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Philipp Meyer, the acclaimed author of American Rust, returns with The Son: an epic of the American West and a multigenerational saga of power, blood, land, and oil that follows the rise of one unforgettable Texas family, from the Comanche raids of the 1800s to the to the oil booms of the 20th century.
Harrowing, panoramic, and deeply evocative, The Son is a fully realized masterwork in the greatest tradition of the American canon—an unforgettable novel that combines the narrative prowess of Larry McMurtry with the knife-edge sharpness of Cormac McCarthy.
- Sales Rank: #33536 in eBooks
- Published on: 2013-05-28
- Released on: 2013-05-28
- Format: Kindle eBook
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of the Month, June 2013: 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. The book is long but never dull—Meyer's gift (and obsession) for historical detail and vernacular is revelatory, and the distinct voices of his fully fleshed-and-blooded characters drive the story. And let there be blood: some readers will flinch at Meyer's blunt (and often mesmerizing) portrayal of violence in mid-19th century Texas, but it’s never gratuitous. His first novel, 2009's American Rust, drew praise for its stark and original characterization of post-industrial America, but Meyer has outdone himself with The Son, as ambitious a book as any you’ll read this year--or any year. Early reviewers call it a masterpiece, and while it's easy to dismiss so many raves as hyperbole, The Son is an extraordinary achievement. --Jon Foro
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Inside Meyer’s massive Texas saga is perhaps the best Indian captive story ever written: in 1849, 13-year-old Eli McCullough is abducted by Comanches after they’ve raped his mother and sister. Eli adapts. He learns the language and how to hunt and raid, and by age 16, he’s a fierce warrior. In the process, the reader is treated to a fascinating portrait of the Comanches, including a Melville-like cataloging of all they did with the buffalo. Eventually, young Eli returns to the white world, but after an affair with a judge’s wife worthy of Little Big Man, he’s forced into the Texas Rangers. Later still, he fights for the South and steals a fortune from the North. He returns to South Texas to found an unimaginably large ranch, which he adds to by trumping up a massacre of a distinguished Mexican family, the Garcias. No scion measures up to Eli, unless it’s Jeanne, his great-granddaughter, who ruthlessly presides over her oil and gas well into the twenty-first century. And, in a different way, Peter, Eli’s son, as softhearted as his father was ruthless, makes his mark. He alone laments the massacre of the Garcias, but he’s an indifferent rancher, and his love affair with the only surviving Garcia threatens to disembowel the McCullough empire. If you want to build a place like Texas, Meyer seems to say, only ruthlessness will suffice. In his many pages, Meyer takes time to be critical of Edna Ferber, but his tale is best compared to Giant. Lonesome Dove also come to mind, as well as the novels of Douglas C. Jones, Alan LeMay, and Benjamin Capps. --John Mort
Review
“With its vast scope, The Son makes a viable claim to be a Great American Novel of the sort John Dos Passos and Frank Norris once produced... an extraordinary orchestration of American history. (Washington Post)
“There is an extravagant quantity of birth, death and bitter passion in Philipp Meyer’s grand and engrossing Texas saga.” (Wall Street Journal)
“Philipp Meyer offers a tale that spans generations and, in its own way, encapsulates the history of the state itself.” (Los Angeles Times)
“As bold, ambitious and brutal as its subject: the rise of Texas as seen through the tortured history of one family. At 561 pages, The Son is a demanding read... But by the end, Meyer ties it together and not too neatly. Tougher-than-tough Eli McCullough would respect that.” (USA Today (4 Stars))
“One of the most solid, unsparing pieces of American historical fiction to come out this century... a brilliant chronicle of Texas... stunning, raw and epic... The Son is vast, brave and, finally, unstoppable.” (NPR)
“This is the book you want to read this summer... Every facet of Meyer’s world--scent and sight and sensation--has weight and heft... Meyer’s dream is a nightmare in which blood seeks power. It’s also un-put-down-able.” (Esquire)
“A novel that is an epic in the truest sense of the word: massive in scope, replete with transformations in fortune and fate, and drenched in the blood of war.” (Huffington Post)
“The stuff of Great American Literature. Like all destined classics, Meyer’s second novel speaks volumes about humanity--our insatiable greed, our inherent frailty, the endless cycle of conquer or be conquered.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review))
“Treading on similar ground to James Michener, Larry McMurtry, and Cormac McCarthy, Meyer brings the bloody, racially fraught history of Texas to life. Call it a family saga or an epic, this novel is a violent and harrowing read.” (Library Journal)
“An old-fashioned family saga set against the birth of Texas and the modern West, this is a riveting slow burn of love, power, and a legacy of violence spanning generations. Meyer is a writer of vast ambition and talent, and he has created nothing less than an American epic.” (Parade)
