Philipp Meyer (1) (1974–)
Author of The Son
For other authors named Philipp Meyer, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Image credit: Philipp Meyer - Photo: © Ricardo B. Brazziell
Works by Philipp Meyer
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1974-01-05
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Cornell University (BA | English)
University of Texas (MFA | Creative Writing) - Occupations
- emergency medical technician
bicycle mechanic
derivatives trader (Wall Street)
construction worker - Agent
- Esther Newberg
Peter Straus - Short biography
- Philipp Meyer grew up in a working class neighborhood Baltimore, Maryland, dropped out of high school, and got his GED when he was sixteen. After spending several years volunteering at a trauma center in downtown Baltimore, he attended Cornell University, where he studied English. Since graduating, Meyer has worked as a derivatives trader at UBS, a construction worker, and an EMT, among other jobs. His writing has been published in McSweeney's, The Iowa Review, Salon.com, and New Stories from the South. From 2005 to 2008 Meyer was a fellow at the Michener Center for Writers in Austin, Texas. He splits his time between Texas and upstate New York.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Places of residence
- Austin, Texas, USA
New York, New York, USA
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Ithaca, New York, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
“You can’t measure yourself against the dead – they maintain their perfection while your flesh gets weaker and weaker.”
Slipping into Philipp Meyer’s [The Son] is as easy as sliding on a favorite old pair of boots, worn in all the right places and soft to the touch. The familiar comfort is instantly, if inscrutably, recognizable. But the longer you wear them, the more the stitching tatters and the soles thin. Until the pain, growing in imperceptible degrees with the wearing, demands show more attention and announces what’s been ignored from the first step.
The book is an immersive experience, told in turns by two men and one woman who saw the West’s history from different times and emotional perspectives. Eli introduces the tale, looking back from one hundred years of navigating hostile forces – Indians, migrants, greed, and economic turmoil. Eli is a singular, unique voice, more complete than most creations. He is the perfect embodiment of Texas, with his superior distaste for everything outside himself and his own accomplishments. Sarcasm drips from every word he speaks, derision in every glance. But, as such an invincible survivor, no one can disregard him. Peter, Eli’s son, is more thoughtful and compromising. His identity is cobbled from the soil where the family’s claim is staked. Peter doesn’t discriminate, like Eli, between himself and the others trying to tame the land. He seeks a place in a community larger than his own family and, in the search, nearly loses what Eli built. Jeanne Anne, Peter’s granddaughter, Eli’s great-granddaughter, is the result of generations of prosperity. But Eli’s fierce spirit is close to the surface in her. Taking over the family business, restructuring from cattle to oil, she has to survive and flourish in a man’s world. The toll it takes on her is high, both emotionally and physically.
The only sour note Meyre hits is in the closing pages, when he introduces Ulises Garcia. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the character or the turn in the story. In fact, it’s a natural progression. But the story is so rooted in the three voices of Eli and Peter and Jeanne Anne, it feels treacherous to allow someone else to speak. Maybe that was the point, but I would rather have heard this part of the story from the people who’d brought us so far. It’s less important to hear how Ulises feels and what he thinks, than to see how his arrival looked through already familiar eyes.
Meyer’s debut, [American Rust], was raw and uncompromising. [The Son] expands that tone into an epic of the West. Like McCarthy or McMurtry, he is completely at home in the sand and sweat-stained horizons of the West Texas desert. Indeed, there are several passages reminiscent of [Blood Meridian], especially when Eli is captured by Indians and forced to ride with them. But Meyer’s voice is more expansive than McCarthy’s. Given the diversity between [American Rust] and [The Son], it’s hard to imagine where Meyer will next turn his focus. Wherever he travels, it’ll will be worth the ride. This is a writer with enormous promise.
Bottom Line: An uncompromising epic tale of the West.
4 ½ bones!!!!!
A favorite for the year. show less
Slipping into Philipp Meyer’s [The Son] is as easy as sliding on a favorite old pair of boots, worn in all the right places and soft to the touch. The familiar comfort is instantly, if inscrutably, recognizable. But the longer you wear them, the more the stitching tatters and the soles thin. Until the pain, growing in imperceptible degrees with the wearing, demands show more attention and announces what’s been ignored from the first step.
The book is an immersive experience, told in turns by two men and one woman who saw the West’s history from different times and emotional perspectives. Eli introduces the tale, looking back from one hundred years of navigating hostile forces – Indians, migrants, greed, and economic turmoil. Eli is a singular, unique voice, more complete than most creations. He is the perfect embodiment of Texas, with his superior distaste for everything outside himself and his own accomplishments. Sarcasm drips from every word he speaks, derision in every glance. But, as such an invincible survivor, no one can disregard him. Peter, Eli’s son, is more thoughtful and compromising. His identity is cobbled from the soil where the family’s claim is staked. Peter doesn’t discriminate, like Eli, between himself and the others trying to tame the land. He seeks a place in a community larger than his own family and, in the search, nearly loses what Eli built. Jeanne Anne, Peter’s granddaughter, Eli’s great-granddaughter, is the result of generations of prosperity. But Eli’s fierce spirit is close to the surface in her. Taking over the family business, restructuring from cattle to oil, she has to survive and flourish in a man’s world. The toll it takes on her is high, both emotionally and physically.
The only sour note Meyre hits is in the closing pages, when he introduces Ulises Garcia. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the character or the turn in the story. In fact, it’s a natural progression. But the story is so rooted in the three voices of Eli and Peter and Jeanne Anne, it feels treacherous to allow someone else to speak. Maybe that was the point, but I would rather have heard this part of the story from the people who’d brought us so far. It’s less important to hear how Ulises feels and what he thinks, than to see how his arrival looked through already familiar eyes.
