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Ohio
One sweltering night in 2013, four former high school classmates converge on their hometown in northeastern Ohio.
There’s Bill Ashcraft, a passionate, drug-abusing young activist whose flailing ambitions have taken him from Cambodia to Zuccotti Park to post-BP New Orleans, and now back home with a mysterious package strapped to the undercarriage of his truck; Stacey Moore, a doctoral candidate reluctantly confronting her family and the mother of her best friend and first love, whose disappearance spurs the mystery at the heart of the novel; Dan Eaton, a shy veteran of three tours in Iraq, home for a dinner date with the high school sweetheart he’s tried desperately to forget; and the beautiful, fragile Tina Ross, whose rendezvous with the washed-up captain of the football team triggers the novel’s shocking climax.
Set over the course of a single evening, Ohio toggles between the perspectives of these unforgettable characters as they unearth dark secrets, revisit old regrets and uncover—and compound—bitter betrayals. Before the evening is through, these narratives converge masterfully to reveal a mystery so dark and shocking it will take your breath away.
There’s Bill Ashcraft, a passionate, drug-abusing young activist whose flailing ambitions have taken him from Cambodia to Zuccotti Park to post-BP New Orleans, and now back home with a mysterious package strapped to the undercarriage of his truck; Stacey Moore, a doctoral candidate reluctantly confronting her family and the mother of her best friend and first love, whose disappearance spurs the mystery at the heart of the novel; Dan Eaton, a shy veteran of three tours in Iraq, home for a dinner date with the high school sweetheart he’s tried desperately to forget; and the beautiful, fragile Tina Ross, whose rendezvous with the washed-up captain of the football team triggers the novel’s shocking climax.
Set over the course of a single evening, Ohio toggles between the perspectives of these unforgettable characters as they unearth dark secrets, revisit old regrets and uncover—and compound—bitter betrayals. Before the evening is through, these narratives converge masterfully to reveal a mystery so dark and shocking it will take your breath away.
484 pages, Hardcover
First published August 21, 2018
About the author
Stephen Markley
9 books925 followersStephen Markley's debut novel "Ohio" will be published in August of 2018 by Simon and Schuster.
Markley is the author of the memoir "Publish This Book: The Unbelievable True Story of How I Wrote, Sold, and Published This Very Book" (2010) and the travelogue "Tales of Iceland."
His work has appeared in Paste Magazine, Slate.com, The Iowa Review, Chicago's RedEye, The Week, The Chicago Tribune, The Rumpus, Weber: A Study of the Contemporary West, and the Chicago Reader. He’s also the author of the e-reader short "The Great Dysmorphia: An Epistemological View of Ingesting Hallucinogenic Mushrooms at a 2012 Republican Presidential Debate."
Markley is the author of the memoir "Publish This Book: The Unbelievable True Story of How I Wrote, Sold, and Published This Very Book" (2010) and the travelogue "Tales of Iceland."
His work has appeared in Paste Magazine, Slate.com, The Iowa Review, Chicago's RedEye, The Week, The Chicago Tribune, The Rumpus, Weber: A Study of the Contemporary West, and the Chicago Reader. He’s also the author of the e-reader short "The Great Dysmorphia: An Epistemological View of Ingesting Hallucinogenic Mushrooms at a 2012 Republican Presidential Debate."
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December 1, 2022
QUELLO CHE SUCCEDE QUANDO LA VITA SEMPLICEMENTE VA DA UN’ALTRA PARTE
La foto in copertina.
Stephen Markley ha trentasei anni e proviene da quella considerata la migliore scuola di scrittura creativa degli US (Iowa Writer’s Workshop). Questo è il suo romanzo d’esordio.
Wow! Cinquecento e passa pagine che si leggono con la difficoltà di interrompere e mettere giù il libro.
Una grande storia, un grande romanzo, ambizioso. L’ennesimo tentativo di Grande Romanzo Americano?
Daven Anderson: Last Night.
Difetti ce ne sono, non pochi. Ma i pregi sono ben di più, e l’effetto complessivo è più che positivo. Una volta finito e chiuso il libro, ho avuto difficoltà a iniziarne un altro, tanto ero immerso nella scrittura di Markley.
A cominciare dall’incipit, da quelle prime pagine segnate come “Prologo”: un lungo piano sequenza – la parata funebre per la morte di uno dei giovani dell’immaginaria cittadina di New Canaan (nome dal forte sapore biblico), una delle locali glorie sportive, il figlio del capo della polizia, ucciso in guerra in Iraq.
Un piano sequenza che dalla strada principale, dalla gente che sfila e quella che assiste sui marciapiedi, dalle case e negozi e costruzioni varie, man mano s’innalza – come si può fare adesso con quelle belle inquadrature dal drone – e diventa a vista d’uccello sull’intero stato, l’Ohio del titolo, e via via di tutto il paese. Magnifico lungo brano di appassionante letteratura.
Ma, attenzione, Ohio è tutto meno che un inno per la nazione a stelle-e-strisce:
Il feretro non conteneva nessuna salma. La bara Star Legacy modello Platinum Rose in acciaio calibro 18, in prestito dal Walmart locale, era solo ricoperta da una grande bandiera americana.
Non solo la bara è vuota e presa in prestito, ma la bandiera non rimane a lungo a coprirla, il vento freddo di ottobre se la porta via, finché i gentili rami di un albero ne fermano la traiettoria.
Markley conclude questo suo “preludio” con un altro colpo da maestro:
la parata è importante non per le persone che vi parteciparono ma per le persone assenti quel giorno.
Infatti, i quattro protagonisti del romanzo sono tutti amici del morto - che non è dentro la bara perché il suo corpo non è ancora stato restituito ai familiari - e prenderanno la scena uno dopo l’altro, rivivendo spesso le stesse situazioni del passato e incrociando le rispettive traiettorie - con ghiotto effetto Rashomon, e moltiplicazione dei punti di vista - non partecipano al funerale “per ragioni personali” (che scopriremo nel corso del romanzo), ma tornano a New Canaan anni dopo, ognuno spinto da una sua motivazione, convergendo nello stesso giorno su questa cittadina dell’Ohio da nord, sud, est e ovest.
La geografia è quella che l’elezione dell’ultimo presidente americano – macchia difficilmente cancellabile dalla loro storia nazionale – ha reso improvvisamente celebre: la Rust Belt.
Una lunga fascia da sud a nord che quando il mondo ha cominciato ad andare peggio, negli scorsi anni Ottanta, l’epoca di Reagan e della Thatcher, l’epoca in cui le conquiste sindacali e le lotte operaie hanno cominciato a essere smantellate in nome del dio denaro (quello in mano a pochi, mentre la fame è rimasta in bocca a molti), quella parte di Stati Uniti ha visto chiudere le sue industrie, a cominciare da quelle pesanti, in nome della delocalizzazione, in nome del dio risparmio (che è parente assai stretto del dio denaro), i posti di lavoro sono diventati disoccupazione, con aumento di alcolismo e conseguente violenza, con una ricorsa a ogni tipo di droga, ma preferibilmente ai derivati dell’oppio che si trovano in farmacia.
Declino industriale -> recessione -> depressione economica -> depressione esistenziale.
Qui, l’11 settembre del 2001 porta come è facile immaginare vento e sostegno a quel motto che recita dio-patria-famiglia: dio, perché sono quasi tutti religiosi a New Canaan, vanno in chiesa, i pastori prosperano, la religione è nelle varianti che provengono dallo stesso ceppo da cui è nato il cattolicesimo; patria, che dopo l’11 settembre vuol dire arruolarsi, partire, combattere – e quindi morire – vuol dire supremazia bianca, di conseguenza fuori e morte a chi non è come noi, cominciando dagli arabi, mussulmani o meno; la famiglia, per quanto sbandierata, è perlopiù disfunzionale, smembrata. E come potrebbe essere diversamente vista la disoccupazione, la difficoltà a guadagnarsi da vivere (va molto il lavoro di commessa), il ricorso ad alcool e droghe…
Tuttavia Stephen Markley tende a convincerci che la droga peggiore sia ricordare: fanno male le cose che si ricordano, ma anche quelle che invece non si ricordano. È il passato, o meglio, il tempo che trascorre, e si trasforma in passato, che diventa peso, fardello, zavorra.
È la natura della perdita, quella nostalgia per una parte di noi stessi che non c’è più. Sono le ferite dell’adolescenza, che non si rimarginano: lo sfacelo dell’età adulta ha radice in quei primi anni della nostra vita.
Un romanzo ad altissimo tasso emotivo, è facile avere problemi di vista causa lacrime.
Anche perché Markley non le risparmia al lettore, le provoca, e le mette negli occhi di tutti i suoi personaggi più e più volte.
E questo lo segnerei come uno dei problemi di questo magnifico imperfetto romanzo d’esordio: insieme a situazione retoriche, eccessive. Sì, mi pare che un maggiore senso della misura avrebbe giovato.
L’architettura della trama è imponente e ambiziosa, per me uno dei pregi del libro. E devo dire che a differenza di altri lettori, non ho riscontrato problemi di credibilità. Il racconto, affidato al narratore in terza persona, senza il ricorso al cambio di voce narrante ogni volta che c’è un passaggio di testimone (quattro ‘sezioni’, ciascuna ‘dedicata' a uno dei quattro protagonisti), ha impianto epico, e momenti lirici che si stendono su almeno quattro linee temporali a piacevolmente movimentare la lettura.
New Canaan diventa paradigma dell’intero paese, il simbolo di ciò che è andato storto da un certo punto in poi (ma è cominciato tutto prima dell’11 settembre, credi a me, Stephen)
E i quattro protagonisti, quelli che non hanno partecipato al funerale del loro amico, compagno di classe o di squadra, fidanzato, non si sono dati appuntamento, non si vedono né sentono da anni, ciascuno ha perso contatto con gli altri: convergono a New Canaan tutti nello stesso giorno del 2013 per caso, ognuno per ragione diversa, ognuno imboccando la strada del passato.
L’azione è concentrata in poche ore: ma di continuo il dramma si allarga al ricordo in uno stretto intreccio di presente e passato.
Lo scintillio dell’adolescenza è diventato disincanto e opacità in questi trentenni, feriti disillusi calpestati
La foto in copertina.
Stephen Markley ha trentasei anni e proviene da quella considerata la migliore scuola di scrittura creativa degli US (Iowa Writer’s Workshop). Questo è il suo romanzo d’esordio.
Wow! Cinquecento e passa pagine che si leggono con la difficoltà di interrompere e mettere giù il libro.
Una grande storia, un grande romanzo, ambizioso. L’ennesimo tentativo di Grande Romanzo Americano?
Daven Anderson: Last Night.
Difetti ce ne sono, non pochi. Ma i pregi sono ben di più, e l’effetto complessivo è più che positivo. Una volta finito e chiuso il libro, ho avuto difficoltà a iniziarne un altro, tanto ero immerso nella scrittura di Markley.
A cominciare dall’incipit, da quelle prime pagine segnate come “Prologo”: un lungo piano sequenza – la parata funebre per la morte di uno dei giovani dell’immaginaria cittadina di New Canaan (nome dal forte sapore biblico), una delle locali glorie sportive, il figlio del capo della polizia, ucciso in guerra in Iraq.
Un piano sequenza che dalla strada principale, dalla gente che sfila e quella che assiste sui marciapiedi, dalle case e negozi e costruzioni varie, man mano s’innalza – come si può fare adesso con quelle belle inquadrature dal drone – e diventa a vista d’uccello sull’intero stato, l’Ohio del titolo, e via via di tutto il paese. Magnifico lungo brano di appassionante letteratura.
Ma, attenzione, Ohio è tutto meno che un inno per la nazione a stelle-e-strisce:
Il feretro non conteneva nessuna salma. La bara Star Legacy modello Platinum Rose in acciaio calibro 18, in prestito dal Walmart locale, era solo ricoperta da una grande bandiera americana.
Non solo la bara è vuota e presa in prestito, ma la bandiera non rimane a lungo a coprirla, il vento freddo di ottobre se la porta via, finché i gentili rami di un albero ne fermano la traiettoria.
Markley conclude questo suo “preludio” con un altro colpo da maestro:
la parata è importante non per le persone che vi parteciparono ma per le persone assenti quel giorno.
Infatti, i quattro protagonisti del romanzo sono tutti amici del morto - che non è dentro la bara perché il suo corpo non è ancora stato restituito ai familiari - e prenderanno la scena uno dopo l’altro, rivivendo spesso le stesse situazioni del passato e incrociando le rispettive traiettorie - con ghiotto effetto Rashomon, e moltiplicazione dei punti di vista - non partecipano al funerale “per ragioni personali” (che scopriremo nel corso del romanzo), ma tornano a New Canaan anni dopo, ognuno spinto da una sua motivazione, convergendo nello stesso giorno su questa cittadina dell’Ohio da nord, sud, est e ovest.
La geografia è quella che l’elezione dell’ultimo presidente americano – macchia difficilmente cancellabile dalla loro storia nazionale – ha reso improvvisamente celebre: la Rust Belt.
Una lunga fascia da sud a nord che quando il mondo ha cominciato ad andare peggio, negli scorsi anni Ottanta, l’epoca di Reagan e della Thatcher, l’epoca in cui le conquiste sindacali e le lotte operaie hanno cominciato a essere smantellate in nome del dio denaro (quello in mano a pochi, mentre la fame è rimasta in bocca a molti), quella parte di Stati Uniti ha visto chiudere le sue industrie, a cominciare da quelle pesanti, in nome della delocalizzazione, in nome del dio risparmio (che è parente assai stretto del dio denaro), i posti di lavoro sono diventati disoccupazione, con aumento di alcolismo e conseguente violenza, con una ricorsa a ogni tipo di droga, ma preferibilmente ai derivati dell’oppio che si trovano in farmacia.
Declino industriale -> recessione -> depressione economica -> depressione esistenziale.
Qui, l’11 settembre del 2001 porta come è facile immaginare vento e sostegno a quel motto che recita dio-patria-famiglia: dio, perché sono quasi tutti religiosi a New Canaan, vanno in chiesa, i pastori prosperano, la religione è nelle varianti che provengono dallo stesso ceppo da cui è nato il cattolicesimo; patria, che dopo l’11 settembre vuol dire arruolarsi, partire, combattere – e quindi morire – vuol dire supremazia bianca, di conseguenza fuori e morte a chi non è come noi, cominciando dagli arabi, mussulmani o meno; la famiglia, per quanto sbandierata, è perlopiù disfunzionale, smembrata. E come potrebbe essere diversamente vista la disoccupazione, la difficoltà a guadagnarsi da vivere (va molto il lavoro di commessa), il ricorso ad alcool e droghe…
Tuttavia Stephen Markley tende a convincerci che la droga peggiore sia ricordare: fanno male le cose che si ricordano, ma anche quelle che invece non si ricordano. È il passato, o meglio, il tempo che trascorre, e si trasforma in passato, che diventa peso, fardello, zavorra.