“The greatest things about The Son are its scope and ambition. . . It’s an enveloping, extremely well-wrought, popular novel with passionate convictions about the people, places and battles that it conjures.” (New York Times)
“The author of The Yellow Birdssays Philipp Meyer’s novel The Son has ‘as much to say about what it means to be American as any book I’ve ever read.’” (New York Times Book Review, By the Book interview with Kevin Powers)
“By the novel’s end, Philipp Meyer has demonstrated that he can write a potboiler of the first rank, aswirl with pulpy pleasures: impossible love affairs, illicit sex, strife between fathers and sons, the unhappiness of the rich, the corruption of power.” (New York Times Book Review)
“Sweeping, absorbing epic. . .An expertly written tale of ancient crimes, with every period detail--and every detail, period--just right.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review))
“Meyer’s massive Texas saga is perhaps the best Indian captive story ever written. . . [Meyer’s] tale is best compared to Giant. Little Big Man and Lonesome Dove also come to mind...” (Booklist (starred review))
“One of those books that remind you how totally absorbing a novel can be... the work of an uncommonly visionary and skillful writer with a superb sense of pacing... a beautiful, violent and frequently heartbreaking book, but it is not without a sense of fun.” (Washington Independent Review of Books)
“A vivid, unflinching look at the peoples who struggled to conquer Texas, and one another. . . an aerial view of Texas, in which hidden elements of a huge, breathtaking landscape are suddenly made clear.” (Austin Chronicle)
“One word--stunning. The Son stands fair to hold its own in the canon of Great American Novels. A book that for once really does deserve to be called a masterpiece.” (Kate Atkinson)
“Meyer is an impressive and multi-talented story-teller in the old, good sense--the kind that makes me hang on for whatever the next chapter will hold.” (Richard Ford)
“A remarkable, beautifully crafted novel. Meyer tackles large movements of American history and culture yet also delivers page-turning delights of story and character.” (Charles Frazier)
Philipp Meyer redrafts humanity’s oldest questions and deepest obsessions into something so raw and dazzling and brutal and real, The Son should come with its own soundtrack (Tea Obreht)
“A true American epic, full of brutal poetry and breathtaking panoramas. Meyer’s characters repeatedly bear witness to the collision of human greed, savagery, and desire with the mute and indomitable Plains landscape. Meyer is a writer of tremendous talent, compassion and ambition.--The Son is a staggering achievement.” (Karen Russell)
“Meyer’s tale is vast, volcanic, prodigious in violence, intermittently hard to fathom, not infrequently hard to stomach, and difficult to ignore.” (Boston Globe)
“Ambitious readers who take their prose seriously should grab a copy of The Son, a stunning work of historical fiction by Philipp Meyer. Scores of critics are gushing over the book calling it epic, one of the best of the year, even an American classic.” (CNN Online (Hot Reads for June))
“The story of our founding mythology; of the men and women who tore a country from the wilderness and the price paid in blood by subsequent generations. An epic in the tradition of Faulkner and Melville, this is the work of a writer at the height of his power.” (Kevin Powers)
“An epic, heroic, hallucinatory work of art in which wry modern tropes and savage Western lore hunt together on an endless prairie... a horribly tragic, disturbingly comic and fiercely passionate masterpiece of storytelling.” (Chris Cleave)
The Son is positioned to seduce readers who swooned for Lonesome Dove and 2011’s briskly selling Comanche history, Empire of the Summer Moon. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
“It may not be the Great American Novel, but it certainly is a damn good one.” (Entertainment Weekly (Grade A Review))
“Philipp Meyer’s epic novel begins in 1849, when Eli McCullough, 13, is kidnapped by Comanches, and ends in 2012 as Eli’s rich and powerful great-granddaughter is dying. USA TODAY says **** out of four.” (USA Today)
“In gorgeously gritty prose, this epic novel follows three generations of the McCullough family - as wild as the untamed Texas frontier where they’ve settled - in their ruthless quest for power. (Ten Titles To Pick Up Now)” (O, the Oprah Magazine)
“The Son is adeptly written, rife with conflict, and richly built on scads of historical detail. Meyer is unflinching in his portrayal of violence and its role in America’s bedrock.” (Austin American-Statesman)
“One of the best books I’ve ever read . . . Incredibly ambitious and rich, and it reminds me of Blood Meridian and As I Lay Dying. Faulkner and McCarthy fans should definitely check it out.” (Dallas Observer)
“The Son drives home one hard and fascinating truth about American life: None of us belong here. We just have it on loan until the next civilization comes around.” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
“Mr. Meyer’s version of how a white child grows into the culture of a Comanche warrior is so vivid, violent, heartless and tender at the same time that I often put the book down to recover from the scenes, then picked it up, eager to follow the narrative.” (Pittsburg Post-Gazette)
