The Son

The Son is an imaginative historical fiction that is a wonderful kind of book. It is at once a hell of a ride to experience the history of the McCullough family through six generations, while simultaneously being served up much food for thought. The characters are compelling - especially Eli the patriarch of the story who spends three years living as a member of the Comanches - and the craft that went into creating this book is superb.This is a tale that rewards solely through the experience of reading the story, without pondering anything more transformational than the plot and characters. This historical novel is close to the ground and if you read Meyer's interview on Amazon about his research experiences, you'll see why.Or, there's enough thought (given the action and the characters, what is possible moving forward?) here to experience The Son on a more contemplative level. While Meyer hammers it into the reader's head that history is the story of how we steal from others to fulfill ourselves, whether it's for our desires or for life's essentials, I think there's more to this book.And, given what I've seen of Meyer's comments, I think the book and he both would be better served if he let the book do the talking. Take this from the Amazon interview: "The point is that despite all that bloodshed, here we all are, still breathing, still falling in love and having children, still living our lives." This doesn't even rise to the level of cliche. Thankfully, the book is more eloquent.Whether he intended it or not (I think he did), The Son is a wonderful examination of the conflicts of three cultures that went into the making of Texas, and to a larger extent the U.S. The essential American quality - the constant redefining of ourselves without a whole damn lot of attention to the restraints of history, nature, or other laws - is portrayed in conflict here with the Indians living within their historical traditions and most importantly as a part of nature, instead of attempting to conquer it.The hype around this book also is not very helpful. Take this: "Harrowing, panoramic, and deeply evocative, The Son is a fully realized masterwork in the greatest tradition of the American canon--an unforgettable novel that combines the narrative prowess of Larry McMurtry with the knife-edge sharpness of Cormac McCarthy."As good as The Son is, I find it head and shoulders above McMurtry's work, it also doesn't hold a candle to McCarthy's work...but then whose work does?I am looking most forward to Meyer's future works and also plan on reading his first (American Rust), in addition to rereading The Son. But, I'd like to see him get out of his MFA comfort zone and see him try to expand his reach beyond his grasp to see what kind of heavenly work he can produce. If The Son is the pinnacle, then that's plenty to celebrate.Don't get me wrong. The Son is wonderful, so much so that it makes me wonder if there isn't something under the surface that we haven't seen yet, other than a few ripples hinting at its existence.Upon further review: as is so often the case with an outstanding book, Tbe Son nudged me to order The Comanche Empire, a book I've considered buying since it first came out in 2008. It arrived in today's mail and it opened to a page with Quanah Parker, the Comanche chief of great renown referenced in The Son. Parker was the son of a Comanche chief, Peta Nocona, and Ann Cynthia Parker, an Anglo-Texan captive.It's worth noting that the theme of mixed blood through the ages runs throughout the son, intertwined with the violent clashes between civilizations and races.