È la natura della perdita, quella nostalgia per una parte di noi stessi che non c’è più. Sono le ferite dell’adolescenza, che non si rimarginano: lo sfacelo dell’età adulta ha radice in quei primi anni della nostra vita.
Un romanzo ad altissimo tasso emotivo, è facile avere problemi di vista causa lacrime.
Anche perché Markley non le risparmia al lettore, le provoca, e le mette negli occhi di tutti i suoi personaggi più e più volte.
E questo lo segnerei come uno dei problemi di questo magnifico imperfetto romanzo d’esordio: insieme a situazione retoriche, eccessive. Sì, mi pare che un maggiore senso della misura avrebbe giovato.
L’architettura della trama è imponente e ambiziosa, per me uno dei pregi del libro. E devo dire che a differenza di altri lettori, non ho riscontrato problemi di credibilità. Il racconto, affidato al narratore in terza persona, senza il ricorso al cambio di voce narrante ogni volta che c’è un passaggio di testimone (quattro ‘sezioni’, ciascuna ‘dedicata' a uno dei quattro protagonisti), ha impianto epico, e momenti lirici che si stendono su almeno quattro linee temporali a piacevolmente movimentare la lettura.
New Canaan diventa paradigma dell’intero paese, il simbolo di ciò che è andato storto da un certo punto in poi (ma è cominciato tutto prima dell’11 settembre, credi a me, Stephen)
E i quattro protagonisti, quelli che non hanno partecipato al funerale del loro amico, compagno di classe o di squadra, fidanzato, non si sono dati appuntamento, non si vedono né sentono da anni, ciascuno ha perso contatto con gli altri: convergono a New Canaan tutti nello stesso giorno del 2013 per caso, ognuno per ragione diversa, ognuno imboccando la strada del passato.
L’azione è concentrata in poche ore: ma di continuo il dramma si allarga al ricordo in uno stretto intreccio di presente e passato.
Lo scintillio dell’adolescenza è diventato disincanto e opacità in questi trentenni, feriti disillusi calpestati
June 6, 2019
4 Stars.
Four former friends converge on the town they grew up in: New Canaan, Ohio. Bound together for better or worse, each have their own reasons for returning and each person’s story intertwines in a way that is dark, evocative and simply jaw-dropping.
This town is desolate, depressed and ravaged by war. They have nothing to give, except for their opinions and those are in abundance. Alcohol and drugs run rampant with addiction on the rise. People drive cars that are 20 years old, dealerships and factories are shut down and the only place to shop is Walmart. It’s Rock and Roll, it’s anarchy, it’s life.
Back in High School, there was nothing to do besides taking lots of drugs, talking sh*t, getting laid and getting into trouble. These former friends did their fair share.
Bill Ashcraft is high when he rolls into to The Cane, and I don’t mean high on life. He is a man on a mission and he is counting down the seconds.
Stacey Moore arrives in town hoping to find an old friend. She gets more than she bargained for.
Dan Eaton’s short life haunts him. If only forgetting his past was an option.
Tina Ross comes to New Canaan with something on her mind. Her High School experience was unlike the others.
When these four collide, there are fireworks.
For most of us, High School still feels like yesterday. The friendships, the rivalries, the memories. This is true for Bill, Stacey, Dan and Tina, as well as for a few others, whose lives are intrinsically entwined with theirs.
“Ohio” by Stephen Markley is a novel like no other, yet it reads like real life: some cussing, some church going, some laughter, some tears - all the while the storylines whirling, like air through a wind turbine, converting wind to energy. This is a novel to savor. It is beautiful, disastrous and heart-wrenching all at once. It is literary fiction at its absolute best and it should not be missed.
Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and Stephen Markley for a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
Published on NetGalley, Goodreads and Twitter on 9.5.18.
Four former friends converge on the town they grew up in: New Canaan, Ohio. Bound together for better or worse, each have their own reasons for returning and each person’s story intertwines in a way that is dark, evocative and simply jaw-dropping.
This town is desolate, depressed and ravaged by war. They have nothing to give, except for their opinions and those are in abundance. Alcohol and drugs run rampant with addiction on the rise. People drive cars that are 20 years old, dealerships and factories are shut down and the only place to shop is Walmart. It’s Rock and Roll, it’s anarchy, it’s life.
Back in High School, there was nothing to do besides taking lots of drugs, talking sh*t, getting laid and getting into trouble. These former friends did their fair share.
Bill Ashcraft is high when he rolls into to The Cane, and I don’t mean high on life. He is a man on a mission and he is counting down the seconds.
Stacey Moore arrives in town hoping to find an old friend. She gets more than she bargained for.
Dan Eaton’s short life haunts him. If only forgetting his past was an option.
Tina Ross comes to New Canaan with something on her mind. Her High School experience was unlike the others.
When these four collide, there are fireworks.
For most of us, High School still feels like yesterday. The friendships, the rivalries, the memories. This is true for Bill, Stacey, Dan and Tina, as well as for a few others, whose lives are intrinsically entwined with theirs.
“Ohio” by Stephen Markley is a novel like no other, yet it reads like real life: some cussing, some church going, some laughter, some tears - all the while the storylines whirling, like air through a wind turbine, converting wind to energy. This is a novel to savor. It is beautiful, disastrous and heart-wrenching all at once. It is literary fiction at its absolute best and it should not be missed.
Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and Stephen Markley for a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
Published on NetGalley, Goodreads and Twitter on 9.5.18.
August 9, 2018
I picked this up because someone compared it to The Big Chill, one of my favorite movies of all time. The book starts with a prelude, a stream of consciousness narrative during a parade in memory of Rick, who was killed Iraq. The book then jumps 6 years to 2013.
Then it divides into four parts, each told from the perspective of a different character returning home for their own reasons. But each was a school mate of the others and have a history from those days.
The writing here is gorgeous. I realized I was highlighting phrases almost every other page. “We begin with history’s dogs howling, suffering in every last nerve and muscle.” I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone able to turn a phrase like Markley. Which isn’t to say this is an easy read. When you’re into Bill’s brain, it can seem down right twisted. And when Dan remembers his time in the army, it hit me like a fist to the gut. And Tina’s section will just make you cry.
This book delves into the issues of the rust belt. Drugs abound. The recession is still in existence here, years after the rest of the country has recovered. Hope seems to be a forgotten concept. “New Canaan looked like the microcosm poster child of middle American angst.”
This isn’t an easy read by any stretch of the imagination. At times, it's so dark, so brutal, I had to put it down. It also needed a better editing job, as it rambled at times and I had trouble remaining focused. It goes back and forth between the present and memories of high school. And that ending! OMG.
In the end, I’m torn on how to rate this. This really needed to be tightened up. In places, it’s a total mess. In others, it’s brilliant. I’m willing to bet it’s going to generate a lot of attention and excitement.
My thanks to netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance copy of this novel.
September 18, 2019
Where to begin! At the beginning, I guess. Ohio is a sprawling novel that’s divided into four sections, each told from the point of view of one of four high school classmates all reappearing in their hometown of New Canaan, Ohio, on a night ten years after their graduation. The first section, centering on an addict and left-wing activist named Bill Ashcraft, is one of the most overwritten things I’ve ever read. (I’ll include some choice passages at the end of my review.) The vast array of adjectives, metaphors, and similes not only made this section a slog, they eventually made me downright hostile toward the book. My patience wore thin and my eye-rolling muscles became fatigued. Fortunately, this section did finally end, and when the next sections were somewhat less overwritten, I came to understand that all of the weird imagery was (I guess?) meant to be the product of Bill’s drugged mind. This was a relief.
The second and third sections of the book, one from the point of view of a grad student who’d recently come out as gay and the other from the point of view of a veteran of three tours of Iraq and Afghanistan, were moderately less infuriating than the first, but all three sections did share one flaw: an overkill amount of reminiscing about high school. I did appreciate the way all this reminiscing from various points of view eventually revealed all the major plot points, but it was beyond tiresome to hear about their high school goings-on from three different characters. Further, the idea that all of them would still be so obsessed with high school ten years later strained credibility. I actually had to take a break in the midst of the third section because I couldn’t take the tedium anymore.
When I picked the book back up again and moved on to the fourth and final section, told from the point of view of a woman who’d stayed in the area after graduation, I finally learned what the point of the whole thing was: the woman who was the focus of this last section To say I was displeased by this turn of events is an understatement. It felt like Markley needed something dramatic to hang his novel on, so, sure, why not ? Hey, every book needs some kind of dramatic incident, so why not? Why not? Maybe because some of us are totally sick of this being used as a cheap plot point. Maybe because most of the other high school girls in the book are depicted as total sex freaks even at age 15, so I already didn’t trust this author’s portrayals of women and, by the time the fourth section rolled around, I had no confidence in his ability to handle this serious topic with finesse. And I was right. If finesse is what you want, you’re not going to find it anywhere in Ohio.
As someone who comes from a depressed, blue-collar nowheresville myself, I was really looking forward to reading this novel. Its publisher seems to see it as some kind of epic work that will explain the rise of Trump in working-class areas. But the fact is that this book is completely lacking in any kind of nuance and adds absolutely nothing new, or even particularly true, to the conversation. It reads as if Markley left his hometown, never really went back, but still sees himself as an expert in the area, capable of speaking for the people who still live there. But he isn’t. If it accomplishes nothing else, Ohio definitely proves that.
I won this ARC in a Shelf Awareness giveaway. Thank you to the publisher.
***
As promised, here are some of my favorite/least favorite passages from Ohio:
• Page 68: An enormous mural looked out at the road: a ferocious black jaguar bursting through a wall of orange, fangs bared, grapefruit eyes gleaming with savage Darwinian murder. MURDEROUS! You know, like a grapefruit.
• Page 106: Her eyes still floated in a splash of freckles like two sapphires tossed onto a white-sand beach. You mean emeralds, dude. You’ve already told us multiple times that her eyes are green. This is one of the many hazards of describing everything excessively: sometimes you get things wrong.
• Page 109: The coffee table was a mess of Us Weeklys, a plate of half-finished, lipstick-red spaghetti going cold, and her inhaler, right next to an ashtray with two fresh cigarette stubs. “I need something quick for dinner tonight. I know, I’ll make a plate of lipstick-red spaghetti” is something I think we have all said at one time or another.
• Also page 109: Bill patted his tender flesh the color of massacred civilians. In his defense, “lipstick-red” was already taken.
• Page 153: Her boots clopped over the street like a horse with two amputations. I don’t really think… you know what, just forget it.
• Page 161: The cursive script ran up the inside of her forearm from the spot where the Romans put the nails in Jesus’s wrists to just short of the elbow pit. One, just saying “wrist” would have gotten the job done. Two, what’s with always saying “elbow pit” and “knee pit”? Are those real things people say? Help me out, Ohioans!
• Page 233: "My dad’s just my dad—I could probably show up with a dead hooker in my trunk, and he would beam at my resourcefulness with a club hammer." This was said by a female character to her former high school music teacher, who she’d just seen for the first time in ten years.
• Page 277: The sky angled like a carnival game, deathwatch blue, while a single oil tanker of a cloud passed overhead. Someone get the WD-40—the switch on the random simile generator is stuck in the “on” position!
• Also page 277: he got a feeling like only an anorexic housefly could navigate between them. There just had to have been some other way to express this.
• Page 324: She took a tissue from her bedside and held it with only the tips of her fingers, delicately, as if feeling a ball of skin. A BALL OF SKIN? A BALL OF SKIN? You really could have stopped at “the tips of her fingers” and we would have gotten the point. I mean, really—a ball of skin? A ball of skin?!?
The prosecution rests.
UPDATE: October 17, 2018. A couple of days ago I spotted a finished copy of Ohio on a bookstore shelf and checked to see if the "ball of skin" passage made it into the final version of the book. It did!
The second and third sections of the book, one from the point of view of a grad student who’d recently come out as gay and the other from the point of view of a veteran of three tours of Iraq and Afghanistan, were moderately less infuriating than the first, but all three sections did share one flaw: an overkill amount of reminiscing about high school. I did appreciate the way all this reminiscing from various points of view eventually revealed all the major plot points, but it was beyond tiresome to hear about their high school goings-on from three different characters. Further, the idea that all of them would still be so obsessed with high school ten years later strained credibility. I actually had to take a break in the midst of the third section because I couldn’t take the tedium anymore.
When I picked the book back up again and moved on to the fourth and final section, told from the point of view of a woman who’d stayed in the area after graduation, I finally learned what the point of the whole thing was: the woman who was the focus of this last section To say I was displeased by this turn of events is an understatement. It felt like Markley needed something dramatic to hang his novel on, so, sure, why not ? Hey, every book needs some kind of dramatic incident, so why not? Why not? Maybe because some of us are totally sick of this being used as a cheap plot point. Maybe because most of the other high school girls in the book are depicted as total sex freaks even at age 15, so I already didn’t trust this author’s portrayals of women and, by the time the fourth section rolled around, I had no confidence in his ability to handle this serious topic with finesse. And I was right. If finesse is what you want, you’re not going to find it anywhere in Ohio.
As someone who comes from a depressed, blue-collar nowheresville myself, I was really looking forward to reading this novel. Its publisher seems to see it as some kind of epic work that will explain the rise of Trump in working-class areas. But the fact is that this book is completely lacking in any kind of nuance and adds absolutely nothing new, or even particularly true, to the conversation. It reads as if Markley left his hometown, never really went back, but still sees himself as an expert in the area, capable of speaking for the people who still live there. But he isn’t. If it accomplishes nothing else, Ohio definitely proves that.
I won this ARC in a Shelf Awareness giveaway. Thank you to the publisher.
***
As promised, here are some of my favorite/least favorite passages from Ohio:
• Page 68: An enormous mural looked out at the road: a ferocious black jaguar bursting through a wall of orange, fangs bared, grapefruit eyes gleaming with savage Darwinian murder. MURDEROUS! You know, like a grapefruit.
• Page 106: Her eyes still floated in a splash of freckles like two sapphires tossed onto a white-sand beach. You mean emeralds, dude. You’ve already told us multiple times that her eyes are green. This is one of the many hazards of describing everything excessively: sometimes you get things wrong.
• Page 109: The coffee table was a mess of Us Weeklys, a plate of half-finished, lipstick-red spaghetti going cold, and her inhaler, right next to an ashtray with two fresh cigarette stubs. “I need something quick for dinner tonight. I know, I’ll make a plate of lipstick-red spaghetti” is something I think we have all said at one time or another.
