been the proudest imaginary town never put on a map, but at least it was working steadily once upon a time. Then the steel mills closed, and in that death, so died the surrounding community. As in many of America's gutted towns, the very young and the old stay, but "all the smart ones leave." Lee and Isaac English are two of the smart ones. Lee went to college at Yale and married rich, leaving her younger brother to take care of their father, Henry, disabled in a mill accident. Isaac has had enough of playing dutiful son to a distant dad and decides to go to California with $4,000 stolen from the old man's pension. On the way to catch a train hobo-style, he picks up an escort from his drunken buddy Billy Poe, a trailer-trash man-child former high school jock who sponges off his mother, Grace. When a storm breaks, they take shelter in an abandoned factory and get involved in a turf tussle with three bums, one of whom Isaac kills. It's arguably a case of self-defense, but Isaac and Poe flee the scene. Isaac stays around town long enough to get pissed off when Poe and a visiting Lee resume an affair from high school. Fed up with their carrying on, Isaac goes back to his original plan and plays like Roger Miller on a train to Detroit, leaving Poe to face the pokey when Police Chief Bud Harris investigates the bum's killing. Poe would have been incarcerated a long time ago over an earlier violent altercation that left a boy permanently damaged, but Harris, in an on-again off-again relationship with Grace, got him off the hook. Not this time. Poe's going away, and anyone who's seen a prison movie in the past 40 years knows what kinda shenanigans they get up to in there. Meanwhile, Isaac finds out in his own way what a crappy world it is out there, beaten, robbed and starving.

Meyer crawls right into the minds of his six main characters, riding their thoughtstreams for a chapter at a time, scarcely pausing to punctuate. These passages can blur together and get a bit repetitive. At some point, every person in the book stops to ruminate on ephemeral existence, inevitable mortality and the inconsequentiality of it all in a great, wide, uncaring universe. Poe may be the book's most fascinating character. This would be a much less interesting novel if it was the standard male-bonding, no-snitching tale. There's something more complex going on here. Poe's motivations could launch a thousand book club discussions. Why does he button up and take the rap for Isaac? As friends, they don't seem all that close, particularly considering that Isaac could just take off like he does, rarely giving a thought to what might be happening to Poe. So why would Poe sacrifice himself? A martyrdom complex? Guilt over the crime he wasn't punished for? A wrong-headed sense of purpose that he's finally doing something right after a life largely wasted? Middle-finger stubbornness? Or just plain ol' stupidity?

This kind of book could easily have turned into an Oprah-approved sob story like "House of Sand and Fog," in which no one was responsible for anything, everyone was a victim of bad luck and circumstance and nothing was anybody's fault. Not here. Every one of the characters in "Rust" has a choice. They have enough self-awareness to realize they're not totally victims of fortune and society, they've each played a part in their own predicament thru poor judgment, fear of change or pure self-destructive bloody-mindedness. Maybe it's twisted, maybe my attitude comes from quite a personal history of screw-ups, but I have slightly more respect for a person who can face his own messes even if he can't quit making them. "It was not some unfair twist of fate, he had not been born a refugee, it was his own choices, he could be a man about it. He could accept the consequences." This in no way lets off the hook the rampant sociopathy that passes for corporate management these days. "American Rust" brims with righteous anger at the CEOs getting rich making others poor. "You could not have a country, not this big, that didn't make things for itself. There would be ramifications eventually." Sooner, rather than later, I fear.

