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crankyoldcritic
not exactly uplifting, but if you're in a good frame of mind, highly recommended.
I found myself hard pressed not to skip ahead to see what happens to the characters. The story is compelling, but Meyer does stretch it out a bit too long, the main theme, in order to fully explore the inner... Hells that comprise the minds of all the characters. Comparisons to Hemingway, other than for sparseness and simplicity of style are perhaps a bit premature.
I was more interested in the story than all the internal ramblings of the characters, but these were well rendered, although difficult to relate to, as the characters are definitely from my neck of the woods, and all in direr straights than I could imagine.
but I'm not a cowboy, either, and the boys in the border series of C. Mcarthy were in a pretty deep jam too, but I rode with them, so to speak. I want to back away, quickly from those that inhabit Meyer's story. Comparisons to Cormac Mcarthy? It's also a bit early for that, although the utterly hopeless dilemmas of all involved are similar to those in the border stories (and "the road") of Mr. Mcarthy. However, Meyer's characters are not ever having a having a good time. And they do not feel good about anyone they know, or about themselves, or what they are doing, or might someday do. None of them. Ever.
In "The Road", in the most daunting role one could imagine, one imagines the father derives some satisfaction in the daily triumph over death for himself and his son, the hard won few hours more he can be with with his child, and that he holds some small hope at least for his boy against undeniably justified despair.
The characters in "American Rust" seem done in by life before they hit the big crisis in the book, (perhaps as a result of a life full of too large crises) and can't seem to muster up anything other than despair, or a moment's whimsical self-delusion. Maybe for me it's too realistic a portrayal of life in the rust belt. Fine. But don't read it if you're even a bit depressed. it will not lift you up.
I realize I've said as much about other authors as of Meyers, but printing on the book jacket the glowing reviews and comparisons to the large body of masterworks of 2 of the greatest authors of the last 100 years invites at least a few words of skepticism.