• Also page 109: Bill patted his tender flesh the color of massacred civilians. In his defense, “lipstick-red” was already taken.
• Page 153: Her boots clopped over the street like a horse with two amputations. I don’t really think… you know what, just forget it.
• Page 161: The cursive script ran up the inside of her forearm from the spot where the Romans put the nails in Jesus’s wrists to just short of the elbow pit. One, just saying “wrist” would have gotten the job done. Two, what’s with always saying “elbow pit” and “knee pit”? Are those real things people say? Help me out, Ohioans!
• Page 233: "My dad’s just my dad—I could probably show up with a dead hooker in my trunk, and he would beam at my resourcefulness with a club hammer." This was said by a female character to her former high school music teacher, who she’d just seen for the first time in ten years.
• Page 277: The sky angled like a carnival game, deathwatch blue, while a single oil tanker of a cloud passed overhead. Someone get the WD-40—the switch on the random simile generator is stuck in the “on” position!
• Also page 277: he got a feeling like only an anorexic housefly could navigate between them. There just had to have been some other way to express this.
• Page 324: She took a tissue from her bedside and held it with only the tips of her fingers, delicately, as if feeling a ball of skin. A BALL OF SKIN? A BALL OF SKIN? You really could have stopped at “the tips of her fingers” and we would have gotten the point. I mean, really—a ball of skin? A ball of skin?!?
The prosecution rests.
UPDATE: October 17, 2018. A couple of days ago I spotted a finished copy of Ohio on a bookstore shelf and checked to see if the "ball of skin" passage made it into the final version of the book. It did!
September 6, 2018
Ohio by Stephen Markley is a 2018 Simon & Schuster publication.
New Canaan, Ohio
The Rust Belt-
By now the plight of those living in a what is commonly known as ‘The Rust Belt", is etched into our consciousness. A marginalized area simmering in hostility, hammered by a stubborn economic depression, and an unprecedented epidemic opiate crisis.
This atmosphere is more in the forefront than in the background as Stephen Markley captures the mentality of those born and raised in this environment. Four high school friends, all of whom took a different path in life, all of them haunted by actions, decisions, and memories of the past, compounded by their current day realities, return home at the same time, with shocking results.
The novel begins in 2007 with the funeral of former football star Rick Brinklan, killed in Iraq. This surreal parade sets the stage quite effectively as the author leads the reader quickly to 9/11- the event that cements a ‘before and after’ time frame for our main characters.
Separated into four segments, giving each character the power of the first person narrative to describe their youthful experiences, the angst of needing to belong, the compulsion to express individuality, or their forced conformity.
All four voices are connected by their upbringing, their history, and their knowledge of certain crimes, their mistakes and regrets.
Their shared memories, especially centered around rumors of and evidence of certain events that took place in high school, still binds them. But, the unspoken jealousies and competitions build to a point that eventually boils over, the consequences that follow them into adulthood, and will eventually bring terrible tragedy, which now begs for justice.
This is a very impressive debut novel. It is thought provoking, with very strong characterizations, and vivid depictions of time and place. It is, however, very laborious, and verbose, perhaps in need of a more aggressive editor. Despite some clunky sections, the author’s prose is magnificent.
In my opinion the mystery is not the most prominent element of this book even though it is firmly placed in that category. In fact, I wondered at times, if the author intended to write a true mystery or was using it as a means to an end, with a fictionalized social commentary being the ultimate goal.
Yet, at the end of the day, there is a mystery, one that took me by surprise, the outcome of which never really crossed my mind, as my attention was diverted by the rich characterizations. The story eventually merges the four individual segments with a surprising turn of events.
Some of the vignettes, if you will, reminded me of many typical small town scenarios, not just those who have come under such intense scrutiny as of late. I live in a small town in Texas, surrounded by even smaller towns, some which have dried up the same way those in the heavily maligned rust belt. Factories closed, drugs took over, bored teens did what bored teens do, creating cliques and fiefdoms, and in a football obsessed mindset- similar crimes are committed, overlooked and unreported. Some are trapped in a vicious, never ending cycle going back generations with no end in sight, and others got away only to find themselves right back where they started, or curiously enough, unable to find contentment in any other way of life.
Stiff conservative values, hard wired patriotism, and God and country still rule in the hearts and minds of small town America- and God help you if you go against the grain with sexual identity or liberal leanings. My point being that the rust belt in not unique in this. My next point is – don’t stereotype- of presume this is a searing portrait of the entire state of Ohio- despite the book’s title.
The story takes a very long and rambling way around to linking the threads together, perhaps too long if the goal was to keep the reader invested in the mystery elements.
But, if you want to get a very realistic look at the issues that still very much divide our country, dissect the long road leading to this point; if you want to see why there is such a fierce loyalty to this way of life, or if you just enjoy strong, well- drawn characters, placed in a dense and gritty atmosphere- and don’t mind depending on those characters to carry you through to the ultimate moment of truth- then the mystery, which doesn’t come on strong until the bitter end, will be worth the extended wait.
The book is a riveting combination of narratives, quite absorbing, albeit violent and pretty darned bleak and melancholy.
So, my only caution to readers is to keep in mind that small towns everywhere suffer some of these same plights, these exact same attitudes, and personalities, but that is not a rebuke of all the residents, or the state in which they are located and hope the urge to group everyone together in the blame game will be avoided.
Wisely, the author added diversity to the story, which hopefully will help to combat strict preconceived notions about rural or blue- collar areas. However, it would serve us all well, from small communities to large cities, from the east to the west, and all points in between, to step outside our own insular world to consider the challenges and fears of others. Compassion may begin at home, but it doesn’t have to stop there - it is limitless.
4 stars
New Canaan, Ohio
The Rust Belt-
By now the plight of those living in a what is commonly known as ‘The Rust Belt", is etched into our consciousness. A marginalized area simmering in hostility, hammered by a stubborn economic depression, and an unprecedented epidemic opiate crisis.
This atmosphere is more in the forefront than in the background as Stephen Markley captures the mentality of those born and raised in this environment. Four high school friends, all of whom took a different path in life, all of them haunted by actions, decisions, and memories of the past, compounded by their current day realities, return home at the same time, with shocking results.
The novel begins in 2007 with the funeral of former football star Rick Brinklan, killed in Iraq. This surreal parade sets the stage quite effectively as the author leads the reader quickly to 9/11- the event that cements a ‘before and after’ time frame for our main characters.
Separated into four segments, giving each character the power of the first person narrative to describe their youthful experiences, the angst of needing to belong, the compulsion to express individuality, or their forced conformity.
All four voices are connected by their upbringing, their history, and their knowledge of certain crimes, their mistakes and regrets.
Their shared memories, especially centered around rumors of and evidence of certain events that took place in high school, still binds them. But, the unspoken jealousies and competitions build to a point that eventually boils over, the consequences that follow them into adulthood, and will eventually bring terrible tragedy, which now begs for justice.
This is a very impressive debut novel. It is thought provoking, with very strong characterizations, and vivid depictions of time and place. It is, however, very laborious, and verbose, perhaps in need of a more aggressive editor. Despite some clunky sections, the author’s prose is magnificent.
In my opinion the mystery is not the most prominent element of this book even though it is firmly placed in that category. In fact, I wondered at times, if the author intended to write a true mystery or was using it as a means to an end, with a fictionalized social commentary being the ultimate goal.
Yet, at the end of the day, there is a mystery, one that took me by surprise, the outcome of which never really crossed my mind, as my attention was diverted by the rich characterizations. The story eventually merges the four individual segments with a surprising turn of events.
Some of the vignettes, if you will, reminded me of many typical small town scenarios, not just those who have come under such intense scrutiny as of late. I live in a small town in Texas, surrounded by even smaller towns, some which have dried up the same way those in the heavily maligned rust belt. Factories closed, drugs took over, bored teens did what bored teens do, creating cliques and fiefdoms, and in a football obsessed mindset- similar crimes are committed, overlooked and unreported. Some are trapped in a vicious, never ending cycle going back generations with no end in sight, and others got away only to find themselves right back where they started, or curiously enough, unable to find contentment in any other way of life.
Stiff conservative values, hard wired patriotism, and God and country still rule in the hearts and minds of small town America- and God help you if you go against the grain with sexual identity or liberal leanings. My point being that the rust belt in not unique in this. My next point is – don’t stereotype- of presume this is a searing portrait of the entire state of Ohio- despite the book’s title.
The story takes a very long and rambling way around to linking the threads together, perhaps too long if the goal was to keep the reader invested in the mystery elements.
But, if you want to get a very realistic look at the issues that still very much divide our country, dissect the long road leading to this point; if you want to see why there is such a fierce loyalty to this way of life, or if you just enjoy strong, well- drawn characters, placed in a dense and gritty atmosphere- and don’t mind depending on those characters to carry you through to the ultimate moment of truth- then the mystery, which doesn’t come on strong until the bitter end, will be worth the extended wait.
The book is a riveting combination of narratives, quite absorbing, albeit violent and pretty darned bleak and melancholy.
So, my only caution to readers is to keep in mind that small towns everywhere suffer some of these same plights, these exact same attitudes, and personalities, but that is not a rebuke of all the residents, or the state in which they are located and hope the urge to group everyone together in the blame game will be avoided.
Wisely, the author added diversity to the story, which hopefully will help to combat strict preconceived notions about rural or blue- collar areas. However, it would serve us all well, from small communities to large cities, from the east to the west, and all points in between, to step outside our own insular world to consider the challenges and fears of others. Compassion may begin at home, but it doesn’t have to stop there - it is limitless.
4 stars
April 25, 2022
4.5 Stars
”Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
“Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long-stem rose
Everybody knows”
--Everybody Knows, Leonard Cohen, Songwriters: Leonard Cohen / Sharon Robinson
Unrelenting pain, broken people, a country torn apart by recession and an act of violence against America, people everywhere hurting, the opiod crisis, wars, and the damage they invoke on those fighting in them, who carry that damage with them after they’ve returned home to this small town in northeastern Ohio they refer to as “The Cane.”
There are four who return there the summer of 2013, each having lived all of their years with this country in a state of war, with recession destroying what was once the town they lived and loved in. They have memories of those years, and they are not always particularly fond ones, although there is still an abundance of nostalgia for this place, it is riddled with the pain of the scars that they carry, and yet it is still a part of them. Home.
This story begins with the prelude, with a funeral procession carrying an empty coffin (loaned by Walmart), draped with an American flag is being carried on a flatbed trailer down the street when the breeze went from calm to that high, almost whistling shriek, carrying the stars and stripes off in a frenzy of gusts and swirls until the knobby contorted branch managed to capture it.
This small town was America, as red, white and blue on this day as any other, with small flags carefully positioned every fifteen feet more than a mile leading up to the town square. Children walked with small flags in their grasp, and flags waved from the backs of bikes.
Regrets and secrets are carried on the wind, but never leave them, everywhere they look they are reminded of memories loaded with shame, humiliation, resentment, rage, ugliness and a vague wistfulness for something that never was, for them. A promise of a life with more, and a need to hold someone, something accountable.
This is a beautifully written, if very bleak, story about the towns, cities, and people left behind, marginalized, after everything collapsed. When your life, the life you knew, is ripped away leaving only a shell of what you knew, despair, anger, and resentment fills in the empty spaces. When that becomes your everyday life, it isn’t easy to live with when every day is filled with despair. On some level you must rail against the injustice of it all, or just fold, but even that doesn’t last long until it’s replaced by another emotion. Underneath this heartbreaking story is a commentary / critique of our current society, as viewed through the eyes of these people, this place, but it could be anyplace.
This was not an easy read for me, especially in the beginning, but I am so happy that I stuck with it. Before long, I didn’t want to put this down. I re-read sections over and over, not because I didn’t understand them, but because Markley writes so beautifully, and in his debut, Stephen Markley has written a story that will have you thinking about America’s present circumstances, about our towns and people.
A discerning and disturbing story of these seemingly discarded towns of America, through these unstable and tumultuous times. To borrow a thought, a phrase from Langston Hughes - This town, these towns, these cities, these people – they, too, sing America.
Published: 21 AUG 2018
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Simon & Schuster
May 14, 2020
fulfilling my 2020 goal to read (at least) one book each month that was given to me as a present that i haven't yet gotten around to reading because i am an ungrateful dick.
it took me six days to get through this book. it took four days just to get past the first fifty pages and two days to get to page 20. In fact, i considered grabbing a different book to meet my “unread present” monthly task, worried that i wouldn’t be able to finish this one’s nearly-500 pages before the end of the month. every time i sat down with it, i’d find myself struggling to make any progress, going over the same sentences, frustrated enough to sharpie-scrawl a snarky “this guy shore does like WORDS!!” on a post-it.
here’s the thing about this book: you need to push past the first two sections; the prelude: Rick Brinklan and the Last Lonesome Night and first chapter: Bill Ashcraft and the Great American Thing. after that, it gets better. not that the first parts are bad, but the prose is thick in a particularly exhausting way that comes across as overhandled and self-indulgent.
the prelude is 18-pages sort of omnisciently bird’s-eye panning a crowd gathered for a military funeral procession to honor a fallen local boy, layering the physical descriptions and history of the economically depressed town of new canaan, ohio; the microcosm poster child of middle-American angst, with the interior landscapes of those assembled, digressing from present-day to dip into the past and foreshadow future events. it’s an impressive feat of panoramic writing, the flow establishing the who and the where and all of it, but it’s also a lot of information to process right off the bat, not all of it—strictly speaking—necessary.
rereading that chapter after finishing the novel, certain details spark out of it; little pockets of clarity now that you know as much as the author/om narr about the characters, relationships, events to come, but a lot of it is still extraneous detail, and as an opening to a novel when you don't yet know what is or is not going to be significant, it's a lot of information to throw at a reader; it’s setting the stage, yeah, but more like setting it for every play that might ever run.
so, whatever, the first part is a lot and it’s disorienting, but it playfully addresses its own dizzying qualities by basically shrugging, “life, amiright?”:
for the most part, the prelude is the “good” kind of confusing—it’s intriguing, it builds a strong sense of atmosphere while playing coy with its flirty smirks of portent. also, it is impossible to not hear rod serling's voice in your head at the end of it:
rereading it now after finishing the whole book, i appreciate it more than i did on my first run-through when i kept slipping off the prose and having to backtrack. my attention span has been garbage since i've been marinating in ‘ronatine over here, and his style of writing demands more concentration than i have in the tank right now. and then AFTER the prelude, that first “real” chapter doubled down on the whole "if you want to come into my story you'd better be ready to unpack alla my sentences!" stance, and it is rough.
there are four chonks to this novel, each with a different character more-or-less at the center. it's not POV'd by them, but it sort of channels their energy, if that makes sense, and this first one swirls around bill, a bombastic, verbose, unreliable, drugged to the gills, self-aggrandizing fellow whose muddle of thoughts can be hard to follow through the claustrophobic press of his memories and visions and assorted internal monologues:
hard dislike.
it's a lot of chewy sentences, bristling with clauses, sacrificing clarity to the adjective gods until you want to scream "kill your goddamn darlings, markley!" it's altogether too word-rich an opener. some of his poetic indulgences do land perfectly, Tupperware-looking white people, or being on valium and feeling like sexy melted marshmallow, but so much of it just feels...crowded.
and while i'm thinking of it, ALL of the original song lyrics are ppbblltt.
after bill's segment, the story flows much better, but i didn't know that at the time, and i dreaded picking it back up every morning. i'm ordinarily a better reader than i have been lately, but i wonder if other readers also felt smothered by the prose of the early bits and gave up before the story really takes off. i'm not sure how well it would have worked, structure-wise, because this novel is an intricate jenga of timelines—with their overlapping events, contrasting memories and alternate angles, in addition to the reveals of the assorted secrets, lies, and entanglements, but it might have been more friendly to have a different character's chonk come first.