Against such a bleak backdrop, the book's quiet grace notes stand out more sharply. They're nothing dramatic. Just banal little acts of kindness people may perform when they think no one's looking. That undercover ordinariness makes such acts paradoxically special and gives glimmers of hope that it's not all swirling down the toilet as fast as we might think. Some might accuse "American Rust" of being miserabilist, but then some might accuse me of being miserabilist as well, so we got along just fine. In Philipp Meyer, we have a first-time novelist good enough to join Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos on the border between crime fiction and the chronicles of America's (not) working class.(less)

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Mar 01, 2012 Florinda rated it 3 of 5 stars

There are places in this country that have been permanently changed by the recession - not the current one, or the tech-bubble one, but the one from about thirty years ago. That was when the heavy manufacturing that had been the source of American economic strength for so long began to crumble. Jobs left, and didn't come back; and to find jobs and make new lives, many people found that they had to leave too. But others stayed - sometimes by their own choice, sometimes because they felt they had...more There are places in this country that have been permanently changed by the recession - not the current one, or the tech-bubble one, but the one from about thirty years ago. That was when the heavy manufacturing that had been the source of American economic strength for so long began to crumble. Jobs left, and didn't come back; and to find jobs and make new lives, many people found that they had to leave too. But others stayed - sometimes by their own choice, sometimes because they felt they had no other choice. The story Philipp Meyer tells in American Rust concerns all of them.

Lee English got out of Buell, Pennsylvania on a scholarship to Yale, and sealed a new place for herself by marrying a trust-fund baby. Her brilliant younger brother, Isaac, set aside his own academic ambitions to stay with their disabled father, until his feelings of frustration and under-appreciation fueled him to steal some cash from his dad and slip away, planning to hop trains until he made it to Berkeley, California. Isaac's unlikely best friend, Billy Poe, had blown off the opportunity to play college football and didn't seem interested in going anywhere, but Isaac decided to try to convince him to tag along anyway. An unexpected encounter on their way out of town sends Isaac off on his own, makes Billy's prospects cloudier than ever, and brings Lee back home.

Using these three characters as narrators, as well as Billy's mother Grace and police chief Bud Harris, Meyer covers a brief but eventful period in their lives, but he also takes a deeper look at the conditions that surround and affect them. He vividly evokes a sense of place - a place that keeps a hold on its people through their collective past, despite the fact that it no longer has much in the way of a future to offer them.

American Rust is Phillip Meyer's first novel, and it's an ambitious one. At times, I felt that he may have tried to pack too much into it, and I grew a bit frustrated with that later in the book, but for the most part, I think he did it effectively and well. The story didn't grab me from the first page, but it did pull me in before too long, and then I found myself wrapped up in it. I usually like stories told from multiple perspectives, and I thought Meyer made each character's voice unique - although I did have to get used to the stream-of-consciousness style he used in writing their inner monologues, which didn't always clearly set them off from the third-person narration he employed for the story as a whole. I would have liked to see a couple of the characters developed more (and perhaps less of others), but a reader's interests don't always dovetail perfectly with the writer's, and I usually feel that when I'm engaged enough to care about that aspect of the novel, the writer is doing a good job. The mood of the novel is fairly - and appropriately - bleak, but the writing is evocative.

This isn't a feel-good novel, but American Rust is a thought-provoking and memorable story, and I'll be interested in seeing what its author does next.(less)

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Sep 29, 2011 dubh rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, american-literature, favorites

Philipp Meyer ist ein junger US-amerikanischer Autor, geboren 1974 in Baltimore/Maryland, und lebt heute in Texas. Nach diversen, sehr unterschiedlichen Jobs und einigen kleineren Veröffentlichungen seiner Prosa, ist "American Rust" sein Romandebüt.

Anfangs dachte ich, dass ich ein Buch aus einer anderen Zeit lese, ich dachte an raues Arbeiterklima, an Hobos und Zeiten, in denen weder Wanderarbeiter groß Rechte besaßen noch sonst jedwede Gewerkschaftsarbeit erlaubt war... Deshalb war ich auch zie...more Philipp Meyer ist ein junger US-amerikanischer Autor, geboren 1974 in Baltimore/Maryland, und lebt heute in Texas. Nach diversen, sehr unterschiedlichen Jobs und einigen kleineren Veröffentlichungen seiner Prosa, ist "American Rust" sein Romandebüt.

