American Boy

Larry Watson's AMERICAN BOY is an all-American, universal kind of story that will resonate with anyone who grew up in the American heartland of the 50s and 60s. The typical small town of those decades is portrayed perfectly - those downtown blocks that held hardware and grocery stores with the local lawyer and doctor upstairs over the drugstore. Even the latest Plymouth-Dodge innovation, that infamous and short-lived push-button transmission, is featured, the same one that was immortalized in songwriter Greg Brown's "Brand New '64 Dodge."

Matthew Garth is our unlikely hero, a fatherless 16-17 year-old in the 1962-63 school year, who has attached himself for the past several years to the Dunbars, a prominent family in Willow Falls, show more Minnesota, a small community of a couple thousand. Johnny Dunbar is his classmate and closest friend, but all that will change when an "older woman" enters the picture in the person of Louisa Lindahl. The head of the family, Dr. Dunbar, is a pillar of the local community, although there are early intimations of that pillar being made of salt, with feet of clay.

Like many small towns, Willow Falls is a study in contrasts and opposites. The falls is not really a falls; Frenchman's Forest is not really a forest, but a dark and secret place where the two then-younger boys first learned about the mechanics of sex from an ill-informed older boy, and which later serves as backdrop to more intimate experimentation. Because one of the things that makes AMERICAN BOY such a universal tale is its minutely descriptive attention to all those familiar rites of passage - smoking, drinking, reckless driving, and of course backseat groping with all the heavy breathing, passionate kisses, frenzied frustrations and furtive fumbling with zippers, clasps, breasts and thighs. There is even a very "Mrs Robinson" scene between Matthew and the local lawyer's wife, but it has its own variations making it both original and derivative all at the same time.

Matthew becomes obsessed with the not-so mysterious twenty-something Lydia, who, through a sequence of shocking events, takes up residence with the Dunbars, destroying and changing not just Matthew's friendship with Johnny, but the whole family dynamic.

Yes, this is a masterfully rendered story of a friendship and family torn assunder and innocence lost. An old tale to be sure, but Watson makes it all seem new and fresh, employing characters all too human and flawed.

As a coming-of-age story, countless comparisons could probably be made. I've already suggested THE GRADUATE, but the ones I first thought of were Evan Hunter's LAST SUMMER and Herman Raucher's SUMMER OF '42, both books from 30-40 years ago, and, more recently, Donald Lystra's northern Michigan story, SEASON OF WATER AND ICE.

AMERICAN BOY is, in the end, an old tale made new and fresh through the story-telling skills of a master hand at fiction. Larry Watson burst onto the book scene nearly twenty years ago with his first novel, MONTANA 1948, a shocking and beautiful book. His latest offering shows he is still at the top of his game. If you appreciate serious literary fiction, READ THIS BOOK! show less

Set in rural Minnesota during the early 1960s, American Boy is by author Larry Watson, whose wonderful writing elevates this coming-of-age story. Matthew Garth lost his own father and his waitress mother is always busy working to support them. He has become an unofficial part of his best friend, Johnny’s family and been taken under the wing by Johnny’s father, Doctor Dunbar. In turn Matthew has put Dr. Dunbar on a pedestal.

When Louisa Lindahl is shot by her boyfriend, Dr. Dunbar treats her and she is encouraged to stay on at the Dunbar’s, working in the doctor’s office and living with the family. Matt develops an infatuation for Louisa, but she has different plans which when they are exposed lead to explosive changes for Matt as show more he finally sees his hero, the doctor, is oh so human after all.