ENNYWAY, after a rough start, i really enjoyed this—it's suspenseful and absorbing but also deeply uncomfortable—there's a lot that's brutal here, including descriptions of war violence, sexual assault and a highly squirmy cutting scene that i still can't get out of my head. gah.
it's the kind of book that would benefit from a full re-read, but OOF, not with this shitty brain.
TOO MANY WORDS SORRY BYE!
come to my blog!
it took me six days to get through this book. it took four days just to get past the first fifty pages and two days to get to page 20. In fact, i considered grabbing a different book to meet my “unread present” monthly task, worried that i wouldn’t be able to finish this one’s nearly-500 pages before the end of the month. every time i sat down with it, i’d find myself struggling to make any progress, going over the same sentences, frustrated enough to sharpie-scrawl a snarky “this guy shore does like WORDS!!” on a post-it.
here’s the thing about this book: you need to push past the first two sections; the prelude: Rick Brinklan and the Last Lonesome Night and first chapter: Bill Ashcraft and the Great American Thing. after that, it gets better. not that the first parts are bad, but the prose is thick in a particularly exhausting way that comes across as overhandled and self-indulgent.
the prelude is 18-pages sort of omnisciently bird’s-eye panning a crowd gathered for a military funeral procession to honor a fallen local boy, layering the physical descriptions and history of the economically depressed town of new canaan, ohio; the microcosm poster child of middle-American angst, with the interior landscapes of those assembled, digressing from present-day to dip into the past and foreshadow future events. it’s an impressive feat of panoramic writing, the flow establishing the who and the where and all of it, but it’s also a lot of information to process right off the bat, not all of it—strictly speaking—necessary.
rereading that chapter after finishing the novel, certain details spark out of it; little pockets of clarity now that you know as much as the author/om narr about the characters, relationships, events to come, but a lot of it is still extraneous detail, and as an opening to a novel when you don't yet know what is or is not going to be significant, it's a lot of information to throw at a reader; it’s setting the stage, yeah, but more like setting it for every play that might ever run.
so, whatever, the first part is a lot and it’s disorienting, but it playfully addresses its own dizzying qualities by basically shrugging, “life, amiright?”:
It’s hard to say where any of this ends or how it ever began, because what you eventually learn is that there is no such thing as linear. There is only this wild, fucked-up flamethrower of a collective dream in which we were all born and traveled and died.
for the most part, the prelude is the “good” kind of confusing—it’s intriguing, it builds a strong sense of atmosphere while playing coy with its flirty smirks of portent. also, it is impossible to not hear rod serling's voice in your head at the end of it:
So we begin roughly six years after the parade thrown in honor of Corporal Rick Brinklan, on a fried fever of a summer night in 2013. We begin with history's dogs howling, suffering in every last nerve and muscle. We begin with four vehicles and their occupants converging on this one Ohio town from the north, south, east, and west. Specifically, we begin on a dark country road with a small pickup truck, the frame shuddering, the gas tank empty, hurtling through the night from origins yet unknown.
rereading it now after finishing the whole book, i appreciate it more than i did on my first run-through when i kept slipping off the prose and having to backtrack. my attention span has been garbage since i've been marinating in ‘ronatine over here, and his style of writing demands more concentration than i have in the tank right now. and then AFTER the prelude, that first “real” chapter doubled down on the whole "if you want to come into my story you'd better be ready to unpack alla my sentences!" stance, and it is rough.
there are four chonks to this novel, each with a different character more-or-less at the center. it's not POV'd by them, but it sort of channels their energy, if that makes sense, and this first one swirls around bill, a bombastic, verbose, unreliable, drugged to the gills, self-aggrandizing fellow whose muddle of thoughts can be hard to follow through the claustrophobic press of his memories and visions and assorted internal monologues:
Even after all this, there was always a reason to stand again. To summon the courage to live and to be alive. To rage against the faceless entropy, the savage logic of accumulation that would return them all to exile, that aimed to strip them bare of everything, every place, and every person they’d ever loved. To find hope in defiance, in the subterranean fire, and to always and forever endure the Truth and struggle to extinction.
He stumbled on in his dreams, mourning the rovers and fields of his homeland. He saw it burning in blue fire, and he prayed for the strength to defend it, to fight for it, to bring it back alive.
hard dislike.
it's a lot of chewy sentences, bristling with clauses, sacrificing clarity to the adjective gods until you want to scream "kill your goddamn darlings, markley!" it's altogether too word-rich an opener. some of his poetic indulgences do land perfectly, Tupperware-looking white people, or being on valium and feeling like sexy melted marshmallow, but so much of it just feels...crowded.
He was pretty fucking drunk, which for him was saying something. He was also still pretty wired from the acid. These tabs lasted For. Fuck. Ing. Ev. Er. You really had to be prepared to step into another dimension, accept the deregulations of that particular nuthouse, accept that you were never coming back, and imagine life under these new brain-bled, torch-fever-fed circumstances.
and while i'm thinking of it, ALL of the original song lyrics are ppbblltt.
after bill's segment, the story flows much better, but i didn't know that at the time, and i dreaded picking it back up every morning. i'm ordinarily a better reader than i have been lately, but i wonder if other readers also felt smothered by the prose of the early bits and gave up before the story really takes off. i'm not sure how well it would have worked, structure-wise, because this novel is an intricate jenga of timelines—with their overlapping events, contrasting memories and alternate angles, in addition to the reveals of the assorted secrets, lies, and entanglements, but it might have been more friendly to have a different character's chonk come first.
ENNYWAY, after a rough start, i really enjoyed this—it's suspenseful and absorbing but also deeply uncomfortable—there's a lot that's brutal here, including descriptions of war violence, sexual assault and a highly squirmy cutting scene that i still can't get out of my head. gah.
it's the kind of book that would benefit from a full re-read, but OOF, not with this shitty brain.
TOO MANY WORDS SORRY BYE!
come to my blog!
September 30, 2018
Everything in life depends on the decisions that you make, some more important than others. Sometimes the most innocuous decision has the greatest ramifications and effect on our lives.
Ohio by Stephen Markley is a fictional account of a town that prosperity has forgotten. New Canaan, Ohio is a town where the effects of war, drugs, suicide, unemployment and a host of other epidemic problems have left it without hope.
New Canaan represents what has befallen Ohio and so many Midwestern rust belt towns. Tragedy one is followed by tragedy two which is followed by tragedy three and so on.
Prosperity did not stop in, it just passed by. Compounding the external woes are the woes inflicted by friends, family, classmates and neighbors.
Markley's book focuses on the stories of four high school friends ten years after graduation. This dark and sad tale of four separate lives is the story of how life is really a game of inches. The feeling that I got from all four stories is that while each story is unique and different, in life we face the consequences from one bad decision, one "what if", one regret, one time we didn't listen to our conscience, the one time "I should have said something", the one time I didn't speak up or the one time I went down the other road.
Ohio is a long, dark, depressing, sad book that doesn't leave you feeling better at the end. But this isn't a book that was meant to. Reflect, contemplate and discuss would be the goals of this book.
I felt a profound sense of sadness and hopelessness after reading this book. Do not try and read this book in one sitting, you will not appreciate it for what it is. In order to gain the most out of this Markley's gritty, brutal but brilliant prose, the reader needs to digest this book in stages.
Perhaps this book serves to remind us that failed dreams do linger.
I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley. #Netgalley #Ohio
Ohio by Stephen Markley is a fictional account of a town that prosperity has forgotten. New Canaan, Ohio is a town where the effects of war, drugs, suicide, unemployment and a host of other epidemic problems have left it without hope.
New Canaan represents what has befallen Ohio and so many Midwestern rust belt towns. Tragedy one is followed by tragedy two which is followed by tragedy three and so on.
Prosperity did not stop in, it just passed by. Compounding the external woes are the woes inflicted by friends, family, classmates and neighbors.
Markley's book focuses on the stories of four high school friends ten years after graduation. This dark and sad tale of four separate lives is the story of how life is really a game of inches. The feeling that I got from all four stories is that while each story is unique and different, in life we face the consequences from one bad decision, one "what if", one regret, one time we didn't listen to our conscience, the one time "I should have said something", the one time I didn't speak up or the one time I went down the other road.
Ohio is a long, dark, depressing, sad book that doesn't leave you feeling better at the end. But this isn't a book that was meant to. Reflect, contemplate and discuss would be the goals of this book.
I felt a profound sense of sadness and hopelessness after reading this book. Do not try and read this book in one sitting, you will not appreciate it for what it is. In order to gain the most out of this Markley's gritty, brutal but brilliant prose, the reader needs to digest this book in stages.
Perhaps this book serves to remind us that failed dreams do linger.
I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley. #Netgalley #Ohio
October 8, 2021
“I’m doing my best to keep moving forward, to keep happy.”
Well…I picked this text for my book club. I already know they are going to hate me. I kinda hate myself now. “Ohio” sounded interesting to me the moment it came on my radar. However, it was highly recommended by NPR’s reviewer, and EVERY time I read a book they recommend I don’t like it. When will I learn...NPR does not know books.
The “Prelude” to “Ohio” is good. A little too "I have an MFA in writing", but still the writing is tight, the setup is well done, and it gave me high hopes. But then the rest of the novel follows. If it had not been a book club selection my 2020 resolution to not finish books that I don’t enjoy would have found its first taker.
The premise of “Ohio” is that four people (who are loosely connected and close in age) return to their hometown in Ohio on the same night, and the intersection of their reasons for doing so. Their four alternating perspectives are the focus of the novel, taking place over the course of one evening.
My issues with the text-
The author (Stephen Markley) goes out of his way to be “authentic” by mentioning tons of Ohio minutia that only someone from eastern Ohio (I am) would know. In fact, I was born in the same town Mr. Markley was raised in. Moreover, the minutia comes across as too cute by half and feels ridiculously inauthentic. Mentioning a bunch of things is not the same as capturing the atmosphere.
There are numerous flashbacks to high school in the text, and the dialogue of the teenaged characters is complete nonsense. They do not talk and think like teenagers. Not a word of it rings true. They are also quite experienced sexually. Like I am 41 and I learned a thing or too. Again, utter nonsense. And the text focuses negatively on the female characters. They are nasty mean girls with the knowledge of the most vigorously trained courtesans. Juvenile stuff Mr. Author!
The book is gratuitously vulgar. I can deal with that, if you make a point for it. “Ohio” doesn’t.
One of the four perspectives we receive is of a character named Bill Ashcraft. I loathed this individual. He is everything that disgusts me in the world. I don’t blame the author for that. He is allowed to create characters I don’t like. It is just another reason I did not enjoy the book. Of the four perspectives we receive, only one of them, a quiet vet named Dan Eaton is a person I would want to have any association with in real life.
Finally, the novel’s “Coda” is pure privileged elitist fantasy, imagining social problems that are just not there, or not nearly as “dire” as he appears to want them to be. He has the media shilling for white supremacy groups (which he seems to think falls from the buckeye trees) and refusing to call an attack on a mosque terrorism. Seriously? That is not even a remotely truthful depiction. Puh leez!
Yet, there is some skill in Markley’s talent, an occasional well rendered phrase or idea. I really vacillated between hating and being impressed (at times) with this text.
**I have amended this review since my book club meeting. They gave me even more reasons to dislike the text.
“Ohio” is a self-important book. Truly pompous in its view of itself. Mr. Markley’s acknowledgements and an interview with him included in the text convince me of this.
One word sir…overrated.
Well…I picked this text for my book club. I already know they are going to hate me. I kinda hate myself now. “Ohio” sounded interesting to me the moment it came on my radar. However, it was highly recommended by NPR’s reviewer, and EVERY time I read a book they recommend I don’t like it. When will I learn...NPR does not know books.
The “Prelude” to “Ohio” is good. A little too "I have an MFA in writing", but still the writing is tight, the setup is well done, and it gave me high hopes. But then the rest of the novel follows. If it had not been a book club selection my 2020 resolution to not finish books that I don’t enjoy would have found its first taker.
The premise of “Ohio” is that four people (who are loosely connected and close in age) return to their hometown in Ohio on the same night, and the intersection of their reasons for doing so. Their four alternating perspectives are the focus of the novel, taking place over the course of one evening.
My issues with the text-
The author (Stephen Markley) goes out of his way to be “authentic” by mentioning tons of Ohio minutia that only someone from eastern Ohio (I am) would know. In fact, I was born in the same town Mr. Markley was raised in. Moreover, the minutia comes across as too cute by half and feels ridiculously inauthentic. Mentioning a bunch of things is not the same as capturing the atmosphere.
There are numerous flashbacks to high school in the text, and the dialogue of the teenaged characters is complete nonsense. They do not talk and think like teenagers. Not a word of it rings true. They are also quite experienced sexually. Like I am 41 and I learned a thing or too. Again, utter nonsense. And the text focuses negatively on the female characters. They are nasty mean girls with the knowledge of the most vigorously trained courtesans. Juvenile stuff Mr. Author!
The book is gratuitously vulgar. I can deal with that, if you make a point for it. “Ohio” doesn’t.
One of the four perspectives we receive is of a character named Bill Ashcraft. I loathed this individual. He is everything that disgusts me in the world. I don’t blame the author for that. He is allowed to create characters I don’t like. It is just another reason I did not enjoy the book. Of the four perspectives we receive, only one of them, a quiet vet named Dan Eaton is a person I would want to have any association with in real life.
Finally, the novel’s “Coda” is pure privileged elitist fantasy, imagining social problems that are just not there, or not nearly as “dire” as he appears to want them to be. He has the media shilling for white supremacy groups (which he seems to think falls from the buckeye trees) and refusing to call an attack on a mosque terrorism. Seriously? That is not even a remotely truthful depiction. Puh leez!
