Book by PHILIPP MEYER
Reviewed by MELINDA MISENER

Philipp Meyer’s engrossing first novel, American Rust, was about an accidental killing and its consequences for a tight-knit Pennsylvania community. Similarly, Meyer’s new novel, The Son, set in Texas, is concerned with killing and family. Much of what I’d admired in American Rust is present in The Son: the way Meyer hands the narrative from character to character, chapter by chapter, and the characters’ dark eloquence about the sins and the triumphs of mankind.
The Son’s scope is much bigger: it spans close to two hundred years (versus a few months) and encompasses multiple communities (white settlers, Mexicans, and Indian tribes). And this book begins with the slaughters of two families. No accident, these deaths.
My family eats a Long Island diner breakfast every Saturday morning. We say hi to our neighbor, Lucille, who waits tables; our toddler jabs at the jukebox as my husband orders the Hungry Man; we try to ignore the flat-screen on the wall, which is unfailingly tuned to Fox News. Luckily, there’s good eavesdropping to be done. What we overhear from nearby tables usually beats Sarah Palin stumping for the flat tax.