Anfangs dachte ich, dass ich ein Buch aus einer anderen Zeit lese, ich dachte an raues Arbeiterklima, an Hobos und Zeiten, in denen weder Wanderarbeiter groß Rechte besaßen noch sonst jedwede Gewerkschaftsarbeit erlaubt war... Deshalb war ich auch ziemlich überrascht, als ich realisiert habe, dass "Rost" in unserer Gegenwart spielt. Die beiden Hauptfiguren könnten unterschiedlicher nicht sein: Isaac English ist eher ein intellektueller Einzelgänger, kommt aus einem relativ 'normalen' Elternhaus, hat sehr gute Chancen auf ein Studium und möchte nach dem Selbstmord der Mutter vor einigen Jahren und dem Weggang seiner Schwester in erster Linie dem trostlosen Leben mit seinem Vater in einer Kleinstadt nahe Pittsburgh/Pennsylvania, entkommen. Poe, sein guter Freund, ist nicht nur körperlich das glatte Gegenteil von Isaac: er ist stämmig gebaut und war bis vor zwei Jahren Tight End (eine nicht unwichtige Position) im Football-Team seiner Schule. Aber Poe kommt nicht in die Pötte - während alle damit rechneten, dass er bald in einem (Profi-) Team weiterspielt, hängt er lieber arbeitslos im abgewrackten Trailer seiner Mutter herum, trinkt Dosenbier und schiebt sämtliche Bewerbungen vor sich her... Als Isaac dann seinen Vater um das Startgeld für den großen Aufbruch gen Kalifornien bestiehlt und seinen Kumpel abholen kommt, ist der gar nicht mehr so sicher, ob er diesen Aufbruch überhaupt möchte. Sie kommen nicht allzu weit, da suchen sie in einem alten Fabrikgebäude Unterschlupf vor dem über sie hereingebrochenen Regen und treffen dort auf ein paar Obdachlose, die sich als die Bewohner der Baracke verstehen... Isaac erkennt die brenzlig werdende Situation für sich und seinen Kumpel - doch der will nicht wegen ein paar vermeintlich läppischer Handgreiflichkeiten kneifen. Und so kommt es zum äußersten: in Notwehr tötet Isaac einen Menschen. Der Verdacht der Polizei fällt auf Poe, den stärkeren der beiden, der zudem schon einmal in eine heftige Schlägerei verwickelt war - und dieser nimmt die Schuld tatsächlich auch auf sich... Während er also in den Knast geht, setzt Isaac seine Wanderschaft an die Westküste fort.

Währenddessen lernt man alle Protagonisten der Tragödie kennen: Isaacs Schwester Lee beispielsweise, die der Trostlosigkeit zwar entkommen ist, aber von Gewissensbissen geplagt wird - hat sie doch ihren kleinen Bruder mit dem pflegebedürftigen Vater einfach alleine gelassen. Oder Poes Mutter Grace, die schon längst weg sein wollte, weg aus dem heruntergekommenen Trailer, weg mit ihrem Sohn. Oder der Sheriff der Kleinstadt, Harris, der sich mit Poe schon einmal große Mühe gegegben hat. All diese Menschen sind geprägt von der Trostlosigkeit ihrer Situation und ihrer Umgebung - Depression, Arbeitslosigkeit, Zerfall, ja, sogar der Selbstmord von Isaacs Mutter nach dem Unfall des Vaters... Philipp Meyer beschreibt den Untergang einer einst - dank der Stahlindustrie - blühenden Region. Die Globalisierung der Arbeit begünstigt des Sterben dieser Region und schafft für die 'kleinen Leute', die dort leben, nahezu ausweglose Alltagssituationen.