Yet, there is some skill in Markley’s talent, an occasional well rendered phrase or idea. I really vacillated between hating and being impressed (at times) with this text.
**I have amended this review since my book club meeting. They gave me even more reasons to dislike the text.
“Ohio” is a self-important book. Truly pompous in its view of itself. Mr. Markley’s acknowledgements and an interview with him included in the text convince me of this.
One word sir…overrated.
July 27, 2018
Stephen Markley’s first fiction book, OHIO, is definitely not for the faint of heart. Having written previous non-fiction books, Markley undertakes an ambitious project writing about a rural, Northeaster, Ohio town suffering from the Great Recession, the opioid crisis and the after-effects of 9/11.
OHIO centers around the story of four high school friends who are reunited a decade after their graduation. It also circles around the story of one of those friends who was killed in Iraq. In fact, the entire beginning of the book is one long running commentary on the funeral parade for this man which occurs months after his actual burial, and which features an empty casket on loan from Wal Mart. There were many part of this exegesis that reminded me of Garrison Keillor and his Tales of Lake Wobegon. The writing flows with excess and verbiage that is both descriptive and, well, over-the-top. To a certain extent, though not as talented, it also reminds of William Faulkner who could describe a scene to death.
After this opening finally ends, Markley presents us with characters that are quite nearly a stereotype for small, Midwestern, rural towns. I should know, I live in one and I’ve known many from the area from which Markley is drawing his inspiration. In fact, Markley was reared in such a small town very much like the one he is describing – but he has been living in L.A. for many years.
OHIO is an examination of the fervor that occurred in many small towns after the attacks on the World Trade Center. Smelling blood, military recruiters swarmed into these towns whipped up “patriotism” like a spell across the land. Those who were poor, bored or looking for a way out of these towns, eagerly bought the lies that these recruiters were dishing out like candy. As a result, the Midwest now if faced with higher numbers of veteran homelessness, drug addition to the crisis point and crime, which is needed to feed their addictions.
This is a very dark, very descriptive – overly so – account of war, drugs, addiction and despair.
However, while I like the premise of the book, my criticism is two-fold. Markley claims that the book is an accurate description of the war battles and recruitment during this time – he also admits that he “once was very anti-war.” His anti-war sentiments don’t come through for me in OHIO. His remarks about why he is not as adamantly “anti-war,” disturb me on a very deep level. Americans only now are beginning to look at 9/11 as “history” rather than current events. Any time an author writes about it, their own biases and leanings are revealed. The fact is, many – too many – young men were lied to, sold a bill of goods that were rotten and the “war in Iraq” was nothing except a military exercise to build the American Empire. You can not talk about the “rust belt” of America without directly talking about the massive loss of jobs, the cut back in education funding, the lack of medical treatment – ALL courtesy of the American government. The darkness here, in my mid-west, is very real. The opioid crisis is staggering. But Markley’s views are merely more fiction added to the mix, militarily accurate according to the recruiters with whom he spoke, but we all know how truthful they can be. For the record, I’m the wife of COL (ret) so I’m very familiar with the military, the war and the lies that were told after 9/11.
Secondly, one complaint that I have regarding Southern writers is that they use thirty words to describe what could be brilliantly written in ten. Markley writes more like a southern writer than one from the mid-west where words never are wasted and verbosity is, quite nearly, considered a sin. This book is too long, too drawn out, too much of everything that is not quality. Readers who think that the book is dark would see a more fitting picture of the Rust Belt if they didn’t have to wade through the unnecessary muck. I wanted to scream: “edit, Edit, EDIT.” Sadly, there was none.
If you want to read an astounding account of what reality is like in a rural rust belt town, I suggest instead that you read “Fast Falls the Night” by Julia Keller. It also is a very disturbing read but one based on fact, expertly written and staggering in its accurate description of what it really is like to live in such a town as mine.
OHIO was given to me by #Netgalley in exchange for a review of the book.
OHIO centers around the story of four high school friends who are reunited a decade after their graduation. It also circles around the story of one of those friends who was killed in Iraq. In fact, the entire beginning of the book is one long running commentary on the funeral parade for this man which occurs months after his actual burial, and which features an empty casket on loan from Wal Mart. There were many part of this exegesis that reminded me of Garrison Keillor and his Tales of Lake Wobegon. The writing flows with excess and verbiage that is both descriptive and, well, over-the-top. To a certain extent, though not as talented, it also reminds of William Faulkner who could describe a scene to death.
After this opening finally ends, Markley presents us with characters that are quite nearly a stereotype for small, Midwestern, rural towns. I should know, I live in one and I’ve known many from the area from which Markley is drawing his inspiration. In fact, Markley was reared in such a small town very much like the one he is describing – but he has been living in L.A. for many years.
OHIO is an examination of the fervor that occurred in many small towns after the attacks on the World Trade Center. Smelling blood, military recruiters swarmed into these towns whipped up “patriotism” like a spell across the land. Those who were poor, bored or looking for a way out of these towns, eagerly bought the lies that these recruiters were dishing out like candy. As a result, the Midwest now if faced with higher numbers of veteran homelessness, drug addition to the crisis point and crime, which is needed to feed their addictions.
This is a very dark, very descriptive – overly so – account of war, drugs, addiction and despair.
However, while I like the premise of the book, my criticism is two-fold. Markley claims that the book is an accurate description of the war battles and recruitment during this time – he also admits that he “once was very anti-war.” His anti-war sentiments don’t come through for me in OHIO. His remarks about why he is not as adamantly “anti-war,” disturb me on a very deep level. Americans only now are beginning to look at 9/11 as “history” rather than current events. Any time an author writes about it, their own biases and leanings are revealed. The fact is, many – too many – young men were lied to, sold a bill of goods that were rotten and the “war in Iraq” was nothing except a military exercise to build the American Empire. You can not talk about the “rust belt” of America without directly talking about the massive loss of jobs, the cut back in education funding, the lack of medical treatment – ALL courtesy of the American government. The darkness here, in my mid-west, is very real. The opioid crisis is staggering. But Markley’s views are merely more fiction added to the mix, militarily accurate according to the recruiters with whom he spoke, but we all know how truthful they can be. For the record, I’m the wife of COL (ret) so I’m very familiar with the military, the war and the lies that were told after 9/11.
Secondly, one complaint that I have regarding Southern writers is that they use thirty words to describe what could be brilliantly written in ten. Markley writes more like a southern writer than one from the mid-west where words never are wasted and verbosity is, quite nearly, considered a sin. This book is too long, too drawn out, too much of everything that is not quality. Readers who think that the book is dark would see a more fitting picture of the Rust Belt if they didn’t have to wade through the unnecessary muck. I wanted to scream: “edit, Edit, EDIT.” Sadly, there was none.
If you want to read an astounding account of what reality is like in a rural rust belt town, I suggest instead that you read “Fast Falls the Night” by Julia Keller. It also is a very disturbing read but one based on fact, expertly written and staggering in its accurate description of what it really is like to live in such a town as mine.
OHIO was given to me by #Netgalley in exchange for a review of the book.
February 7, 2021
Abbandonato a pagina 200 perché la vita è troppo breve per leggere libri scritti da punti di vista così banali. C'è solo una regola quando si parla di scrittura: CATTURA LA MIA ATTENZIONE. Non l'ha fatto. Il prossimo.
Shelved as 'dnf-lost-interest'
June 12, 2019After chatting with a friend in great detail, I've decided to cut my losses and DNF this one. I totally respect what the author is trying to do here, but this one just isn't for me, and if I had pushed through, I would have been wholly dissatisfied.
*Many thanks to the publisher for my finished review copy.
*Many thanks to the publisher for my finished review copy.
October 22, 2018
“Ohio” is fiction that probes issues that have received a lot of news attention the past two years - marginalization, loss of hope, disillusionment, economic decline, and drug addiction in middle America. The personal fallout is seen through the eyes of four main characters in their twenties, with flashbacks to their high school years, who unexpectedly reunite one fateful night in New Canaan, Ohio. By examining these issues through fiction, where individual experiences and emotions are at the forefront, it allows readers to gain a greater understanding of the reality of their impact on people’s lives, hopes, and dreams. These are hard times and there are no easy answers or simple solutions.
Markley has written literary fiction at it’s finest, and it’s also important fiction. It shines a thought-provoking spotlight on what life in currently like for many people in America, particularly in the Heartland. Intensely realistic, epic in scope, and exceptionally written, this is a compelling story of broken people and a broken society. “Ohio” is a book that will stay with me for a long time.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review..
Markley has written literary fiction at it’s finest, and it’s also important fiction. It shines a thought-provoking spotlight on what life in currently like for many people in America, particularly in the Heartland. Intensely realistic, epic in scope, and exceptionally written, this is a compelling story of broken people and a broken society. “Ohio” is a book that will stay with me for a long time.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review..
August 8, 2019
"Riding back
To where the highway met
Dead end tracks
The ground is now cement and glass
And far away
Heal her soul, carry her, my angel, Ohio
Green green youth
What about the sweetness we knew
What about what's good what's true
From those days
Can't count to
All the lovers I've burned through
So why do I still burn for you
I can't say
Sorry that
I could never love you back
I could never care enough in these last days
Heal her soul, carry her, my angel, Ohio" – Carry Me Ohio- Lyrics by Mark Kozelek
I’m not sure I can give this book the review it deserves. Ostensibly, it is a novel about turmoil, the inner feelings and the outer experiences, that transpired in the years since 9/11, specifically for a group of small town high school friends who came of age during this time. However, as I read it, I felt a pull back to my own youth and the observations and feelings we experienced during the Viet Nam war. There are many differences, to be sure, but the same conflicted emotions and beliefs, the same struggles to make sense of it all in the midst of the exuberance and wild excesses of youth – none of that has changed.
This novel weaves in and out, backward and forward, among students in New Canaan, Ohio. They are the jocks, both football heroes and the hero-worshipping volleyball-playing girlfriends or cheerleaders. They are geeks and nerds. They are children trying to figure out who and what they are and what they believe, in a town where alcohol and meth and oxy and sex and love and sorrow and Christianity cross all lines and blur together. The story is told in separate chapters from the points of view of the main characters, and move from the present to the past and back again in each chapter. This writing style could go horribly wrong in some books; in this one, it works to perfection. This is an intricate, detailed story; every character is key, and it’s important to pay attention all the way through. I made the mistake of slightly skimming through the prologue, because I erroneously believed at that point that the book would be mostly narrative, and I wasn’t sure I was going to like that. I was wrong on both counts; there is substantial dialogue throughout, and I found myself, at 75% through, going back to re-read the prologue because I loved the book so much, I wanted to make sure I understood every step the author had led me through before I reached the end.
This is not a pretty book, but it’s a beautifully written one. It is filled with darkness and horror, despair and pain. The sadness is overwhelming at times, but never does it not seem absolutely, one hundred percent real. There are lines that made me want to weep with the beauty of them, with the sheer lyrical loveliness of them. I’m a sucker for any story that paints a picture so heart-breaking that you believe while you’re reading it that you’ll never read anything more perfect. Ohio did this for me.
Be aware that this may not be an easy read for some of you. There are events that happen throughout that are unpleasant and traumatic, all the way to the very end. But I loved it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the privilege of an advance reading copy in exchange for my honest review. 5 stars, at the very minimum.
To where the highway met
Dead end tracks
The ground is now cement and glass
And far away
Heal her soul, carry her, my angel, Ohio
Green green youth
What about the sweetness we knew
What about what's good what's true
From those days
Can't count to
All the lovers I've burned through
So why do I still burn for you
I can't say
Sorry that
I could never love you back
I could never care enough in these last days
Heal her soul, carry her, my angel, Ohio" – Carry Me Ohio- Lyrics by Mark Kozelek
I’m not sure I can give this book the review it deserves. Ostensibly, it is a novel about turmoil, the inner feelings and the outer experiences, that transpired in the years since 9/11, specifically for a group of small town high school friends who came of age during this time. However, as I read it, I felt a pull back to my own youth and the observations and feelings we experienced during the Viet Nam war. There are many differences, to be sure, but the same conflicted emotions and beliefs, the same struggles to make sense of it all in the midst of the exuberance and wild excesses of youth – none of that has changed.
This novel weaves in and out, backward and forward, among students in New Canaan, Ohio. They are the jocks, both football heroes and the hero-worshipping volleyball-playing girlfriends or cheerleaders. They are geeks and nerds. They are children trying to figure out who and what they are and what they believe, in a town where alcohol and meth and oxy and sex and love and sorrow and Christianity cross all lines and blur together. The story is told in separate chapters from the points of view of the main characters, and move from the present to the past and back again in each chapter. This writing style could go horribly wrong in some books; in this one, it works to perfection. This is an intricate, detailed story; every character is key, and it’s important to pay attention all the way through. I made the mistake of slightly skimming through the prologue, because I erroneously believed at that point that the book would be mostly narrative, and I wasn’t sure I was going to like that. I was wrong on both counts; there is substantial dialogue throughout, and I found myself, at 75% through, going back to re-read the prologue because I loved the book so much, I wanted to make sure I understood every step the author had led me through before I reached the end.
This is not a pretty book, but it’s a beautifully written one. It is filled with darkness and horror, despair and pain. The sadness is overwhelming at times, but never does it not seem absolutely, one hundred percent real. There are lines that made me want to weep with the beauty of them, with the sheer lyrical loveliness of them. I’m a sucker for any story that paints a picture so heart-breaking that you believe while you’re reading it that you’ll never read anything more perfect. Ohio did this for me.
Be aware that this may not be an easy read for some of you. There are events that happen throughout that are unpleasant and traumatic, all the way to the very end. But I loved it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the privilege of an advance reading copy in exchange for my honest review. 5 stars, at the very minimum.
June 15, 2018
This seems to be one of the buzziest books of the season, but it did NOTHING for me. It seems to be pretty standard Literary White Guy™ fare: kind of dry and self-indulgent. So I'm abandoning it halfway through.
November 27, 2018
Wow... I really disliked Ohio. I know this book has gotten a lot of love, and I don't want this to be a total hate-fest, but.... here are the things that bothered me.
1) I found Ohio tedious; when one of his characters would go off on a philosophical tangent, I always got the sneaking suspicion that it was really one of Markley's own tangents that he'd looked for a way to shoehorn into the narrative. His characters (i.e. Markley) also name-dropped so many important books, it felt like he just wanted to make sure you knew that he'd done his research and read all the big authors. It was not subtle. I also thought the book was about 200 pages too long, and I attribute a lot of that bloat to all this rambling.
