Philipp Meyer, American Rust

Young Philipp Meyer marked in his biography milestones that could be of advantage for becoming a good writer. He grew up in Baltimore and knows what it means if a city or region is facing decline from a former prosperity. Meyer himself quitted school, worked with traumatized youngsters, travelled around and had jobs as a construction worker. All is not the pre-condition for good writing but concerning the ability to identify and emphasize social context it can be very helpful.

American Rust, a narrative masterpiece of current american prose fiction is chosen to happen in the aera of Pittsburg P.A., the former El Dorado of coal and steel, the black country itself in the United States. Like Englands black country and Germans Ruhrgebiet it went down in the eighties and nineties and there was no limit of suffering not to be reached. The downfall of a whole region had consequences on every aspect of life: Former good earning workers lost their jobs, became poor clients living from funds, lost their prospects and self esteem. Family dramas followed, alcoholism, drug abuse and growing criminality.

Meyers protagonists in American Rust are youngsters who remained in the region despite the chance to get out there. In a normal constellation of daily struggle something fatal happened and somebody lay dead on the ground. Poe, the strong buddy with a loyal soul, is charged for murder and Isaac, the introversed antipode, is hitting the road to California where he never will be seen. Isaacs father Henry and his sister Lee, Poes mother Grace and her time to time lover Harris, the police agent in charge, are the actors of a masterful written drama. Meyer changes the point of view and the progress of the social texture with these people who are all very interesting characters with their own history and motivation, with their own traumas and tragedies.

It becomes clear that at the end there will be no winners. The further going question wich remains during the process of reading is who will lose most and who less. We get an impression of the whole dimension of desolation caused by the economic downfall of thatregion. Like the German writer Stefan Heym, who was for some years in exile in the U.S and who lived as a journalist in Pittsburg P.A. in the early fifties, the characterization of the people in his novel Goldsborough (1953), although done in a time of prosperity, comes to similar results as Meyers. And it reminds of the people in other black countries. Even in in times of downfall and desperation they are heros. A beautiful book for those who love human beings who never give up, whether it makes sense or not.