Philipp Meyers Schreibstil wurde von der Washington Post mit der Tradition Hemingways, Steinbecks und McCarthys verglichen - anfangs war ich bei solchen Vergleichen mehr als skeptisch. Aber ich muss sagen, dass John Steinbeck mit "Von Mäusen und Menschen" nicht so weit entfernt ist - geht es immerhin um die Situation zweier Arbeiter, die auch von einem besseren Leben träumen - freilich zu einer anderen Zeit. Und auch Cormac McCarthy ist mit seiner düsteren Schreibe nicht weit weg, auch wenn er sicherlich einen lakonischeren, einen böseren Ton wählt. Meyer hat meiner Meinung nach einen großen Wurf gelandet - "Rost" ist kein einfaches Buch - es ist literarisch und es ist vor allen Dingen bedrückend. Sein Buch handelt von einer modernen Art von Schuld und Sühne, beleuchtet die Situation ganz normaler Menschen, die unter den Zwängen ihrer Zeit leiden, durch Arbeitslosigkeit, Sinn- und Hoffnungslosigkeit geprägt sind. Dabei ist Meyer klug und sozialkritisch, seine Figuren realistisch.

FAZIT: Kein Buch zum Weglesen, dafür eines mit Nachhaltigkeit und literarischem Können. Und auch wenn "Rost" in Pennsylvania spielt, so lässt es sich auch übertragen - in ehemals blühende Landschaften, die heute von Tristesse und Arbeitslosigkeit heimgesucht werden.(less)

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Sep 28, 2011 Shannon rated it 5 of 5 stars

A lot of reviewers commented on the grammar/sentence structure of the novel, and I agree, to a point. American Rust is part stream-of-consciousness, part third person narration. There are points at which this feels messy. There are some sentences I read two or three times and still didn't understand. However, I LOVED the way the novel incorporates so many characters from this depressed Rust Belt community. You get many points of view on the closing of the steelmills, and the impact on these smal...more

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Sep 17, 2011 Evan rated it 3 of 5 stars

There are a pile of really boneheaded reviews on here about this book. I'm still giving it three stars, but it doesn't deserve to be dragged through the mud just because some people don't understand innovative punctuation usage.

Look, whether you agree with the moral overtones of the book or not, the story is compellingly told and utterly sincere. There is an awful lot of carping on these reviews about the book's supposed atheist overtones, which I admit are pretty strong, but I take that as a st...more There are a pile of really boneheaded reviews on here about this book. I'm still giving it three stars, but it doesn't deserve to be dragged through the mud just because some people don't understand innovative punctuation usage.

Look, whether you agree with the moral overtones of the book or not, the story is compellingly told and utterly sincere. There is an awful lot of carping on these reviews about the book's supposed atheist overtones, which I admit are pretty strong, but I take that as a strength. How often do we read stories about downtrodden poor people who are ultra wrapped-up in God and guilt and paralyzed by inaction? Another reviewer mentions Dostoevsky. Specifically, I think this book is a lot like Dostoevsky's "Demons," in that the mental sickness of murder and decay pervades the whole story. Just for once, I like the fact that the characters seem really wrapped up in their immediate concerns instead of thinking about the Great Beyond. Because, let's face it, how many of us DO actually think about God when we do something stupid? It's usually afterwords that the Spirit in the Sky makes an appearance in the form of our conscience (or the nagging inner voice that suits that purpose).

So, kudos offered for a bold step into the reality of poor people in modern America, who don't always act the same as Dostoevsky's poor people. Get over it. I'd also like to offer kudos to Meyer for getting his characters and the whole setting dead on. I've been to some of the rust-shell of Pennsylvania (not specifically the Mon Valley, but nearby) and the book is pitch perfect. It makes you simultaneously aware and upset that this is happening not far from other places you know and love.

And, there was a great sentiment expressed in this book that ought to be taken as a common truth. In various passages, in the guise of various characters, the narrator points out that a society in which the members can't be good at anything, decay is inevitable. Steelworkers making $30/hr gave way to janitors making $5.50. No dignity, no growth, no society.