American Boy is a story of sexual tension, family loyalty and betrayal narrated in an insightful and reflective manner as Matt looks back at these events from his adult perspective. The author allows his story to build slowly and inserts equal parts of charm and melancholy to the narrative. While American Boy is not my favorite of Watson’s novels, it is nonetheless a very good read. show less

Matthew Garth is a high school senior in the fall of 1962. He and his widowed mother live in Willow Falls, a small town in Southwest Minnesota. Although his mother works long hours at the local supper club, Matt doesn’t feel abandoned. He’s been accepted into the family of Dr. Dunbar, whose son Johnny is Matt’s best friend. Dr. Dunbar patiently and thoroughly explains the rudiments of medicine to the boys who are both interested in becoming doctors. So when their Thanksgiving meal is interrupted with news of a missing young woman, believed to have been shot by her boyfriend, the boys rally to join the search party, while Dr. Dunbar prepares his clinic to care for her. Louisa Lindahl will change everything about Matt’s show more relationship with the Dunbar family.

This is a heartfelt story of one young man’s awakening, and the missteps of youth. Matt has always relied on Dr. Dunbar for advice and has taken the lessons he imparts, whether about medicine, sportsmanship or curbing one’s baser instincts, to heart. But sometimes the lessons we are taught are not necessarily the lessons we learn. His fascination – even obsession – with Louisa is understandable, but a recipe for disaster. The inevitable confrontations will change the way Matt sees himself and his place in the world. The few months following Thanksgiving 1962 will mark him and force him to reconsider his view of the American dream.

Watson writes with such a sense of time and place as to put the reader right in the landscape of his novel. The reader feels chilled to the bone in a Minnesota blizzard, relishes in the warmth of a fire, and enjoys the flush that results from a sensual kiss. The writing is spare but fraught with tension. My loyalties shifted in the course of the novel, just as Matt’s did. I’ve read two of his previous novels - Montana 1948 and Justice. Once again, Watson has written a novel this is both specific to a time and place, and yet universal in its themes. Watson’s characters are good, flawed, admirable, loathsome, confused, and certain; their situations may be unique but their emotions strike a chord in all of us. show less

Maybe it's "just a phase I'm going through" but this is a hell of a story.

A harsh landscape, hard lessons and an awakening not to be envied combine to make up a a story that packs a punch.

3.5 stars

It is the 1960s. Matthew and Johnny (both 17 years old) are best friends. Matt only has his mom and they are just getting by. Johnny's dad is the local doctor and his family is very well off. Matt spends most of his time at Johnny's place. Both boys are interested in following in Dr. Dunbar's footsteps by becoming doctors. When a local young woman is found shot, Dr. Dunbar takes her home (where he also has his clinic) to take care of her and the boys, especially Matt, take a particular interest.

It started off really well, but then slowed down for me... slowed down to regular teenage boy life in the 60s. It did pick up a bit again at one point in the book, but overall, it was “good”, I thought. I have to admit that I didn't show more really like any of the characters. It was easy to read, though, and I'll probably try another by Watson. show less

“I was seventeen years old when I first saw a woman’s bare breasts, in itself an unremarkable occurrence. But when you consider that I also saw my first bullet wound on that same body, you have a set of circumstances truly rare.”

That body, and the woman it belongs to become the center of the world for young Matthew Garth, and the focus of this tale. A tale about how a boy tries so hard to become a man. And how heroes rarely stay heroic. And how “There are destructive forces at loose in the world, from which neither buildings nor families can be saved.”

A very well written tale!

It’s 1962 in rural Minnesota, near the South Dakota border, and seventeen year old Matt Garth is practically a second son in the family of his best friend, Johnny Dunbar. Johnny’s father is the local doctor and when a young woman is shot by her boyfriend on Thanksgiving Day, she is treated by the doctor and recovers in the Dunbar’s home. Unfortunately, the young woman, Louisa, has more than recovery in mind.

The story is told in the first person perspective of Matt as he looks back on this wind and snow swept winter of his youth. And, probably due to this limited perspective, the women in the story never seem to develop into fully realized characters. Mrs Dunbar’s passivity was a puzzle to me. Why Louisa herself was never taken show more to the hospital was also a question in the back of my mind. Perhaps it was just the way life was in this father, or in this case, doctor, knows best era. But these are really minor quibbles and the writing rises above them.

Watson, author of the stunning Montana, 1948, is a lyrical storyteller and American Boy is a poignant coming of age tale well worth a read. show less