This a lengthy three part novel by a superbly talented writer from whom we are sure to hear more in the future - and I'm already looking forward to his next book. However great his talent the book is a downer in the end.. Only Eli McCullough (1836-1936) has a happy or rewarding life and the ending is a Gotterdammerung for five generations of the McCullough family; but one who sticks with itwill have read a great story - in fact several great stories. There are enough events, experiences, situations and characters between the covers of this book for at least three great movies, two TV Series and a month's worth of Book Club conversations. It's the story of five generations of the McCullough family - from Eli who was born with nothing on a ranch on the empty Texas plain to his great granddaughter Jeanne Anne who has the "home ranch" of a quarter million acres in Southwest Texas, homes in Houston and elsewhere and who, having the talents of her great grandfather, had amassed a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars through her investments in oil, S&Ls, insurance companies and the like. I think I is fair to say that the book could be titled "From Boots to Boeings" There are three main characters - Eli, his son Peter (1870-193?) and Jeanne Anne (1926-`95?) - and each has his or her own story. But these three stories are not told consecutively but together, comtemporaneously. in frequent short bursts - short episodes - first an episode about Jeanne, then one from Peter's life for example, back to Jeanne, then to Eli etc. It can be confusing. They are not chronologically sequential but after one is a few pages into the book everything comes together pretty well. A caveat: Readers need be sure to have the Genealogy that comes in the front of the book placed within easy reach as you read. You will need it Eli's life is by the most interesting of all the principal characters - by far. His mother and sister are killed in a Comanche in a raid on his home ranch circa 1846-6 (the father was away) and he and his brother Martin are kidnaped, tied to a horse and driven all the way to the tribe's home territory in what is now Oklahoma. Martin doesn't survive the ride the ride, but Eli not only survives the ride he survives the next three years as well, during which he becomes a full fledged member of the Tribe - in every way. Taking scalps, taking Prairie Blossom as his woman, accepting Toshaway as his chief, becoming steeped in tribal ways, Comanche lore and customs and in the friendship with his two best friends - Escutu and Nuuukru. Mr. Meyer's scholarship and powers of story telling and description are on full display in this section of the book. It's good enough for a stand-alone novel - or maybe two or three. (In the middle of the book Mr. Meyer gives us a complete chapter on how to skin and render a complete buffalo from horns to hoofs. Didn't know that, did you? But read this book and you will. Fascinating!) Like all idylls this one must end - and it does in a smallpox epidemic which kills Praririe Blossom and most of the rest of the tribe, including Toshawa; and the reader is sad to see them go. Most of us would rather spend more literary time with Eli and his Comanche friends than we would with the people on the frontier. After the tribe disintegrated Eli returned to "civilization". He became a Texas Ranger, then a Confederate Irregular during the Civil War and managed to be one of several Irregulars who ambushed a Federal wagon train loaded with gold dust on its way to the Assay Office. Having liberated the source of his fortune he bought several hundred acres on the site of what became his home ranch for 24 cents an acre. This plus the fact that all one had to do to build up a herd in 1865 was to put a fence around some unbranded cattle and he had a big start - the source of the McCullough fortune - and then there was Eli's undiluted absolute force of character and personality. That had as much to do with it as anything Eli's oldest son Peter B. (b. 1870) was a different man - probably as smart if not smarter than his father but one of contemplation not action, of sensitivity rather than lack of feeling; and if you may be wondering to which man (or woman) in this story "The Son" refers to. My guess is Peter - and Why? The best reference and the best story of it is to be gained from reading the book. One can argue - as I do - that the really great tragedy of this book is Jeanne Ann McCullough (b. 1926), born to immense wealth and great talent and who most resembles her great-grandfather Eli. But somewhere along the course of her life things went wrong. Her husband (fine man) died early in a hunting accident. One son was killed in the war; another one died of aids; her daughter was useless - an empty vessel living the loose life mid diets and fads and drugs in San Francisco and leaving her with two young illegitimate grandchildren each by a different father. Finally at the very end of the book the family cycle comes full circle; and as a reader I wish Philip Meyer had read Aristotle's Poetics and purged the emotion of the reader as the story ended. But that didn't happen and I'm still regretful. The family deserved better - in every generation.

Much better than the series. The author does a great job making characters' motivations clear.

Every man or woman has a dream,yet unfulfilled!We try to impose our will on our children but they have their own dreams.Unending misery,still a life is worth living!

Resulta sorprendente que esta gran obra de Philipp Meyer haya pasado sin pena ni gloria en su formato al Castellano, no entiendo cual es la política promocional de las editoras.

