American Rust

By: Philipp Meyer

Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte

Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Set in a beautiful but economically devastated Pennsylvania steel town, American Rust is 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 train yards to prison, it is the story of two young men, bound to the town by family, responsibility, inertia, and the beauty around them, who dream of a future beyond the factories and abandoned homes.

Left alone to care for his aging father after his mother commits suicide and his sister escapes to Yale, Isaac English longs for a life beyond his hometown. But when he finally sets out to leave for good, accompanied by his temperamental best friend, former high school football star Billy Poe, they are caught up in a terrible act of violence that changes their lives forever.

Evoking John Steinbeck's novels of restless lives during the Great Depression, American Rust takes us into the contemporary American heartland at a moment of profound unrest and uncertainty about the future. It is a dark but lucid vision, a moving novel about the bleak realities that battle our desire for transcendence and the power of love and friendship to redeem us.

©2009 Philipp Meyer (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"Meyer has a thrilling eye for failed dreams and writes uncommonly tense scenes of violence, and in the character of Grace creates a woeful heroine. Fans of Cormac McCarthy or Dennis Lehane will find in Meyer an author worth watching." ( Publishers Weekly)

" American Rust announces the arrival of a gifted new writer — a writer who understands how place and personality and circumstance can converge to create the perfect storm of tragedy." ( The New York Times)

"This bleak but skillful debut novel is both affecting and timely." ( The New Yorker)

Quick End

Hours of build up . . . Twenty minute end. Enjoyed the book but the finale left me unsatisfied.

A Web of Despair and Desperation

Probably 4.5 corroded stars. An amazing first novel that spins a web of despair and desperation set in a degraded rust belt town that is still in the midst of the Fall. It is a novel of hard compromises, silent heros, and people that grind on every day knowing the sun for them will not rise tomorrow. This is a great American novel that narrates the things we all do to survive in a universe that is slowly growing cold. It is written for and about the people we rely on to survive, those we hurt and the people we leave behind.

American Rust is (and this is absolutely not original) like J.D. Salinger's Glass family had been taken from 1940s Manhattan and dropped unceremoniously into a Cormac McCarthy novel. I still can't get over the fact that this was a first novel. Tom Stechschulte delivers an amazing performance in this 3rd person, split-personality narration where almost every character is a jumble of stream of conscious inner monologues.

The real deal

I grew up and live in southwestern Pennsylvania. I'm from a family of steel workers. I watched my father, uncles and my husband loose their jobs when the factories went under. I was a part of this : families falling apart and Loosing everything. Geographic , chronology and demographics are all right on. My mind vividly depicted the settings as the characters drifted through each scene. This book really hit home. A keeper !

A New American Classic

I was blown away by this book. Beautiful stream of consciousness storytelling, complex characters, a fantastic story. I hope this author has more books so i can listen to them all

very good

Good plot, strong characters. Great depiction of the deindustrialization heartland. Reads like a dramatization of a Bruce Springsteen song. In a good way.

wow

great story , little honey dick ending wish their was more
i felt as if thrh could had added a bit more or sequel

Gritty story

This story is a very realistic portrayal of a part of America few Americans know about. The depressing reality of steel mills closing and what it does to a community. It is a cross between Steinbeck’s Of Mice & Men and The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. Depressing but beautifully written.

A little rusty

While I enjoyed the story, I found it a little difficult to adjust to the author's somewhat maddening habit of having all the characters "think out loud". While it may have been easy to follow if you were reading the book, as a listener it got very confusing. Not a bad book, but I prefer Tawney O'Dell if I want to read about life in depressed coal mining towns.

This Rust Shines

Wise Sherrif Harris saves two Pennsylvania boys, one of whom done it, from a murder rap by murdering a key witness. He's also bopping one of the boy's mom. The two boys are friends, and one of them is bopping the other's sister before he goes into the clink as the prime suspect while the one who actually done it goes on the lam. Pennsylvania keeps getting rustier. Jaklak gives it five beers on a scale of six. .

Don't expect a happy ending

good story with lots of build up but no closure for most of the characters at the end. don't waste your time with this book