American Rust hammers home on these difficult realities for a solid 9/10 of the way through. The ending disappoints, but that's because Meyer pulls back from what might be the ultimate depths of tragedy to which he could let the story sink. Still, a resonant book.(less)

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Sep 10, 2011 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars

American Rust is a summer 2011 selection of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle: http://www.ciweb.org/education-clsc/

When things fall apart, there are strata in which humans become predatory, possibly in the extremes -- the wealthiest on Wall Street went after the steel market while the poorest in the devastated mill towns went after each other. Philipp Meyer was a broker who watched the stocks climb as each mill was closed and experienced the adrenaline rushes but found it so meaningl...more

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Aug 08, 2011 SwensonBooks rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: jill

Phillip Meyer's 2010 novel is a haunting reflection of contemporary America. The senselessness of violence is a theme that permeates the plot. Just as I finished it, Loughner went ballistic in Arizona and suddenly this work of fiction offers a mirror into our nation's mental health. When life means nothing, death means nothing more.

Set in a small factory town in Pennsylvania, the characters come to life and I recognize my neighbors and friends and community in the depressing state of affairs. T...more Phillip Meyer's 2010 novel is a haunting reflection of contemporary America. The senselessness of violence is a theme that permeates the plot. Just as I finished it, Loughner went ballistic in Arizona and suddenly this work of fiction offers a mirror into our nation's mental health. When life means nothing, death means nothing more.

Set in a small factory town in Pennsylvania, the characters come to life and I recognize my neighbors and friends and community in the depressing state of affairs. The deep characters' problems resonate outside the steel industry woes; these people lived through the de-industrialization of our nation in complicated family situations.

Billy Poe played high school football and excelled at that alone. Isaac English, Poe's friend, is small and bookish. But like Poe, after graduation from high school Isaac simply drifted. He was left to care for his father -- disabled from an injury in the factory -- after his mother committed suicide and his sister, Lee, escaped to Yale.

Isaac makes a plan for his big escape. He steals $4,000 in cash from his father and hooks up with Billy Poe to escape this hometown of hopelessness. Before they are even out of town they run into a trio of "bums" who challenge them for their shelter against the rain. Isaac runs for it but Billy Poe can't walk away from a fight. Before he knows it, Poe has a knife at his throat. Isaac returns when he realizes he's left Billy behind in danger. He sees Billy under assault and picks up a rock and hurls it. Much to his surprise at his own strength under the influence of adrenaline, the bum is dead. The Swede, they called him.

Meyer's epigraph is written by another old Swede, Soren Kierkegaard: "If there were not eternal consciousness in a man...if an unfathomable, insatiable emptiness lay hid beneath everythng, what would life be but despair?"

Nihilism, for Soren Kierkegaard, is the leveling effect of society. It's the suppression of individuality by social forces to the point where the self disappears. Nihilism isn't the same as anarchy. It's more the philosophy of nothingness rather than the senseless destruction resulting from holding such a world view. Nietzsche is perhaps better known than the old Swede for his political writings about nihilism. Nietzsche realized that the impulses toward senseless destruction result from a life without meaning. Nihilism is the belief that there is no point to existence. Moral nihilism is when no action is judged as inherently right or wrong. Killing, for example, isn't right or wrong. Existential nihilism is the belief that life has no intrinsic meaning or value. This makes for a heady mix of themes in a small town crime story. Epistemological nihilism is that pervasive skepticism in our society in which facts and knowledge can simply be denied. I'm not talking about a healthy dose of critical reasoning. No, it's the widespread belief that you can't believe anything.

It is not simply Poe, Isaac, and his sister Lee who inhabit this nihilistic world in American Rust. Parents, the police, the bums, the lawyers, and their peers reside here, too. The story is gripping and its telling magnificent. The chapters are titled by the voice of the character who narrates. Louise Erdrich is another writer who uses this technique so effectively to convey the depth and complexity to characters. Each voice is distinctive and authentic in a haunting way for its almost confessional tone.

