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Ruggine Americana (2009)

by Philipp Meyer(Favorite Author)

3.64 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

8806197142 (ISBN13: 9788806197148)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Einaudi

review 1: This was a fine, fine novel. I've said in other reviews that I'm kind of over the use of multiple perspectives, but I think that might be because it has been a while since I read a really good one. This one reminded me how effective it can be. Isaac and Poe were my favorite voices, especially Isaac. I liked his story the most, I think. As the novel wound down, I could see this train wreck approaching, and thought I was going to be annoyed by it, but I think the ending was right. It wasn't all awesome: I thought the women were weaker, with Lee in particular a bit hard for me to get into. Some of the dialogue seemed sort of stilted, like it was just there to make the point about the town or the steel mills that Meyer wanted to make. In the first half there might have been on... moree too many descriptions of the green valleys all tucked into one another. But overall this was really well written and a gripping story, very visceral.
review 2: Well, that was awful. I had such high hopes, having read and enjoyed The Son. But everything about this novel fell flat. Now, I don't need a happy ending, but the dullness and depression of this book was too much, especially since it was pointless. The characters make truly bad choices - which can be an interesting thing in a better written book - but here, there was no reason behind the bad choices. Broad stroke characterizations of mill town depression isn't enough to explain the characters' actions. The gross stereotyping of blue collar folk (think Lee's friends at the bar) was embarrassingly clumsy and rather offensive. And, as a lawyer, I could not stomach the portrayal of Poe's incarceration. He could not possibly have been arrested, put in a lineup, arraigned, denied bond, and sent to high security prison without having a lawyer. Meyers sacrifices credibility for plot and it is a glaring error that insults the intelligence of the reader. The narration could have been interesting - having different narrators for the chapters worked well in The Son - but here the characters were so one dimensional the narration was just whining. This book was a total waste of time that was a struggle to suffer through. less

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