American rust

Philipp Meyer. A&U, 2009.

What to read after Cormac McCarthy’s The Road? American Rust might be a good choice. Less bleak than the McCarthy – everything is – but with the same concern for the decay of American life, it’s a fine piece of writing. Two young men living in a town in Pennsylvania where all the steel-mills have closed, or are closing, find that they are already running out of options. Meyer is very good at conveying the inner voices of his characters, in particular the two young men, Isaac and Poe. The main narrative, involving a sudden killing, is compelling reading, but it is Meyer’s portrayal of the underlying corrosion of contemporary American society which stays with you when the book is done.

"You could not have a country, not this big, that didn’t make things for
itself. There would be ramifications eventually".

- John