American Boy

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

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

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

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

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

As a coming-of-age story, countless comparisons could probably be made. I've already suggested [[ASIN:0743456459 The Graduate]], but the ones I first thought of were Evan Hunter's [[ASIN:B000H1LJ0W Last Summer]] and Herman Raucher's [[ASIN:B000U36RPE Summer of '42]], both books from 30-40 years ago, and, more recently, Donald Lystra's northern Michigan story, [[ASIN:0875806287 Season of Water and Ice]].

AMERICAN BOY is, in the end, an old tale made new and fresh through the story-telling skills of a master hand at fiction. Larry Watson burst onto the book scene nearly twenty years ago with his first novel, [[ASIN:B000R7KF24 MONTANA 1948.]], a shocking and beautiful book. His latest offering shows he is still at the top of his game. If you appreciate serious literary fiction, READ THIS BOOK!

- Tim Bazzett, author of the REED CITY BOY trilogy

I was raised on a farm outside a small town of 800 or so with two doctors who made house calls. One was so loved that they named the high school after him. I also graduated from high school in 1962, so I could definitely relate to Larry Watson's AMERICAN BOY.

At the beginning of the story, Matt Garth and Johnny Dunbar, son of a local doctor, Rex Dunbar, are bosom buddies. Some call the doctor "Rex Morgan" because of his similarity to the cartoon character. The doctor includes Matt in his family affairs, inviting him to Thanksgiving dinner. Matt's own father was killed in a car accident, and Doctor Dunbar has become Matt's substitute father. The boys function as assistants to the doctor who teachers both about medicine at every opportunity. A young woman enters the picture as Louisa Lindahl suffers a bullet wound in an argument with her boyfriend. The wound is just a nasty scratch and once again the doctor takes advantage of a teachable moment, showing them how close the girl came to serious injury. In the process they catch a glimpse of one of her breasts.

When she recovers, the doctor hires Louisa as a receptionist file clerk. She's definitely from the wrong side of the tracks, and she quickly sets her cap for the doctor. She also buys beer for the boys and helps them drink it; Matt falls hard for her. Matt begins to see that his hero might have feet of clay during a hockey game when the doctor retaliates after Matt checks Johnny into the boards. He then receives a lecture from the doctor who stitches a gash in Matt's forehead.

Matt's mother revels in town gossip. Everybody knows everybody in a small town; I remember the era when most people belonged to a party line. You could listen in on your neighbor's conversations, something called rubbernecking. Anyway, the men as well as the women spread rumors about Louisa's reputation. "She'll do things Mrs. Dunbar won't," was Matt's summary of the details.

Just how similar to Rex Morgan is the doctor? Was the hint Watson gave us during the hockey game a sign of things to come? This is a book with valuable lessons about hero worship, human vulnerability and friendship, and I couldn't put it down.

Matthew Garth is a teenage boy growing up in the midwest in the 1960's. His father deserted him and his mom a long time ago, and Matt gratefully allows himself to be all but adopted by the well-to-do family of the town's only MD, Rex Dunbar. The turmoil of the 60's has yet to hit this corner of Minnesota, but Matt is suffering all the angst of the typical 17 year old. His world is about to be turned upside down, however, when a lovely young gunshot victim is first treated, then taken in, by the Dunbars, and Matt falls helplessly in love with the seductive Louisa. Unfortunately, so does Dr. Dunbar.

American Boy is the quintessential coming-of-age novel. The author's writing style is polished and pleasing, but while author Watson skillfully recreates the ambience of his retro setting, Willow Falls, the only new element here is the rivalry between the callow, unsophisticated Matt and the worldly, experienced, movie-star-handsome doctor. The plot contains its drama, but from the start, it's clear that the outcome can be nothing other it is.