2) I truly don't understand why his characters are all so hung up on high school. My generous take on it is that Markley is trying to demonstrate that growing up in a dying town in a forgotten region stunts your emotional growth and holds you back, but the thing is: three of his four main characters have traveled the world and had significant life experience outside of their hometown. I just don't believe that someone who has, like, camped with shepherds in Cambodia is still up at night wondering why their high school girlfriend from fifteen years ago never gets in touch on Facebook-- but that's basically the experience of every character in this book.
3) I did not care at all for the way female characters were presented in Ohio. Basically the only thing women and girls do in this book is have sex and mistreat their friends. I didn't much care for the male characters, either, but in comparison, they seem to have been given much richer lives and narratives, and the author just seems to have more respect for them, in ways that I can't quite put my finger on but felt distinctly while reading. The feeling only got worse as the book progressed, and it culminated in what I felt was a truly awful ending, but there's not much I can say about that without major spoilers.
So there you have it. Not the book for me at all.
1) I found Ohio tedious; when one of his characters would go off on a philosophical tangent, I always got the sneaking suspicion that it was really one of Markley's own tangents that he'd looked for a way to shoehorn into the narrative. His characters (i.e. Markley) also name-dropped so many important books, it felt like he just wanted to make sure you knew that he'd done his research and read all the big authors. It was not subtle. I also thought the book was about 200 pages too long, and I attribute a lot of that bloat to all this rambling.
2) I truly don't understand why his characters are all so hung up on high school. My generous take on it is that Markley is trying to demonstrate that growing up in a dying town in a forgotten region stunts your emotional growth and holds you back, but the thing is: three of his four main characters have traveled the world and had significant life experience outside of their hometown. I just don't believe that someone who has, like, camped with shepherds in Cambodia is still up at night wondering why their high school girlfriend from fifteen years ago never gets in touch on Facebook-- but that's basically the experience of every character in this book.
3) I did not care at all for the way female characters were presented in Ohio. Basically the only thing women and girls do in this book is have sex and mistreat their friends. I didn't much care for the male characters, either, but in comparison, they seem to have been given much richer lives and narratives, and the author just seems to have more respect for them, in ways that I can't quite put my finger on but felt distinctly while reading. The feeling only got worse as the book progressed, and it culminated in what I felt was a truly awful ending, but there's not much I can say about that without major spoilers.
So there you have it. Not the book for me at all.
November 22, 2020
Avete presente le lampadine a basso consumo, che ci mettono un po' a raggiungere la massima luminosità? Le acquisti, le attacchi e sai già che per qualche istante avrai il dubbio di aver sbagliato qualcosa, ma poi i minuti passano e la luce via via aumenta.
Ecco, è così che mi sono approcciata ad Ohio, pensando che avrei dovuto sforzarmi di continuare la lettura fino a che la lampadina non si fosse scaldata a sufficienza. Ne avevo sentito parlare con toni entusiastici, ma ero anche incappata in vari avvertimenti: all'inizio sembra lento, i salti temporali disorientano, bisogna dargli fiducia e poi decolla.
Invece per me è stata una lettura fluida, senza fatica e senza noia. Sì, i salti temporali ci sono e ti ci trovi in mezzo senza preavviso, quindi all'inizio possono disorientare un pochino. E sì, ci sono brani meno coinvolgenti di altri. Però accidenti, quanto affetto ho sviluppato per questi ragazzi disorientati e sofferenti!
Al netto di tutti i cliché (il liceo americano, gli studenti popolari, i campioni sportivi, il mito dell'esercito e il dramma dei veterani, l'America profonda e povera) Ohio regala personaggi che colpiscono e un climax di tutto rispetto. E come le lampadine quando le spegni, chiudi il libro e ti resta l'alone dietro le palpebre, l'immagine di un fuoco nel bosco o di un bar e una malinconia di fondo che è difficile scrollarsi di dosso.
4,5/5
Ecco, è così che mi sono approcciata ad Ohio, pensando che avrei dovuto sforzarmi di continuare la lettura fino a che la lampadina non si fosse scaldata a sufficienza. Ne avevo sentito parlare con toni entusiastici, ma ero anche incappata in vari avvertimenti: all'inizio sembra lento, i salti temporali disorientano, bisogna dargli fiducia e poi decolla.
Invece per me è stata una lettura fluida, senza fatica e senza noia. Sì, i salti temporali ci sono e ti ci trovi in mezzo senza preavviso, quindi all'inizio possono disorientare un pochino. E sì, ci sono brani meno coinvolgenti di altri. Però accidenti, quanto affetto ho sviluppato per questi ragazzi disorientati e sofferenti!
Al netto di tutti i cliché (il liceo americano, gli studenti popolari, i campioni sportivi, il mito dell'esercito e il dramma dei veterani, l'America profonda e povera) Ohio regala personaggi che colpiscono e un climax di tutto rispetto. E come le lampadine quando le spegni, chiudi il libro e ti resta l'alone dietro le palpebre, l'immagine di un fuoco nel bosco o di un bar e una malinconia di fondo che è difficile scrollarsi di dosso.
4,5/5
August 23, 2018
The setting for this gritty novel is New Canaan, Ohio, a small town in northeast Ohio, hard hit by the economic downturn, whose major industries are long gone and the biggest employer is Walmart.
The heroes of the town have been the high school football players who could pretty much get away with anything...and often do. But these kids seem to be cursed: one commits suicide; one OD's and accidentally sets fire to his apartment building, killing a couple of newlyweds; one dies serving his country in the Middle East; and one leaves town abruptly, never to be seen again.
On a fateful night some ten years after graduating, four classmates return to 'The Cane' and these are their stories, told in separate chapters, but constantly intertwining. Stephen Markley reveals much of what has gone wrong with our society in these pages: the opiod/drug problem, crushing economic pressures, divisive political upheaval, unpopular wars, violence, the glorifying of youth, and more deeply, the crisis of faith. Some of this is very hard to read: some aspects will horrify you and some will even bring you to tears. But undoubtedly, this writer is a major new talent.
I received an arc of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley for my honest review. This is a book I won't soon forget.
The heroes of the town have been the high school football players who could pretty much get away with anything...and often do. But these kids seem to be cursed: one commits suicide; one OD's and accidentally sets fire to his apartment building, killing a couple of newlyweds; one dies serving his country in the Middle East; and one leaves town abruptly, never to be seen again.
On a fateful night some ten years after graduating, four classmates return to 'The Cane' and these are their stories, told in separate chapters, but constantly intertwining. Stephen Markley reveals much of what has gone wrong with our society in these pages: the opiod/drug problem, crushing economic pressures, divisive political upheaval, unpopular wars, violence, the glorifying of youth, and more deeply, the crisis of faith. Some of this is very hard to read: some aspects will horrify you and some will even bring you to tears. But undoubtedly, this writer is a major new talent.
I received an arc of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley for my honest review. This is a book I won't soon forget.
February 5, 2019
Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
“You haven’t heard of The Murder That Never Was?”
Starting off 2019 with a 5 Star read got me like . . . . .
Go read my friend Liz’s review because that’s how I heard about Ohio in the first place and she says everything that needs to be said. (And I totally agree with the negative points of her critique, but somehow I was able to overlook every one of this novel’s flaws when it came to my rating.)
As the blurb says, Ohio is about one night when four former classmates all wind up back in the former steelmill glory/now drug and criminal addled hometown they all know as “The Cane.” Each gets their own narrative – Bill, former do-gooder activist and current mule; Stacey, the “lesbian” in high school who is now an eco-lit grad student; Dan, the boy-next-door who has returned from war minus and eye and with a lot of baggage; and Tina, prettiest girl in school who can’t get over her first “love.” What the blurb doesn’t tell you is not only is about that one night, but also the backstories of each character’s high school experience as well as what has occurred in their lives during the 10 years since they graduated. (You will most certainly find that you want less of at least one narrative and could have read an infinite amount of another – obviously YMMV on which character you feel this way about.)
This book truly was “lyrical and emotional” as well as brutal and B.L.E.A.K. If you are a reader who needs a trigger warning, add it to your never-to-read list because it has ALL of them. It is a bit long in the tooth and your attention my wane here and there, but by the time it all wraps up?????
Dear Other Books On My TBR: I hope you plan on bringing your A-Game.
ORIGINAL "REVIEW:"
I’ll review this tomorrow - maybe (y’all know I suck), but starting day 1 of the new year with a 5 Star? That’s purrrrrrty good stuff right thar! As my husband the optimist pointed out - “sucks to be the rest of 2019.” Hahahaha ; )
“You haven’t heard of The Murder That Never Was?”
Starting off 2019 with a 5 Star read got me like . . . . .
Go read my friend Liz’s review because that’s how I heard about Ohio in the first place and she says everything that needs to be said. (And I totally agree with the negative points of her critique, but somehow I was able to overlook every one of this novel’s flaws when it came to my rating.)
As the blurb says, Ohio is about one night when four former classmates all wind up back in the former steelmill glory/now drug and criminal addled hometown they all know as “The Cane.” Each gets their own narrative – Bill, former do-gooder activist and current mule; Stacey, the “lesbian” in high school who is now an eco-lit grad student; Dan, the boy-next-door who has returned from war minus and eye and with a lot of baggage; and Tina, prettiest girl in school who can’t get over her first “love.” What the blurb doesn’t tell you is not only is about that one night, but also the backstories of each character’s high school experience as well as what has occurred in their lives during the 10 years since they graduated. (You will most certainly find that you want less of at least one narrative and could have read an infinite amount of another – obviously YMMV on which character you feel this way about.)
This book truly was “lyrical and emotional” as well as brutal and B.L.E.A.K. If you are a reader who needs a trigger warning, add it to your never-to-read list because it has ALL of them. It is a bit long in the tooth and your attention my wane here and there, but by the time it all wraps up?????
Dear Other Books On My TBR: I hope you plan on bringing your A-Game.
ORIGINAL "REVIEW:"
I’ll review this tomorrow - maybe (y’all know I suck), but starting day 1 of the new year with a 5 Star? That’s purrrrrrty good stuff right thar! As my husband the optimist pointed out - “sucks to be the rest of 2019.” Hahahaha ; )
December 28, 2020
New Canaan
«Il cielo, blu veglia funebre, s’inclinò come un gioco del luna park al passaggio di un’unica nuvola a forma di petroliera. Viaggiando fra passaggi ombrosi nell’ovest che impallidiva.»
Si è molto parlato, scritto e ragionato intorno all’uscita di questo romanzo, soprattutto del fatto se Markley (qui al suo esordio narrativo) fosse riuscito o meno nell’intento di scrivere il “grande romanzo americano”, e io senza stare troppo a chiedermi cosa si voglia intendere con la definizione di “grande romanzo americano”, alla fine di queste quasi cinquecento pagine, se penso all’intento di riuscire a inquadrare e a raccontare con precisione un periodo storico ben definito, alla capacità di restituirne umori e sensazioni sia intime che sociali, di indicarne le speranze, la china e le disillusioni, ma soprattutto se penso a quanto fatto in termini di risultati (e non ne faccio una questione di qualità, ma di proprio di obiettivo) da John Steinbeck con Furore, o da Philip Roth con Pastorale Americana, o da Jonathan Franzen con Le Correzioni, mi rispondo di sì, che Stephan Markley ha scritto il suo grande romanzo americano, quello che attraverso le quattro storie dei quattro protagonisti che si incrociano a New Canaan in Ohio, che a loro volta incrociano quelle di una nuova generazione di coetanei americani, ci raccontano gli ultimi vent’anni di storia degli Usa. Una storia fatta di sogni disillusi e di recessione, di guerra e di abbandono, di droga e di ecologia, di piccole storie private di violenza e abusi, di amore e sesso, di intolleranza e discriminazione, di identità e tradimenti, disgregazione, fughe, ritorni, dall’architettura complessa, che ha il suo apice nella parata incalzante del prologo che parte dalla commemorazione funebre di uno dei giovani di New Canaan morto in guerra in Iraq, e nel finale, che ha lo stesso ritmo travolgente dell’inizio, sviluppata nell’arco di tre piani temporali, e nei racconti dei quattro amici e compagni di scuola (che a loro volta ne coinvolgono molti altri e di riflesso e in maniera tangente anche il mondo degli adulti), che ne disegnano la storia.
«Il cielo arancione scuro diventò un viola e un blu come un livido, fasci di sole biblico intagliavano le nuvole»
A New Canaan, la nuova Cananea, una terra promessa* che non manterrà le sue promesse (e dei tanti riferimenti biblici e cristiani, dalla “terra promessa”, a Lot, all’Angelus Novus di Walter Benjamin e Paul Klee - e che emozione incontrarlo anche fra queste pagine! - di cui il romanzo è disseminato), centro di quegli Stati Uniti dove nulla è futuro, ma tutto è specchio di un mondo che, se da una parte è vero che la narrazione sembri limitare e circoscrivere allo stato dell'Ohio, dall'altra, per merito dell'ampiezza descrittiva di Markley, riesce a estendersi a tutto il Midwest e a diventare radice e matrice di una tipologia di elettorato che negli ultimi vent’anni si è distinto, nel bene e nel male (ma soprattutto a causa del suo impoverimento e dell'assenza di occupazione e di futuro all'interno dei suoi confini), per aver condizionato l’intera nazione attraverso un'onda di rabbia che, diffondendosi ovunque, ha preparato terreno fertile all’elezione di un presidente i cui danni sono stati visibili a tutti. Ora la rinascita, forse, ma quello sarà il prossimo Grande Romanzo Americano.
Scrittura interessante, non esente da qualche ingenuità (c’è più di un cedimento che fa sussultare), ma che nel complesso definirei (oltre che interessante) “elettrica”: prove ne sono tutti i colori e le descrizioni usate per racontare il cielo sopra New Canaan, di quelli che (come dice uno dei protagonisti del romanzo di Markley) ti fanno sentire a casa e far pace con te stesso.
«Il cielo di dove sei nato non lo riconosci solo dal modi in cui si annuvola o in cui brillano le stelle di notte. Il cielo di casa tua si comporta come quando, da paracadutista, tiri la corda e l’aria ti riafferra. Puoi aver girato il mondo e visto tramonti migliori, albe migliori, temporali migliori, ma appena scorgi all’orizzonte i campi, i boschi, le alture e i fiumi che ricordi, ti prende la commozione. La corda del paracadute ti strattona in alto.»
*Il racconto biblico indica il momento della ridenominazione della "Terra di Canaan" in "Terra di Israele" in quanto segna la conquista israelita della Terra Promessa.
«L’angelo della storia deve avere questo aspetto, - scriveva l’autore. - Ha il viso rivoto al passato. Là dove a noi appare una catena di avvenimenti, egli vede un’unica catastrofe, che ammassa incessantemente macerie su macerie e le scaraventa ai suoi piedi. Egli vorrebbe ben trattenersi, destare i morti e riconnettere i frantumi. Ma dal Paradiso soffia una bufera, che si è impigliata nelle sue ali, ed è così forte che l’angelo non può richiudere.
