American Boy

In most coming-of-age novels, there occurs that life-changing moment when the protagonist comes face-to-face with the realization that grown ups can be abundantly full of shit.

I love that moment in part because I’ve been motivated to expose the hypocrisies of people older or more powerful than me almost from the instant I could talk enough to ask the question—why?

A question I've subsequently asked many times for many different reasons in my life. Rarely, if ever, receiving a satisfactory answer.

This is my way of introducing you to American Boy, a fabulous coming-of-age novel by Larry Watson. It was originally published in 2012, but I only recently discovered it in a book barn not far from where I live. On the inside cover, the book was stamped...

"In loving memory of Rakhael Ross. This was her book."

So thank you Rakhael Ross and whoever left America Boy in that book barn. Passing it on to me means I can pass it on to others.

Meet Larry Watson…

The narrator is Matthew Garth, an 18-year-old high-school senior, growing up in Willow Falls, a fictitious town in southwest Minnesota just across the state line from North Dakota.

His mother--a single mom--is a waitress. His father died when Matthew was young. His best friend, Johnny, comes from a well-to-do family who live on the better side of the Willow Falls tracks and have more or less claimed Matthew as one of their own.

And from the ominous tone beneath the surface of his narration, you know from the outset that relationship will not end well.

Much of the book's earlier parts follow the antics of Matthew and Johnny as they drag race, binge drink, break into buildings and commit other mindless acts of teenage boys, restless by their boring existence in a small town on the prairie. Eventually, Matthew discovers the dirty-little secrets of a well-respected civic leader, compelling him, Matthew, to...

Well, I won't tell you what Matthew feels compelled to do. But it's ballsy--gotta give him that.

The last sentence of the book's preface sets it all up. 

"We are exposed to these phenomena in order that we might learn something, but then the lessons we learn are not always those we are taught."

I read that paragraph as I stood on the sidewalk alongside the book barn and decided there and then to take American Boy home and read it. Glad I did.

There’s something sweet and wistful about Matthew’s narrative voice as he looks back with amused regret, sorta like the voice Larry McMurtry created for The Last Picture Show, one of the greatest coming-of-age stories—ever.

Though in McMurtry’s book the protagonist comes face to face with a different realization—that for all the angst of his teenage existence this is the pinnacle and, sad to say, from here on out his life is gonna be all down hill. Not to bum you out, or anything. 

Anyway…

If you love coming-of-age fiction, run don't walk to read it. And even if you don't…

Buy it for a teenager who's looking for a gateway book to get them into reading. It’s never too late to learn to love to read.