Meyer’s debut, [American Rust], was raw and uncompromising. [The Son] expands that tone into an epic of the West. Like McCarthy or McMurtry, he is completely at home in the sand and sweat-stained horizons of the West Texas desert. Indeed, there are several passages reminiscent of [Blood Meridian], especially when Eli is captured by Indians and forced to ride with them. But Meyer’s voice is more expansive than McCarthy’s. Given the diversity between [American Rust] and [The Son], it’s hard to imagine where Meyer will next turn his focus. Wherever he travels, it’ll will be worth the ride. This is a writer with enormous promise.
Bottom Line: An uncompromising epic tale of the West.
4 ½ bones!!!!!
A favorite for the year. show less
“You could butcher and pillage but as long as you did it for people you loved, it never mattered. You did not see any Comanches with the long stare—there was nothing they did that was not to protect their friends, their families, or their band. The war sickness was a disease of the white man, who fought in armies far from his home, for men he didn’t know, and there is a myth about the West, that it was founded and ruled by loners, while the truth is just the opposite; the loner is a show more mental weakling, and was seen as such, and treated with suspicion. You did not live long without someone watching your back and there were very few people, white or Indian, who did not see a stranger in the night and invite him to join the campfire.” – Philipp Meyer, The Son
Epic saga of the American southwest, focusing on a Texas family from the 1830’s to the 1980’s. Eli is the patriarch of the McCullough family. At thirteen, he is kidnapped by the Comanche and learns their ways. He eventually makes his way back to white society, and becomes a state ranger, a cattle rancher, and an early oil driller. Peter is Eli’s son. He is traumatized by a brutal feud with the neighboring Garcia family and feels out of step with the rest of his relatives. Jeanne Anne is Peter’s granddaughter. She is the heir to the McCullough fortune, an iron-willed woman attempting to gain respect in a male-dominated oil industry. Her life is filled with tragedy.
The three narrators’ stories are told in rotating sequence. As is typical in stories with multiple voices, some are more appealing than others. Eli’s coming-of-age with the Comanche is particularly well-crafted and compelling. Meyer vividly describes buffalo hunts, tribal rituals, and raiding parties, not sparing any gruesome details of the carnage. Peter’s journal becomes the voice of conscience for his family’s violence and corruption. Jeanne Anne’s segments are less captivating. She is necessary to bridge the gap between the previous generations and modern society, but her chapters are mostly bleak. It would have been nice to find bit more human compassion in the story.
This is a character-driven novel and I am impressed by Meyer’s ability to expertly weave the three storylines together, each elucidating the others. Themes include abuse of power, injustice, greed, entitlement, discrimination, and cross-cultural relationships. This is a book that dissects the legend of the rugged “American West” and exposes its ugly foundations. While I did not enjoy it quite as much as his debut, American Rust, it came very close. show less
Epic saga of the American southwest, focusing on a Texas family from the 1830’s to the 1980’s. Eli is the patriarch of the McCullough family. At thirteen, he is kidnapped by the Comanche and learns their ways. He eventually makes his way back to white society, and becomes a state ranger, a cattle rancher, and an early oil driller. Peter is Eli’s son. He is traumatized by a brutal feud with the neighboring Garcia family and feels out of step with the rest of his relatives. Jeanne Anne is Peter’s granddaughter. She is the heir to the McCullough fortune, an iron-willed woman attempting to gain respect in a male-dominated oil industry. Her life is filled with tragedy.
The three narrators’ stories are told in rotating sequence. As is typical in stories with multiple voices, some are more appealing than others. Eli’s coming-of-age with the Comanche is particularly well-crafted and compelling. Meyer vividly describes buffalo hunts, tribal rituals, and raiding parties, not sparing any gruesome details of the carnage. Peter’s journal becomes the voice of conscience for his family’s violence and corruption. Jeanne Anne’s segments are less captivating. She is necessary to bridge the gap between the previous generations and modern society, but her chapters are mostly bleak. It would have been nice to find bit more human compassion in the story.
This is a character-driven novel and I am impressed by Meyer’s ability to expertly weave the three storylines together, each elucidating the others. Themes include abuse of power, injustice, greed, entitlement, discrimination, and cross-cultural relationships. This is a book that dissects the legend of the rugged “American West” and exposes its ugly foundations. While I did not enjoy it quite as much as his debut, American Rust, it came very close. show less
This was, quite simply, a damn good read. The pace was set right from the start, and had me turning the pages anxiously right until the last.
It's hard to say much about this book without spoiling the plot. With a backdrop of the antithesis of the American Dream, this novel has the pace of a thriller but the heart of something much deeper. An incredibly well developed cast of characters take their turn to narrate following a life-changing event that is pulling them all down but ultimately show more setting them all the ultimate test of love and loyalty.
This will be one of my favourites of the year.
4.5 stars - pure reading pleasure. show less
It's hard to say much about this book without spoiling the plot. With a backdrop of the antithesis of the American Dream, this novel has the pace of a thriller but the heart of something much deeper. An incredibly well developed cast of characters take their turn to narrate following a life-changing event that is pulling them all down but ultimately show more setting them all the ultimate test of love and loyalty.
This will be one of my favourites of the year.
4.5 stars - pure reading pleasure. show less
This book is rough. It's beautifully written and interesting, but the story is very bleak. The characters are complicated and so real that they could be people you know. The story is familiar and heartbreaking and frustrating and sometimes infuriating. I loved the way the author unfolded each character's story slowly, revealing new details about their lives in such a skilled way that you were constantly changing your mind about each person. The characters are flawed but honest, at least with show more themselves, even if it's too late to change things when they finally tell the truth. Sometimes they don't even understand their own feelings. The book was hard to read at times, but it was worth the effort. I really enjoyed it even as I despaired. show less
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- Rating
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