Questa bufera lo spinge inarrestabilmente nel futuro ,a cui egli volge le spalle, mentre cresce il cumulo delle macerie. Ciò che chiamiamo il progresso, è questa bufera.»
«Il cielo, blu veglia funebre, s’inclinò come un gioco del luna park al passaggio di un’unica nuvola a forma di petroliera. Viaggiando fra passaggi ombrosi nell’ovest che impallidiva.»
Si è molto parlato, scritto e ragionato intorno all’uscita di questo romanzo, soprattutto del fatto se Markley (qui al suo esordio narrativo) fosse riuscito o meno nell’intento di scrivere il “grande romanzo americano”, e io senza stare troppo a chiedermi cosa si voglia intendere con la definizione di “grande romanzo americano”, alla fine di queste quasi cinquecento pagine, se penso all’intento di riuscire a inquadrare e a raccontare con precisione un periodo storico ben definito, alla capacità di restituirne umori e sensazioni sia intime che sociali, di indicarne le speranze, la china e le disillusioni, ma soprattutto se penso a quanto fatto in termini di risultati (e non ne faccio una questione di qualità, ma di proprio di obiettivo) da John Steinbeck con Furore, o da Philip Roth con Pastorale Americana, o da Jonathan Franzen con Le Correzioni, mi rispondo di sì, che Stephan Markley ha scritto il suo grande romanzo americano, quello che attraverso le quattro storie dei quattro protagonisti che si incrociano a New Canaan in Ohio, che a loro volta incrociano quelle di una nuova generazione di coetanei americani, ci raccontano gli ultimi vent’anni di storia degli Usa. Una storia fatta di sogni disillusi e di recessione, di guerra e di abbandono, di droga e di ecologia, di piccole storie private di violenza e abusi, di amore e sesso, di intolleranza e discriminazione, di identità e tradimenti, disgregazione, fughe, ritorni, dall’architettura complessa, che ha il suo apice nella parata incalzante del prologo che parte dalla commemorazione funebre di uno dei giovani di New Canaan morto in guerra in Iraq, e nel finale, che ha lo stesso ritmo travolgente dell’inizio, sviluppata nell’arco di tre piani temporali, e nei racconti dei quattro amici e compagni di scuola (che a loro volta ne coinvolgono molti altri e di riflesso e in maniera tangente anche il mondo degli adulti), che ne disegnano la storia.
«Il cielo arancione scuro diventò un viola e un blu come un livido, fasci di sole biblico intagliavano le nuvole»
A New Canaan, la nuova Cananea, una terra promessa* che non manterrà le sue promesse (e dei tanti riferimenti biblici e cristiani, dalla “terra promessa”, a Lot, all’Angelus Novus di Walter Benjamin e Paul Klee - e che emozione incontrarlo anche fra queste pagine! - di cui il romanzo è disseminato), centro di quegli Stati Uniti dove nulla è futuro, ma tutto è specchio di un mondo che, se da una parte è vero che la narrazione sembri limitare e circoscrivere allo stato dell'Ohio, dall'altra, per merito dell'ampiezza descrittiva di Markley, riesce a estendersi a tutto il Midwest e a diventare radice e matrice di una tipologia di elettorato che negli ultimi vent’anni si è distinto, nel bene e nel male (ma soprattutto a causa del suo impoverimento e dell'assenza di occupazione e di futuro all'interno dei suoi confini), per aver condizionato l’intera nazione attraverso un'onda di rabbia che, diffondendosi ovunque, ha preparato terreno fertile all’elezione di un presidente i cui danni sono stati visibili a tutti. Ora la rinascita, forse, ma quello sarà il prossimo Grande Romanzo Americano.
Scrittura interessante, non esente da qualche ingenuità (c’è più di un cedimento che fa sussultare), ma che nel complesso definirei (oltre che interessante) “elettrica”: prove ne sono tutti i colori e le descrizioni usate per racontare il cielo sopra New Canaan, di quelli che (come dice uno dei protagonisti del romanzo di Markley) ti fanno sentire a casa e far pace con te stesso.
«Il cielo di dove sei nato non lo riconosci solo dal modi in cui si annuvola o in cui brillano le stelle di notte. Il cielo di casa tua si comporta come quando, da paracadutista, tiri la corda e l’aria ti riafferra. Puoi aver girato il mondo e visto tramonti migliori, albe migliori, temporali migliori, ma appena scorgi all’orizzonte i campi, i boschi, le alture e i fiumi che ricordi, ti prende la commozione. La corda del paracadute ti strattona in alto.»
*Il racconto biblico indica il momento della ridenominazione della "Terra di Canaan" in "Terra di Israele" in quanto segna la conquista israelita della Terra Promessa.
«L’angelo della storia deve avere questo aspetto, - scriveva l’autore. - Ha il viso rivoto al passato. Là dove a noi appare una catena di avvenimenti, egli vede un’unica catastrofe, che ammassa incessantemente macerie su macerie e le scaraventa ai suoi piedi. Egli vorrebbe ben trattenersi, destare i morti e riconnettere i frantumi. Ma dal Paradiso soffia una bufera, che si è impigliata nelle sue ali, ed è così forte che l’angelo non può richiudere.
Questa bufera lo spinge inarrestabilmente nel futuro ,a cui egli volge le spalle, mentre cresce il cumulo delle macerie. Ciò che chiamiamo il progresso, è questa bufera.»
November 22, 2018
Markley’s thunderous debut is not to be missed. My thanks go to Simon and Schuster and Net Galley for the review copy, which I read free and early, but this is one of the rare times I can say that if I’d paid full hardcover price, it would have been worth it. This is the summer’s best fiction, and it’s available to the public August 21, 2018.
Our story is broken into a prelude and four additional parts, each assigned to a different protagonist, all of whom knew one another, traveling separately from four different directions; they were born during the great recession of the 1980s and graduated from New Canaan High in 2002, the first class to graduate after 9/11. We open with the funeral parade held for Rick Brinklan, the former football star killed in Iraq. His coffin is rented from Walmart and he isn’t in it; wind tears the flag off it and sends it out of reach to snag in the trees. The mood is set: each has returned to their tiny, depressed home town, New Canaan, Ohio, for a different purpose. The town and its population has been devastated economically by the failure of the auto industry:
“New Canaan had this look, like a magazine after it’s tossed on the fire, the way the pages blacken and curl as they begin to burn, but just before the flames take over.”
At the mention of football, I groan inwardly, fearing stereotypes of jocks and cheerleaders, but that’s not what happens here. Every character is developed so completely that I feel I would know them on the street; despite the similarity in age and ethnicity among nearly all of them, there is never a moment when I mix them up. And the characters that are remembered by all but are not present are as central to the story as those that are. As in life, there is no character that is completely lovable or benign; yet almost everyone is capable of some goodness and has worthwhile goals.
Families recall the closure of an industrial plant with the same gravity with which one would remember the death of a beloved family member; the loss has been life changing. Residents are reduced to jobs in retail sales and fast food, welfare, the drug trade, and military service due not to legal compulsion, but economic necessity. Everyone has suffered; Walmart alone has grown fatter and richer.
This is an epic story that has it all. We see the slide experienced by many of New Canaan’s own since their idealistic, spirited teenaged selves emerged from high school to a world less welcoming than they anticipated. One of the most poignant moments is an understated one in which Kaylyn dreams of going away to school in Toledo. This reviewer lived in Toledo during the time when these youngsters would have been born, and I am nearly undone by the notion that this humble, down-at-the-heels place is the focus of one girl’s hopes and dreams, the goal she longs for so achingly that she is almost afraid to think of it lest it be snatched away.
Because much of each character’s internal monologue reaches back to adolescence, we revisit their high school years, but some of one person’s fondest recollections are later brought back in another character’s reminiscence as disappointing, even nightmarish. The tale is haunting in places, hilarious in others, but the teen angst of the past is never permitted to make the story into a soap opera.
Side characters add to the book’s appeal. I love the way academics and teachers are depicted here. There’s also a bizarre yet strangely satisfying bar scene unlike any other.
Those in search of feel-good stories are out of luck here, but those that treasure sterling literary fiction need look no further. Markley has created a masterpiece, and I look forward to seeing what else he has in store for us.
Our story is broken into a prelude and four additional parts, each assigned to a different protagonist, all of whom knew one another, traveling separately from four different directions; they were born during the great recession of the 1980s and graduated from New Canaan High in 2002, the first class to graduate after 9/11. We open with the funeral parade held for Rick Brinklan, the former football star killed in Iraq. His coffin is rented from Walmart and he isn’t in it; wind tears the flag off it and sends it out of reach to snag in the trees. The mood is set: each has returned to their tiny, depressed home town, New Canaan, Ohio, for a different purpose. The town and its population has been devastated economically by the failure of the auto industry:
“New Canaan had this look, like a magazine after it’s tossed on the fire, the way the pages blacken and curl as they begin to burn, but just before the flames take over.”
At the mention of football, I groan inwardly, fearing stereotypes of jocks and cheerleaders, but that’s not what happens here. Every character is developed so completely that I feel I would know them on the street; despite the similarity in age and ethnicity among nearly all of them, there is never a moment when I mix them up. And the characters that are remembered by all but are not present are as central to the story as those that are. As in life, there is no character that is completely lovable or benign; yet almost everyone is capable of some goodness and has worthwhile goals.
Families recall the closure of an industrial plant with the same gravity with which one would remember the death of a beloved family member; the loss has been life changing. Residents are reduced to jobs in retail sales and fast food, welfare, the drug trade, and military service due not to legal compulsion, but economic necessity. Everyone has suffered; Walmart alone has grown fatter and richer.
This is an epic story that has it all. We see the slide experienced by many of New Canaan’s own since their idealistic, spirited teenaged selves emerged from high school to a world less welcoming than they anticipated. One of the most poignant moments is an understated one in which Kaylyn dreams of going away to school in Toledo. This reviewer lived in Toledo during the time when these youngsters would have been born, and I am nearly undone by the notion that this humble, down-at-the-heels place is the focus of one girl’s hopes and dreams, the goal she longs for so achingly that she is almost afraid to think of it lest it be snatched away.
Because much of each character’s internal monologue reaches back to adolescence, we revisit their high school years, but some of one person’s fondest recollections are later brought back in another character’s reminiscence as disappointing, even nightmarish. The tale is haunting in places, hilarious in others, but the teen angst of the past is never permitted to make the story into a soap opera.
Side characters add to the book’s appeal. I love the way academics and teachers are depicted here. There’s also a bizarre yet strangely satisfying bar scene unlike any other.
Those in search of feel-good stories are out of luck here, but those that treasure sterling literary fiction need look no further. Markley has created a masterpiece, and I look forward to seeing what else he has in store for us.
June 9, 2020
This is a story about the demise of modern middle America and it is frightening. This book was a lot darker and more nefarious than I expected. A warning to readers: there is strong themes of domestic violence, drug abuse, rape, racism, mental illness and murder. As if this is not confronting enough, there is an overall depressive and desperate tone to the novel. It is heavy – heavy with emotion and tragedy and a deep sense of hopelessness.
Sexuality, including homosexuality and race, particularly the personal upheavals frequently experienced by those from mixed race backgrounds are explored in depth in a very real life and practical sense, rather than theoretical. You can certainly tell Markley is deeply familiar or at the least, thoroughly researched on not only the issues but also the broader mindset and troubles of small town middle America. It is a place in a monumental identity crisis, stemming in particular from the impact of the global financial crisis in the earlier 2000s. Unemployment is high and boredom and social unrest is rife against the background of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In the wake of 9/11 and the economy shot to pieces a loose circle of high school friends struggles to find their way in and out of their small skeleton town Ohio community. The novel is told from the perspective of each of the friends, lending the story line a profound depth and intrigue as events play out over flitting timelines.
The characters are broken and deeply affected individuals. Their lives are fragments, their souls are shredded. Disenchantment and destruction reign. None of the characters are particularly likeable, some are downright vile and others evoke our deepest sympathy. All however, strongly stir the emotions of the reader in different ways.
The language is evocative and of high quality, “the road’s trees, rich with Autumn reds and yellows, clashed brilliantly against the gun metal sky….” and insightful, “he didn’t believe in God, fate or coincidence, but that left precious little to actually explain anything…” He conveys the shocking “the acid almost woke him up, brought him reeling out of a safe place, into the vampire incinerating light of day and now this whole moment of existence was a protracted muscular mindfuck of remembrance…embedded in his awareness like a pleasant splinter.”
Markley’s novel is emotionally exhausting, but an exceptionally well written and compulsive read. It is not for the faint hearted, don’t take it to the beach or give it to your grandmother, but when you’re in a good state of mind, do read it!
Sexuality, including homosexuality and race, particularly the personal upheavals frequently experienced by those from mixed race backgrounds are explored in depth in a very real life and practical sense, rather than theoretical. You can certainly tell Markley is deeply familiar or at the least, thoroughly researched on not only the issues but also the broader mindset and troubles of small town middle America. It is a place in a monumental identity crisis, stemming in particular from the impact of the global financial crisis in the earlier 2000s. Unemployment is high and boredom and social unrest is rife against the background of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In the wake of 9/11 and the economy shot to pieces a loose circle of high school friends struggles to find their way in and out of their small skeleton town Ohio community. The novel is told from the perspective of each of the friends, lending the story line a profound depth and intrigue as events play out over flitting timelines.
The characters are broken and deeply affected individuals. Their lives are fragments, their souls are shredded. Disenchantment and destruction reign. None of the characters are particularly likeable, some are downright vile and others evoke our deepest sympathy. All however, strongly stir the emotions of the reader in different ways.
The language is evocative and of high quality, “the road’s trees, rich with Autumn reds and yellows, clashed brilliantly against the gun metal sky….” and insightful, “he didn’t believe in God, fate or coincidence, but that left precious little to actually explain anything…” He conveys the shocking “the acid almost woke him up, brought him reeling out of a safe place, into the vampire incinerating light of day and now this whole moment of existence was a protracted muscular mindfuck of remembrance…embedded in his awareness like a pleasant splinter.”
Markley’s novel is emotionally exhausting, but an exceptionally well written and compulsive read. It is not for the faint hearted, don’t take it to the beach or give it to your grandmother, but when you’re in a good state of mind, do read it!
Shelved as 'that-s-enough'
February 10, 2019DNF with strong opinions at chapter 1.
Drat you, Stephen Markley. Your prose is that of the MFA program male wunderkind, endlessly head-patted for your showboating
This calls for a strong dose of Bruce Springsteen's butt
in creative writing seminars. In your faux-elegiac opening chapter of Ohio you shamelessly ape Faulkner's style of exhaustively cataloguing telling details, but you reject any instinct for Faulknerian analysis. What emerges is satirical, condescending, and merciless.
