Synopses & Reviews
Review
There are a handful of writers I push on everyone I meet, and Larry Watson is one of them. For the past twenty years has quietly penned some of the wisest, most powerful novels in my library, and I am thrilled to make room on the shelf for his latest, a gripping, poignant coming-of-age story that opens with a gunshot that will ultimately bury its bullet in your heart. American Boy is an American classic.”Benjamin Percy, author of The Wilding and Refresh, Refresh
Larry Watsons latest book, American Boy, may be his best yet. With the patient skill of a seasoned writer, Watson tells an engaging coming-of-age story of a young man in Willow Falls, Minnesota during the 1960s. Youthful passions, heartbreaks, loyalties and moral uncertainties are all rendered in vivid color.”David Rhodes, author of Driftless
Review
[Watson will] harvest a bumper crop of readers this autumn.”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel[Watson] spins charm and melancholy around the same fingers, the result a soft but urgent rendering of a young man coming of age in rural America that is recognizable to even those of us who were never there.”Denver Post
Watson has penned some of the best contemporary fiction about small-town America, and his new novel does not disappoint. . . . With his graceful writing style, well-drawn characters, and subtly moving plot, Watson masterfully portrays the dark side of small-town America. Highly readable and enthusiastically recommended.”Library Journal (starred review)
Eighteen years ago, Milkweed published Watsons breakthrough novel, Montana 1948; now the author returns to Milkweed with another powerful coming-of-age story about a teenage boy [Matthew Garth] being shocked into maturity by a moment of sudden and unexpected violence. . . . Like Holden Caulfield trying to catch innocent children before they fall off the cliff adjoining that field of rye, Matthew struggles to save the Dunbars and, in so doing, save himself. He fails, of course, but thats the point of much of Watsons always melancholic, always morally ambiguous fiction: coming-of-age is about failure as much as it is about growth.”Booklist (starred review)
Watsons new novel about a young mans coming-of-age in rural Minnesota during the early 60s never veers off course.”Publishers Weekly
There are a handful of writers I push on everyone I meet, and Larry Watson is one of them. For the past twenty years has quietly penned some of the wisest, most powerful novels in my library, and I am thrilled to make room on the shelf for his latest, a gripping, poignant coming-of-age story that opens with a gunshot that will ultimately bury its bullet in your heart. American Boy is an American classic.”Benjamin Percy, author of The Wilding and Refresh, Refresh
Larry Watsons latest book, American Boy, may be his best yet. With the patient skill of a seasoned writer, Watson tells an engaging coming-of-age story of a young man in Willow Falls, Minnesota during the 1960s. Youthful passions, heartbreaks, loyalties and moral uncertainties are all rendered in vivid color.”David Rhodes, author of Driftless
Synopsis
Esquire Top 9 Books of the Year
Midwest Booksellers Choice Award Finalist
Booklist Editor's Choice 2011 Best Book
Publishers Weekly 20 Top Indie Sleeper Hits
WBEZ Chicago Top 10 Books of 2011
We were exposed to these phenomena in order that we might learn something, but of course the lessons we learn are not always those we are taught . . .
So begins Matthew Garths story of the fall of 1962, when the shooting of a young woman on Thanksgiving Day sets off a chain of unsettling events in Willow Falls, Minnesota. Matthew first sees Louisa Lindahl in Dr. Dunbars home office, and at the time her bullet wound makes nearly as strong an impression as her unclothed body. Fueled over the following weeks by his feverish longing for this mysterious womanas well as by a deep desire for the comfort and affluence that appears to surround the DunbarsMatthew finds himself drawn into a series of confrontations he never expected, the results of which will change his life irrevocably and give lie to his version of the American dream.
Immersive, heartbreaking, and richly evocative of time and place, this long-awaited new novel marks the return of a great American storyteller.
Synopsis
The author of the acclaimed Montana 1948 "spins charm and melancholy" in this novel of youth and romantic rivalry in 1960s rural Minnesota (Denver Post).
Willow Falls, Minnesota, 1962. The shooting of a young woman on Thanksgiving Day sets off a chain of unsettling events in the life of seventeen-year-old Matthew Garth. A close friend of the prosperous Dunbar family, Matthew is present in Dr. Dunbar's home office when the victim is brought in. The sight of Louisa Lindahl--beautiful and mortally wounded--makes an indelible impression on the young man.
Fueled by his feverish desire for this mysterious woman and a deep longing for the comfort and affluence that appears to surround the Dunbars, Matthew finds himself drawn into a vortex of greed, manipulation, and ultimately betrayal. Larry Watson's tale heart-breaking tale "resonates with language as clear and images as crisp as the spare, flat prairie of its Minnesota setting" (Kirkus Reviews).
An Esquire Best Book of 2011