Der Zugang einer Biographie zum wahren Leben ist oft verschlungen. Es muss nicht das eigene, unmittelbare Erlebnis sein, das das Tor zur Erkenntnis öffnet. Manchmal, für die Feinfühligen, reicht auch nur die Aura, um das Wesen des Seins zu begreifen. Wenn es sich bei dem Begreifenden um eine Schriftstellerin oder einen Schriftsteller handelt, so ist das in unseren Tagen ein Glücksfall. Die amerikanische Literatur scheint mit Philip Meyer einen weiteren solchen Glücksall zu haben. Sein Debütroman American Rust, der den Niedergang und die Tristesse der einstigen Kohle- und Stahlhochburg Pittsburg PA im Leben von Jugendlichen materialisierte, schöpfte Meyer wohl aus den Erfahrungen, die er als Jugendlicher selbst in Baltimore, einer Stadt mit einem ähnlichen Schicksal, sammelte. Nun, mit seinem zweiten Roman, The Son, verbindet den ehemaligen Derivatenhändler ein Stipendiatenaufenthalt an einer Literaturschule in Austin, Texas. Die heutige, moderne und attraktive texanische Metropole hat ihn inspiriert, in die dortige soziale DNA zu blicken.The Son ist ein für heutige Zeiten grandioser Roman. Grandios deshalb, weil er die Geschichte einer Familie miteinander korrespondierend über drei Jahrhunderte erzählt. Im Wesentlichen sind es drei Personen, die abwechselnd und fortschreitend ihre Erlebnisse, Gedanken und tragischen Erkenntnisse erzählen. Dabei zeichnet sich ein Bild der texanischen Gesellschaft, wie es in dieser profunden Art noch nicht gezeichnet wurde. Die Figuren, die die Geschichte dominieren, sind nicht durchweg sympathisch, aber sie sind verständlich. Ihre Motivlage ist deutlich und transparent und ihre Handlungen folgerichtig, auch wenn sie zum Teil in ihrer Konsequenz ins Desaster führen.Da ist zum einen Eli McCullogh, der bei einem Überfall auf die eigene Farm 1849 von den Comanchen entführt und aufgezogen wurde, J.A. Jeannie McCullogh, der letzten Patriarchin eines Öl- und Finanzimperiums, die von der Jetztzeit, dem Ende her in der Stunde ihres Todes das Leben betrachtet und die Tagebücher des Peter McCullogh, die 1915 beginnen und an der Nahtstelle zwischen dem Rinder- und dem Ölimperium sowie des Wandels der USA von der Kontinental- zur Weltmacht entstehen. Die drei Perspektiven für sich sind bereits eine tiefe Bereicherung. Eli McCulloghs Erlebnisse schildern die große Naturverbundenheit, die zivilisatorische Unschuld und damit verbundene Barbarei der amerikanischen Ureinwohner mit ungeheurer Detailkenntnis und Sympathie. Jeannie McCulloghs Betrachtungen sind ein Lehrstück über eine erfolgreiche, mächtige Frau, die nahezu archaisch patriarchalisch erzogen wurde und radikal mit ihren Rollenerwartungen brechen musste, um ihrem Schicksal gerecht und trotzdem unglücklich zu werden. Und Peter McCulloghs Tagebücher gewähren den Einblick in einen Zweifelnden innerhalb eines skrupellosen Machtgefüges, dem klar wird, dass er von innen heraus nichts ändern kann und der mit der Familie brechen muss, um der tödlichen Logik zu entkommen.In ihrer Kombination sind die drei Perspektiven eine Vivisektion des Staates Texas, der bis heute die über drei Jahrhunderte geschilderten Lebenswelten zumindest in Ansätzen noch in sich vereint. Das Archaische, die patriarchalische, muskulöse Männergesellschaft und die global agierende, mit Formen sozialer Dekadenz kämpfende Öl- und Finanzindustrie. Philip Meyer ist mit diesem Roman etwas gelungen, das kaum noch gelingen mag in einer Zeit, in der die kurze Zeichnung das zu sein scheint, was das Gros der Leserschaft noch bereit ist zu akzeptieren und in der die schreibende Zunft den Atem verloren hat, die großen Geschichten bis zu Ende zu erzählen. Meyer hat dies getan, und das gar nicht so Überraschende ist die Vielschichtigkeit, die sich hinter der menschlichen Geschichte verbirgt. Ober, wie es Jeannie McCullogh einmal lapidar formuliert, es bedurfte keines Hitlers, um zu der Erkenntnis zu kommen, dass die Flüsse der Geschichte voller Blut sind.

J'ai découvert ce livre en lisant un article dessus, critique littéraire sur les événements de la rentrée 2014. Gros livre, gros moment de lecture, en tout presque 700 pages. Mais quelle lecture, quelle écriture, quelle histoire. Je ne pensais pas être autant transportée par un livre qui finalement parle de l'Ouest américain, des Indiens, et des géants texans du pétrole. Un mélange de Geant, Dances with Wolves, et grands western américains classiques. Le livre balaie plus d'un siècle d'histoire, en se centrant sur une famille texane: le patriarche, son fils, et son arrière petite fille. The Son est superbement écrit, Philipp Meyer a le don de nous transporter avec ses mots, il sait raconter, nous faire voyager. Chose encore plus étrange, il arrive à évoquer des images, et ce livre est aussi un film écrit de l'histoire américaine et la cruauté cachée de cette famille milliardaire. Histoire sur le prix à payer, l'absence de sentiments dans un monde gouverné par l'argent et le pétrole. Auteur à découvrir absolument. Certes lire cet immense roman (au sens propre du terme) demande du temps, mais on savoure ces heures passées à regarder, imaginer et vivre cette aventure épique et cruelle. Tout simplement énorme.