Tuesday, June 11, 2013

The Great Texas Novel: Philipp Meyer's The Son


I can't think of any book that could be called the "Great American Novel." The U.S. is so big, it's easier to find "Great Novels" state by state. For Texas, we have a strong nominee in Philipp Meyer's recently-released novel The Son:
In 1859, Eli McCullough, the 13-year-old son of Texas pioneers, is captured in a brutal Comanche raid on his family's homestead. First taken as a slave along with his less intrepid brother, Eli assimilates himself into Comanche culture, learning their arts of riding, hunting, and total warfare. When the tribe succumbs to waves of disease and settlers, Eli's only option is a return to Texas, where his acquired thirsts for freedom and self-determination set a course for his family's inexorable rise through the industries of cattle and oil. The Son is Philipp Meyer's epic tale of more than 150 years of money, family, and power, told through the memories of three unforgettable narrators: Eli, now 100 and known simply as "the Colonel"; Eli's son Peter, called "the great disappointment" for his failure to meet the family’s vision of itself; and Eli's great-granddaughter Jeanne Anne, who struggles to maintain the McCullough empire in the economic frontier of modern Texas.
Cattle, oil, and their environmental costs are big themes in the book. So perhaps a fitting news story is this May 17th article from CNN, "Texas sues BP, Halliburton, others over oil spill:"
Texas on Friday became the latest state to sue BP, Halliburton and others tied to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, alleging the parties "engaged in willful and wanton misconduct" and seeking penalties and damages "to the fullest extent allowed by law." The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Beaumont, more than three years after one of the worst oil spills in American history.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Bookin' it Across the USA



Road trip!  Can I go coast-to-coast on Newsworthy Novels recommendations?

We can start way up in Alaska, dog-sledding across the vast, snowy frontier (The Iditarod & Henry's Murder on the Iditarod Trail)...


...Then we'll head across Canada, our friendly neighbor to the north that has somehow turned into the world neighborhood's crack-den of dirty politics.  Hi, Rob Ford!  Anyway, moving on ... (Canadian Politics & Fallis' The Best Laid Plans)...



...moving on South, we'll check in with the Border Patrol (and dodge the drug-smugglers) as we cross over into Washington State (The Border Patrol, the US-Canadian Border, & Lynch's Border Songs) ...


...make our way through lush, green Oregon and Northern California (Marijuana in the US & Boyle’s Budding Prospects )...



...until we reach Southern California, with TC Boyle's classic about Mexican immigrants (U.S. Immigration Reform & Boyle's Tortilla Curtain )...



...then we can "drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas" for a little Hunter S. Thompson action (Las Vegas' Fall/Rise & Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas )...



For Texas, I haven't read The Son by Philipp Meyer, but I hear it's excellent and it sounds like the Great Texas Novel may have finally arrived...




Moving on, we'll head north through the Great Plains and the Native American Reservations... ( North Dakota's Tribes & Erdrich's The Round House)



...through Iowa with its presidential caucuses... Sex Scandal Rebounds & Klein's Primary Colors


...maybe stopping by at a baseball game at one of Wisconsin's universities... College Baseball & Harbach's The Art of Fielding 



...until we make our way to Chicago and the meat-packing plants... British Horsemeat Scandal & Sinclair's The Jungle 



...and we can stop by Detroit... Detroit & Eugenides' Middlesex


...before we head east, through West Virginia with its coal mines... West Virginia Coal Mining, Mountaintop Removal, & Pancake's Strange as This Weather Has Been ...



..and maybe we'll drop into DC for some politicking... April 27th White House Correspondents' Dinner & Tanabe's The List


Then it's off to New York to hit Wall Street... Bond Traders & Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities ...



...and up to the Athens of America to see how things are going for med school grads... Medical School & Shem's House of God...



...and finally, we'll end our trip up in the Northeast with those Ivy League kids and their crazy neo-Grecian/satanic rituals!  University Scandals & Tartt's The Secret History