It's a sad story without a verdict.(less)

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Jun 13, 2011 Richard Bon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I didn't expect the "terrible act of violence" mentioned on the back of the book to occur so early in the story, and found myself immediately intrigued, turning pages to learn the fates of the affected characters. Meyer alternates writing from the perspective of six of these characters, in third person but more like first person at times, and all six are well developed and believable. I enjoyed reading Isaac's perspective best of all, his scattered thoughts, though some resonated with me more th...more

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Feb 18, 2011 Roberta rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, favorites

Siamo a Buell, cittadina della Pennsylvania, ex centro industriale (nel campo dell'acciaio), ormai persa sotto un pesante velo di ruggine e decadenza in seguito alla crisi economica e al dislocamento del lavoro.

I protagonisti (il libro è organizzato in capitoli dedicati in modo alterno a quelli principali) si dividono in persone di mezza età che hanno vissuto l'epoca d'oro e poi - non avendo la possibilità o per inerzia - sono rimasti a vivere anche la depressione, o giovani all'alba della loro...more

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Feb 01, 2011 Paul Pessolano rated it 3 of 5 stars

Although "American Rust" is a good read, it will be of most interest to those who live in the Pittsbugh/Mon Valley region. The Pittsburgh/Mon Valley area was built up around the steel industry. Steel plants could be seen throughout the area, some plants ran for miles and miles along the rivers, and steel was being produced 24 hours a day. Jobs were plentiful and high paying. This all came to an end with the influx of inexpensive foreign steel. The vast majority of steel plants were shut down and...more Although "American Rust" is a good read, it will be of most interest to those who live in the Pittsbugh/Mon Valley region. The Pittsburgh/Mon Valley area was built up around the steel industry. Steel plants could be seen throughout the area, some plants ran for miles and miles along the rivers, and steel was being produced 24 hours a day. Jobs were plentiful and high paying. This all came to an end with the influx of inexpensive foreign steel. The vast majority of steel plants were shut down and thousands of people were out of work with little hope of recovery.

Two young men, Isaac English and Billy Poe, were unlikely friends but found themselves remaining in the Valley even though both had opportunities to leave.

Isaac finally decides to make the break and move to California and has asked Billy to go with him. They decided to spend the night in an old railroad shack. There they are accosted by several men and Isaac, to save Billy, kills one of them.

Isaac takes off, not knowing that his friend Billy is being charged with the murder, and is keeping his mouth shut. Billy is put into a prison that is mostly run by the inmates, and becomes involved in the atrocities of prison life. He goes against the system and is seriously injured when stabbed by another inmate.

Isaac also finds touble when meeting up with a "hobo" that is showing him how to travel by rail. Isaac stole $4,000 from his father and this money has now been taken by his traveling companion. Isaac now out of money, tired, wet, cold, and his conscious bothering him decides to return home and confess to the murder.

Harris, in the meantime, is having an affair with Billy's molther and to protect Billy, tracks down the other two men. His plan is to intimidate the one who is bringing charges against Billy, to leave town, leaving no witnesses to the murder. This turns out to be a bigger problem than Harris could have imagined.

I found this book to be very interesting and certainly kept my attention to the very end. I found some of the writing to be a little difficult, but believe that this was the author's intent. A good story of how a town's change can be devastating not only to itself but its inhabitants as well.(less)

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About Philipp Meyer

Philipp Meyer's novel, American Rust, was an Economist Book of the Year, a Washington Post Top Ten Book of 2009, a New York Times Notable Book, A Kansas City Star Top 100 Book of 2009, and an Amazon Top 100 Book of 2009.

Philipp Meyer grew up in Baltimore, dropped out of high school, and got his GED when he was sixteen. After spending several years working as a bike mechanic and volunteering at a t...more

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“You ought to be able to grow up in a place and not have to get the hell out of it when you turn eighteen.” — 4 people liked it

“It was like this all up and down the river and many of the young people, the way they accepted their lack of prospects, it was like watching sparks die in the night...He didn't see how the country could survive like this in the long run; a stable society required stable jobs, there wasn't anything more to it than that. ” — 2 people liked it

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