Back away from my Rust Belt, sir. You lack the compassion to do it justice.
Drat you, Stephen Markley. Your prose is that of the MFA program male wunderkind, endlessly head-patted for your showboating
This calls for a strong dose of Bruce Springsteen's butt
in creative writing seminars. In your faux-elegiac opening chapter of Ohio you shamelessly ape Faulkner's style of exhaustively cataloguing telling details, but you reject any instinct for Faulknerian analysis. What emerges is satirical, condescending, and merciless.
Back away from my Rust Belt, sir. You lack the compassion to do it justice.
August 7, 2018
Four classmates come back to the hometown of New Canaan one summer. Bill Ashcraft is an alcoholic and drug abuser and has completely lost his way. Stacey Moore comes back to confront the mother of her former girlfriend. Dan Eaton is a veteran of the Afghanistan War and has never forgotten his first love. Tina Ross has something to settle with the former captain of the football team. There are actually four novellas in this book, each involving one of the above characters and all interacting with one character, the deceased classmate, Rick, who was killed in Afghanistan.
This book has all the markings of a book I should have loved. It’s a truly tragic story and I had read such good things about the book. But I truly did not like it. Before I chose this book, I had read that the author uses beautiful language but any beautiful language used is negated by the constant course language used by the characters. I had read that it was an emotional book but to be emotional for me, a book needs to have characters the reader cares about. I did not like these characters and couldn’t relate to their problems.
This book seems to be a social commentary on how 9/11 left our country and its people in shambles. I don’t believe we’re all suffering from PTSD as this book indicates. It’s almost written as a dystopian novel, creating a horrible, destroyed world I’m not familiar with. It seemed to me that most of the characters, though certainly not all, used 9/11 and the war as an excuse for not getting their lives together. I soon tired of reading about their self-indulgences involving alcohol, drugs and sex and sickened of them wallowing in their self-misery.
Not recommended.
This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.
This book has all the markings of a book I should have loved. It’s a truly tragic story and I had read such good things about the book. But I truly did not like it. Before I chose this book, I had read that the author uses beautiful language but any beautiful language used is negated by the constant course language used by the characters. I had read that it was an emotional book but to be emotional for me, a book needs to have characters the reader cares about. I did not like these characters and couldn’t relate to their problems.
This book seems to be a social commentary on how 9/11 left our country and its people in shambles. I don’t believe we’re all suffering from PTSD as this book indicates. It’s almost written as a dystopian novel, creating a horrible, destroyed world I’m not familiar with. It seemed to me that most of the characters, though certainly not all, used 9/11 and the war as an excuse for not getting their lives together. I soon tired of reading about their self-indulgences involving alcohol, drugs and sex and sickened of them wallowing in their self-misery.
Not recommended.
This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.
August 3, 2018
Wow! This book touched on all the crises of our times - the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, terrorism and violence against America, the opiod crisis, the recession that devastated the country, and more. At once it is a mystery but also a slice of life for today. I found it totally engrossing and it had an ending I didn't see coming. The writing is very descriptive and puts you in the scene so that you can see the character interaction. The description of the characters in high school were spot-on.
I'm hearing that Stephen Markley is a major talent - and I agree. Especially since this is a debut novel. Thanks to Stephen Markley and Simon & Schuster through Netgalley for an advance copy.
I'm hearing that Stephen Markley is a major talent - and I agree. Especially since this is a debut novel. Thanks to Stephen Markley and Simon & Schuster through Netgalley for an advance copy.
October 16, 2018
I am genuinely baffled by the glowing reviews of this one; like, baffled that there is even one positive review of this anywhere. A crazy thing about this book is that it feels overwritten and incredibly lazy at the same time. You can go to just about any page to find an example of the overwriting so I won’t bother with that, but the structure of this book is so badly done. The story here is how a bunch of people who went to high school together cross paths on a fateful night about ten years later, which, fine, that’s a fine premise. But it’s divided up into what’s essentially four novellas, the first one depicting that night from one character’s point of view, the second from another one’s, etc. So it’s all the same night, and there are both parallels and intersections throughout, but each section starts over, and each section covers the events of the same evening, and each section contains a lot of reminiscences about the high school years, and there is no reason this couldn’t all have been told as one story with alternating chapters. It definitely feels like he lacked the discipline it would have taken to streamline this a bit. But the structure is really the least of this book’s problems. This book kind of bills itself as a “how did we get here?” Rust Belt social critique, written by a guy who grew up in a small town in Ohio and now lives in LA, and if that sounds to you like it might be a tad bit condescending, then you would be right. I was interested in the characters and the storyline, but nothing in this felt the slightest bit authentic. But guess what? The condescension still isn’t the biggest problem! The biggest problem with this hella problematic book is the utterly inept way the author uses rape as both character development and plot device. I mean, I don’t want to say that men should just never write about women’s sexual assaults at all, but I will say that a lot of men are really terrible at it.
October 12, 2020
Bill, Stacey, Dan, Tina: quattro storie disperate e lancinanti che fanno a gara tra loro per essere la più struggente. Perché se il liceo poteva sembrare un luogo crudele da vivere, la vita che viene dopo lo è dieci, cento, mille volte di più. E tu potrai scappare dall'altra parte dello Stato, dell’America o magari del mondo ma tanto tornerai sempre a New Caanan e capirai che nulla è cambiato. O magari peggiorato… quello sì.
Tra ricordi che fanno più male di una pugnalata nel cuore e un presente che brucia di rabbia, l’Ohio è lo sfondo perfetto, grigio e commovente, per le storie che in Ohio si rincorrono, si allontanano, poi si intrecciano e poi ancora si scontrano svelando misteri sepolti e segreti inconfessabili.
Libro dell’anno, più doloroso di quanto uno si immagini possa fare male un pugno in faccia.
Tra ricordi che fanno più male di una pugnalata nel cuore e un presente che brucia di rabbia, l’Ohio è lo sfondo perfetto, grigio e commovente, per le storie che in Ohio si rincorrono, si allontanano, poi si intrecciano e poi ancora si scontrano svelando misteri sepolti e segreti inconfessabili.
Libro dell’anno, più doloroso di quanto uno si immagini possa fare male un pugno in faccia.
January 3, 2022
UPDATE: Reread a year later, so this review may be redundant. I’ll try to be quick.
This is a book that has been screaming at me for a reread for a year now, and I’m glad I did. This is an intricately put together book. Expertly crafted and probably the best debut I’ve ever read. The author is exactly my age and there is so much here that is relatable, but also plenty that is absolutely brutal. This is a dark, difficult and very ambitious book, hard to recommend or know who would like it. I’ve seen the complaints, and while some of them have merit, I wasn’t bothered by the time jumps or the fixation on the high school years. This is the tie that binds all these characters together.
A dark novel that didn’t lose any of its emotional hit on me the second time around. Original review below
👇
Goddamn this was an intense book. This is so many things. This book is populated with the dregs of the Rust Belt in the gutter of suburbia, and all the nefarious activities that populate our landscape. It was an awfully ambitious work by an author who very obviously took a literature class or two.
The writing was excellent, and this is without a doubt one of, if not the best, debut novels I have ever read by an author. It consists of 4 or 5 sections that are almost like novellas, but they all focus on different characters and tie into one another. It all comes together at the end, amazingly. It took me longer to get through this than I would’ve thought because at times, it was just too much. I’m not too proud to say there were elements of this book that hit a little too close to home for me, and it was an intense read.
Highly recommended. 5/5, and without a doubt one of the most powerful books I’ve ever read. This one will be staying with me for a long time.
This is a book that has been screaming at me for a reread for a year now, and I’m glad I did. This is an intricately put together book. Expertly crafted and probably the best debut I’ve ever read. The author is exactly my age and there is so much here that is relatable, but also plenty that is absolutely brutal. This is a dark, difficult and very ambitious book, hard to recommend or know who would like it. I’ve seen the complaints, and while some of them have merit, I wasn’t bothered by the time jumps or the fixation on the high school years. This is the tie that binds all these characters together.
A dark novel that didn’t lose any of its emotional hit on me the second time around. Original review below
👇
Goddamn this was an intense book. This is so many things. This book is populated with the dregs of the Rust Belt in the gutter of suburbia, and all the nefarious activities that populate our landscape. It was an awfully ambitious work by an author who very obviously took a literature class or two.
The writing was excellent, and this is without a doubt one of, if not the best, debut novels I have ever read by an author. It consists of 4 or 5 sections that are almost like novellas, but they all focus on different characters and tie into one another. It all comes together at the end, amazingly. It took me longer to get through this than I would’ve thought because at times, it was just too much. I’m not too proud to say there were elements of this book that hit a little too close to home for me, and it was an intense read.
Highly recommended. 5/5, and without a doubt one of the most powerful books I’ve ever read. This one will be staying with me for a long time.
September 7, 2018
This is the kind of totally immersive novel that can keep you up at night. One night in 2013, four former classmates find themselves once more in New Canaan, Ohio, or as they call it, The Cane. Their reasons differ, but each is afforded a novella-length section for their story to be told in overlapping precise detail. Stephen Markley has written two other books, but this is his first novel, and as with many journalists, his prose is clear, incisive and totally involving. Despite its length, there isn't a superfluous word and no repetition. This is how the generation called "the Millennials" came to adulthood, and underlying it all, how Donald Trump became president. The former generation is hardly fleshed out at all - Millennials are front and center, their history developed under the effects of 911, the subsequent wars in the Middle East, the opioid crisis and the great recession. As if that weren't enough, crime plays a large part, but not in an ordinary or cliched way. People disappear, reappear, sometimes with little or no warning. I look forward to what Markley does next.
January 6, 2024
100/100
You will have to excuse my obvious bias here, but I'm quite sure that on January 5, I've already found my book of the year.
For those of you who don't know, I live in a small "corn-and-rust" town on the edge of the Appalachia in Ohio, much like New Canaan, the fictional town where this novel is set. In fact, New Canaan feels like it could almost be a direct copy of my hometown Coshocton (which gets a shoutout literally in the first ten pages of this book, so bonus points there). When you're born and raised in these kinds of small towns, there's only so much you can do as an adult: join the military, get wrapped up in drugs and live as a strung-out junkie on the street, settle for a depressing factory job that barely pays you enough to live. Even those who find a way to get to college usually end up right back where they started, having dropped out or gotten into enough trouble that they have nothing else. Markley does a fantastic job at conveying the near-hopelessness found in and around these places.
The novel follows four POVs in a vignette/short story-esque fashion that all converge to make the overarching story, which takes place during a single night. Each section flashes back and fourth from the present day to memories of their lives growing up in New Canaan, and in some instances after they had left. With apologies to great character writers such as Stephen King (my personal favorite author)--these are the best, most believable characters I have ever read. Each one feels like someone I could know and see in my hometown any given day and their backstories are full of love, heartbreak, tragedy, and every emotion in between. And even outside of these four main POVs, the town building and secondary characters feel so real that it's hard to believe that this is Markley's debut novel.
As far as a central plot goes, it's pretty meandering. Bill Ashcraft is coming home to New Canaan delivering a secret package that even he doesn't know what it contains; Stacey Moore is meeting with her best friend's mother in an attempt to find just where Lisa Han has disappeared to in hopes of reconnecting; Dan Eaton, an Iraq vet, returns to have dinner with his high school sweetheart; and Tina Ross, well. Read and find out for yourself. Throughout the book you can tell something is building in the background, as multiple characters bring up the fabled legend of The Murder That Never Was, but the climax and ending really pulled everything together magnificently.
Markley's writing is amazing. It's beautiful and poetic all while the novel is dark and depressing, and I'm not too much of a macho manly man to say I teared up multiple times throughout.
This book won't be a hit for everyone. I'm almost positive that most people who grew up in these kind of small towns in and around the rust belt and Appalachia and hold some weird kind of fucked up nostalgia for these places will "enjoy" it and find a lot to relate to. That was certainly the case for me. But even if you're not part of that group, if you love reading about deep, tragic characters and depressing coming-of-age stuff, you should give this book a shot.
Content warning for the following: racism, homophobia, self harm, suicide, sexual assault, drugs and alcoholism
You will have to excuse my obvious bias here, but I'm quite sure that on January 5, I've already found my book of the year.
For those of you who don't know, I live in a small "corn-and-rust" town on the edge of the Appalachia in Ohio, much like New Canaan, the fictional town where this novel is set. In fact, New Canaan feels like it could almost be a direct copy of my hometown Coshocton (which gets a shoutout literally in the first ten pages of this book, so bonus points there). When you're born and raised in these kinds of small towns, there's only so much you can do as an adult: join the military, get wrapped up in drugs and live as a strung-out junkie on the street, settle for a depressing factory job that barely pays you enough to live. Even those who find a way to get to college usually end up right back where they started, having dropped out or gotten into enough trouble that they have nothing else. Markley does a fantastic job at conveying the near-hopelessness found in and around these places.
The novel follows four POVs in a vignette/short story-esque fashion that all converge to make the overarching story, which takes place during a single night. Each section flashes back and fourth from the present day to memories of their lives growing up in New Canaan, and in some instances after they had left. With apologies to great character writers such as Stephen King (my personal favorite author)--these are the best, most believable characters I have ever read. Each one feels like someone I could know and see in my hometown any given day and their backstories are full of love, heartbreak, tragedy, and every emotion in between. And even outside of these four main POVs, the town building and secondary characters feel so real that it's hard to believe that this is Markley's debut novel.
As far as a central plot goes, it's pretty meandering. Bill Ashcraft is coming home to New Canaan delivering a secret package that even he doesn't know what it contains; Stacey Moore is meeting with her best friend's mother in an attempt to find just where Lisa Han has disappeared to in hopes of reconnecting; Dan Eaton, an Iraq vet, returns to have dinner with his high school sweetheart; and Tina Ross, well. Read and find out for yourself. Throughout the book you can tell something is building in the background, as multiple characters bring up the fabled legend of The Murder That Never Was, but the climax and ending really pulled everything together magnificently.
Markley's writing is amazing. It's beautiful and poetic all while the novel is dark and depressing, and I'm not too much of a macho manly man to say I teared up multiple times throughout.
This book won't be a hit for everyone. I'm almost positive that most people who grew up in these kind of small towns in and around the rust belt and Appalachia and hold some weird kind of fucked up nostalgia for these places will "enjoy" it and find a lot to relate to. That was certainly the case for me. But even if you're not part of that group, if you love reading about deep, tragic characters and depressing coming-of-age stuff, you should give this book a shot.
Content warning for the following: racism, homophobia, self harm, suicide, sexual assault, drugs and alcoholism
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