Philipp Meyer and American Rust
Sunday in The Baltimore Sun, read a profile of Philipp Meyer, 34, who grew up in Baltimore's Hampden neighborhood and is winning acclaim for his first novel, American Rust.
The profile by Mary Carole McCauley begins: "It wasn’t apparent to anyone for the longest time that Meyer had hopped the freight train to success — just like the protagonist of his acclaimed debut novel, American Rust. ... For starters: despite a stratospheric I.Q., Meyer dropped out of high school at age 16. After three tries, he elbowed his way into prestigious Cornell University. After graduating, Meyer worked as a trader on Wall Street and made piles of money before deciding that he wasn’t cut out for a life of empty materialism. So he quit, moved into the basement of his parents’ home, and picked up odd jobs in construction. Then, Meyer, who had been writing seriously since college, sold his first novel for $400,000, winning praise from The New York Times and The Washington Post."
In Hampden Meyer learned about a man came to the aid of a friend in a bar fight, shot someone, and wound up dying in prison. He told McCauley: “That was when I began to think about how an awful choice becomes the best choice someone can make. Growing up in that neighborhood and seeing the struggles of all these working-class folks and lower-class folks, I began to realize that their morality was shaped by their circumstances. ... I learned that people who might not get a lot of credit for being deep thinkers, may have rich and complex visions for their own lives that might not be apparent on the surface.”
Reviewer Diane Scharper, a Towson University English professor, says the book is reminiscent of Faulkner. She writes: "The characters manage (and fail to manage) their complex lives in run-down neighborhoods, where they get drunk, argue, fight, have sex, find and lose hope, kill murder (by accident), attempt suicide and run away. ...
"Despite the title, the story is not about smokestacks stained with red-brown streaks of rust or shuttered factories in Buell, Pa., the small town not far from Pittsburgh where much of the novel occurs. Buell is only a backdrop for a much larger tale — this one taking place on the battleground of man’s spirit. Ultimately, the story is about the moral decay that sets in when, given the choice between being and nothingness, people choose nothingness then, seeing the ill effects on their own lives and on the lives of others, learn to regret their choice."
Meyer will read from American Rust and sign copies 6 p.m. Monday, March 9 at The Ivy Bookshop, 6080 Falls Rd. Call 410-377-2966.
