American Rust by Phillip Meyer

Upon first beginning American Rust I knew I was about to experience something somewhat rare for me... discovering a powerful writer at (what I would hope to be) the beginning of a long career. Normally, I pick up a book after I’ve read the reviews, kind of knowing what to expect, and then read with those expectations firmly in place. Well, with American Rust, not so - it arrived at my door, and with no more than a study of the cover art I dove in. American Rust is mainly the story two young men in a small town of Pennsylvania. You could say they got stuck in the town after high school, but like all things in life, once you look a little closer, there are and were reasons why they haven’t escaped to college and/or a better place yet. While attempting to get out one day, the pair takes refuge from a storm in an abandoned factory and have a run in with three homeless men - when all is said and done, one of those men is dead and the story takes off from there. On the surface, American Rust is an almost noir-ish style crime novel with the likes of Patricia Cornwell singing its praises, but on the interior this book is a whole lot more.

Meyer ‘s writing is mesmerizing and descriptive. His grasp of the beauty and desperation present in many parts of Pennsylvania is something to relish while reading this book. As a native Pennsylvanian, it is often hard to impress me when it comes to writers doing the state justice, yet I feel Phillip Meyer got it right on... while dying steel/mill/factory/mining towns are sprinkled throughout the state, they are not quite as prevalent as popular fiction would have you believe, yet they still tend to be a large part of our makeup. Every one of us, from Pennsylvania or not, on some level, know towns and areas like this, it is just that for some of us the drive to them is much closer - to feel them for real, to view not a dying economy but a dead one, to drink in their bars, and experience the underlying beauty of a place that seems to be hiding behind every rusted mill and crumbling factory. For those whose drive to these areas and towns is not so close, American Rust is a way to experience them.

American Rust is pure American Literature, and more than that, it is Pennsylvanian Literature. This book came with comparisons to Steinbeck and Cormac McCarthy, yet I fee Richard Russo would be a better name to throw in to the mix. Fans of Russo’s writing about upstate NY should find something to enjoy in Phillip Meyer’s Pennsylvania. I know I did.

While reading American Rust I was often taken aback by the uncanny timing of this release - in a time when many Americans are worried about the economy, here is a book which examines, on one level, what many of us fear could happen to our own community as the news relentlessly hits us with stories of unemployment and worsening economic indicators, causing us to study what is important in our lives - and, now that I think about it, that is what American Rust does, examines some important things. If you are interested in contemporary literature, set in a fascinating and depressed region, and which asks some thought provoking questions along the way, I’d highly recommend American Rust.