“Meyer has penned another masterpiece of American fiction. Read it and see if you don’t agree.” (Dayton Daily News)
“The Son is a true American original. Meyer describes the Comanche as ‘riding to haul hell out of its shuck.’ It’s an apt description of how it feels to read this exciting, far-reaching book.” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
“. . . a raw and gritty novel not for the faint-hearted.” (Eagle (Bryan-College Station, Texas))
“. . . Involving and moving novel. Meyer’s work deserves its place among the great epics of Texas; even more, his vision of the state will change the way readers understand and judge its history and its folklore.” (Chapter 16)
“. . . Meyer’s brilliant second novel . . . The writing is strong - ‘riders were suddening out of the trees’ - and rich with detail. . . Just like Meyer’s riveting 2009 debut American Rust, this is a wonderful novel.” (Financial Times)
This is an endlessly absorbing book, a page-turner with serious moral scope, both full of feeling and ruthlessly engineered, as great books are, to get us closer to the truth about ourselves. (Men's Journal)
The Son clearly demonstrates how a well-written, thoroughly researched work of fiction illuminates the past. . . ‘No land was ever acquired honestly in the history of the earth,’ Eli maintains. An outstanding novelist has tilled this fertile ground.” (Santa Fe New Mexican)
“Critics have compared the writing to Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove or any of Cormac McCarthy’s novels. Anyone who likes a Western saga will find plenty to savor in this latest work from a distinguished spinner of Western yarns.” (Examiner.com)
“This is an endlessly absorbing book, a page-turner with serious moral scope, both full of feeling and ruthlessly engineered, as great books are, to get us closer to the truth about ourselves.” (Men's Journal)
“An epic of the American Southwest, Meyer’s masterly second novel follows several generations of a Texas ranching and oil dynasty through the 19th and 20th centuries…” (New York Times Book Review, Paperback Row)
Most helpful customer reviews
148 of 159 people found the following review helpful.
A Place Without Mercy
By Jill I. Shtulman
There is nothing small about the state of Texas nor is there anything small about this epic masterpiece of a novel, which will surely catapult Philipp Meyer into the ranks of the finest American novelists.
What he has accomplished is sheer magic: he has turned the American dream on its ear and revealed it for what it really is: "soil to sand, fertile to barren, fruit to thorns." The most astounding thing is, you don't know how good it really is until you close the last page and step back and absorb what you have just experienced.
There are three key characters in this book: Colonel Eli McCullough, kidnapped by the Comanche tribe at an early age and forced to navigate the shaky ground between his life as a white settler and his life as a respected adoptee-turned-Comanche warrior...his son, Peter, the moral compass of the story who resorts to self-hatred after the massacre of his Mexican neighbors...and Peter's granddaughter Jeanne, a savvy oil woman who has profited mightily from the land.
In ways, the three represent a wholeness of the Texas story: the id, the ego, and the superego of history. Philipp Meyer weaves back and forth among their stories and each one is compelling in its own way. Eli's is sheer adrenalin, a boy-man who is only slightly bothered by the constraints of society or conscience. Jeanne is a girl-woman with a head for the family business in a time and place where women are considered secondary to men.
And Peter, ah, Peter. He is "The Son", the diarist who sees the moral shadings, who realizes that not all life is a matter of economics, that the strong should not be encouraged while the weak perish, and that we do have choices in our actions. He notes "that the entire history of humanity is marked by a single inexorable movement - from animal instinct toward rational thought, from inbred behavior toward learned behavior and acquired knowledge." He is the heart and soul of Texas.
This American epic focuses on many themes. One is generational change and the progression from an agrarian and cattle-based economy to an oil-based economy. (Take these lines: "Of course there is no doubt that the Indian lives closer to the earth and the natural gods...Unfortunately, there is no more room or that kind of living, Eli. You and my ancestors departed from it the moment they buried a seed in the ground and ceased to wander like other creatures."
Another is man's inhumanity to man: the brutal land grab and the dehumanization of those who are considered "not belonging" by every single segment: the Comanches, the Mexicans, and above all, the whites who fight tooth and nail to take more of what's theirs.
And lastly, and most importantly, it is about the blood that runs through human history with Texas as a microcosm. Mr. Meyer writes, "The land was thirsty. Something primitive still in it, the land and people both; the only place like it she'd ever seen was Africa: savannah, perpetual heat and sun, thorns and blinding heat. A place without mercy. The birthplace of humanity." I'm predicting this book will be one of the most widely-read and talked-about this summer.