I am in awe of this book. I thought at every turn, this is where the story will go wrong. After all how many coming-of-age books are there, and with the exception of a Catcher in the Rye or Huck Finn, they all do. Watson doesn't. In fact I left the book wondering why I had learned so little from my own childhood. It probes family relationships, the lasting significance of that first kiss and what it can really mean when someone says, "We could have been happy."

John Lehman, Rosebud Book Reviews.com

Let me add my poem on the subject. I wrote it after reading some letters my deceased mother had written years ago to an aunt who has just died.

Best To All

Reading old letters from my mother
to my aunt who died at 94 last year,
I realize there was a gracefulness
between women. No mention of my
dad's dementia, of his brother who
was engaged to a woman for twenty
years--then she left to marry my
second cousin. And Uncle Clarence?
He quit his job and went out in the
woods to die.

"We will have our Easter dinner with
friends." she writes. "Can you believe
summer is almost here." The water
pipes freeze in winter, a neighbor's
house burns to the ground, cars rust,
I play outside alone. But now I picture
her with a cup of coffee, perhaps
a cigarette, writing at a table, a patch
of sun reflecting off of it. Everything
is just fine. Everything is all right.

I am in awe of this book. I thought at every turn, this is where the story will go wrong. After all how many coming-of-age books are there, and with the exception of a Catcher in the Rye or Huck Finn, they all do. Watson doesn't. In fact I left the book wondering why I had learned so little from my own childhood. It probes family relationships, the lasting significance of that first kiss and what it can really mean when someone says, "We could have been happy."

John Lehman, Rosebud Book Reviews.com

Let me add my poem on the subject. I wrote it after reading some letters my deceased mother had written years ago to an aunt who has just died.

Best To All

Reading old letters from my mother
to my aunt who died at 94 last year,
I realize there was a gracefulness
between women. No mention of my
dad's dementia, of his brother who
was engaged to a woman for twenty
years--then she left to marry my
second cousin. And Uncle Clarence?
He quit his job and went out in the
woods to die.

"We will have our Easter dinner with
friends." she writes. "Can you believe
summer is almost here." The water
pipes freeze in winter, a neighbor's
house burns to the ground, cars rust,
I play outside alone. But now I picture
her with a cup of coffee, perhaps
a cigarette, writing at a table, a patch
of sun reflecting off of it. Everything
is just fine. Everything is all right.

I am in awe of this book. I thought at every turn, this is where the story will go wrong. After all how many coming-of-age books are there, and with the exception of a Catcher in the Rye or Huck Finn, they all do. Watson doesn't. In fact I left the book wondering why I had learned so little from my own childhood. It probes family relationships, the lasting significance of that first kiss and what it can really mean when someone says, "We could have been happy."

John Lehman, Rosebud Book Reviews.com

Let me add my poem on the subject. I wrote it after reading some letters my deceased mother had written years ago to an aunt who has just died.

Best To All

Reading old letters from my mother
to my aunt who died at 94 last year,
I realize there was a gracefulness
between women. No mention of my
dad's dementia, of his brother who
was engaged to a woman for twenty
years--then she left to marry my
second cousin. And Uncle Clarence?
He quit his job and went out in the
woods to die.

"We will have our Easter dinner with
friends." she writes. "Can you believe
summer is almost here." The water
pipes freeze in winter, a neighbor's
house burns to the ground, cars rust,
I play outside alone. But now I picture
her with a cup of coffee, perhaps
a cigarette, writing at a table, a patch
of sun reflecting off of it. Everything
is just fine. Everything is all right.

I really enjoyed this novel by Larry Watson (and plan to read other books he has written). THe story is told through the eyes of a preteen boy as he grows up in the 1950's. The characters are well defined and realistic and the events make for a very logical story. Parts of it are gritty and sad, but it is always intriguing. I highly recommend this novel.

I enjoy a book like this that builds with drama and mystery. I've read other books by Watson and plan on reading more.

American Boy is a worth reading. Larry Watson is an excellent writer. I have read all of his books.

Its ok.