33 of 35 people found the following review helpful.
A story of a family and of a state
By Robert Frost
"The Son" fits the definitions of both epic for its scale and great American novel for its story. It is the story of the McCullough family, from around 1836 to 2012 told primarily from the perspectives of three family members. Eli McCullough, also referred to as "The Colonel", is the son of an Irish immigrant. The story begins with him as a child, near Fredericksburg, Texas, and follows him to his 100th birthday. Peter McCullough is Eli's son. Much of his story is told during the period of World War I. Jeanne McCullough is Peter's granddaughter. Her story is told from around 1936 to 2012.
More than just the story of a single family, "The Son" is a story of Texas. We see settlement and conflict between white settlers and the Commanche and then the Mexicans. We see the establishment of Statehood and the secession of the Civil War. We see the ups and downs of cattle ranching and oil.
The narrative is structured by rotating through the three POVs (points of view) - a chapter from Eli's perspective, a chapter from Peter's perspective, a chapter from Jeanne's perspective and then back to Eli, and so on. All three characters have engaging stories to tell. Eli's is the most exciting, dealing with events such as his capture by Commanche, serving as a Texas Ranger, fighting in the Civil War, and establishing his ranch. Peter's is the most intellectually engaging and as he struggles with the ethics and morality of his family and the other white settlers with regards to their treatment of Mexican neighbors. Jeanne's story is the most emotional as she struggles with establishing her place in both the ranching and oil businesses, in times where women didn't have a place in either.
Because Eli lives to be 100, he has roles in both Peter's and Jeanne's stories. He is the patriarch of the family - the standard by which every later generation is judged. Eli is a fascinating character. He is a person that sees what he wants and he takes it. It's a personality that is essential to survive and succeed in the dangerous world he inhabits. But that way of life is uncomfortable for Peter, whom suffers because he never takes what he wants and for Jeanne whom is often prohibited from taking what she wants.
The author, Philipp Meyer, received a Michener fellowship that brought him to Austin, Texas. He spent five years researching this novel, learning about the time periods, visiting the locales, and developing the skills his characters needed. His research brings a strong sense of authenticity to the novel. The scenes are easy to visualize, down to the mesquite trees and prickly pear cacti and the blazing heat of Texas. The voices sound real and the characters have a realism that allows this novel to deconstruct the American creation myth in a fascinating way. As one of the characters says, in the book, "No one got anything without taking it from someone else." Meyer doesn't assign titles of good guy or bad guy to any of the conflicts in the novel, rather he represents everyone as behaving according to human nature. The white settlers take land away from Mexican settlers, whom took it away from Indians, whom had taken it away from other Indians.
The timing of my reading of this novel worked out really well. During reading the book, I visited the five remaining Spanish missions in San Antonio. The story of those missions is reflected in the story of "The Son". A story of adapt or perish in a harsh yet beautiful world.
The one flaw I would assign to the book is a flaw I have noticed in many of the longer novels I've recently read (The Son is 561 pages). That flaw is an awkward acceleration of pace in the last twenty-percent of the book. As we get closer to the end, we race faster to that end and the narratives become more abrupt and edited. I really would have liked to see another hundred pages so that some of the final events could be told with the same rich level of detail as the bulk of the book. But, I guess when one finishes a book and wishes there were more, that's better than the alternative.
I recommend "The Son".
115 of 139 people found the following review helpful.
2 1/2 Stars -- Too Disjointed And Lacks A Central Plot For Me To Recommend!
By Bobbewig
The Son is positioned as an epic multigenerational saga of Texas and the settlement of the American West that follows the rise of one family from the Comanche raids of the mid-19th century to the border wars of the early 20th century to the oil and mineral booms of the modern era.
Meyer tackles a breadth of territory in this work and while The Son has many interesting "moments," it for me was more work than pleasure to get through. As such, while The Son is not a bad book, it is not one I would recommend highly. The basic reasons for this are as follows:
...Meyer, in trying to demonstrate the extensive research he did in preparing for this book, provides much too much detail for my taste. I found that rather than help to move the story along at an acceptable pace, the overabundance of detail tends to bog down the pace of the book;
...Meyer may have "bitten off more than he could chew" in covering such a breadth of time involving so many characters, in that you need a scorecard to keep track of who's who and what's what. This heavily contributed to my feeling that the book lacked a central theme and an engrossing plot; and, finally
...Meyer's writing style, in which he constantly jumps back and forth between one time period to another and between one character to another, made for a very disjointed and convoluted read. As a result, I rarely got to feel that I knew the characters deeply enough to care a lot about what happens to them.
As a consequence of the above reasons, while I'm not sorry I read The Son, I felt that I had to work too hard to force myself to finish it.
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