The Son (Meyer novel)
The Son is the second novel of American writer Philipp Meyer. Published in 2013 the novel was loosely conceived as the second in a thematic trilogy on the American myth following Meyer's first novel, American Rust.[1]
The novel focuses on three generations of the McCullough family; Eli McCullough, the vicious patriarch who was the first male child born in the newly formed Texas, his son Peter McCullough, a learned man who disagrees with his father's brutality but is powerless to stop it, and Eli's great-granddaughter and Peter's granddaughter, Jeanne Anne "J.A." McCullough, who inherited her great-grandfather's toughness and went on to become a wealthy oil baroness.
In 2017 the novel was adapted into a television show of the same name starring Pierce Brosnan as Eli McCullough.[2]
Plot
Eli
In 1849 thirteen year old Eli McCullough's family is attacked by the Comanches. The attack results in the rape and murder of his sister and mother. Eli and his older brother are kidnapped. While Eli's brother Martin is eventually killed, Eli is adopted by the Kotsoteka Comanches and given the name Tiehteti. Initially treated as a slave, he eventually comes to earn the respect of his captors and is adopted by Toshaway, the man who kidnapped him. A series of misfortunes eventually hit the tribe, including an outbreak of disease which kills Toshaway and the rest of Eli's Comanche family. In order to provide for the survivors, Eli allows himself to be sold back into white society.
Eli has a miserable time integrating back into white society. After fighting for the confederacy in the American Civil War he manages to steal a bag of gold which he uses to buy land and amass a fortune. When his neighbour, Arturo Garcia, steals some of his cattle he murders him and bears a grudge against his nephew, Pedro Garcia, who comes to take his place. He marries Madeleine Black the daughter of a judge. She, and their eldest son, are eventually killed by a band of Lipans who Eli tracks down and murders in the 1880s.
Peter
In 1915 Peter McCullough witnesses his father stir up anti-Mexican sentiment to murder the Garcias, a wealthy family friendly with the McCulloughs who have lived on the land since before America was a country. The resulting slaughter leads to multi-day riots where the remaining Latino families in the surrounding area are murdered or forced to flee. Eli buys up the Garcia land afterwards. Peter is haunted by his actions and becomes estranged from his wife, who sees nothing wrong with the incidents, and his sons who participated in the slaughter. Two years after the murders the sole survivor, Maria Garcia, returns to the land. Peter shelters her and the two fall in love despite Maria's knowledge of the McCullough efforts to exterminate her family. After a month Peter's father, his uncle Phineas and his wife Sally offer Maria ten thousand dollars to disappear. She flees to Mexico and Peter spends his fortune tracking her down, eventually finding her and having two children with her.
J.A.
In 2012 J.A., a wealthy woman due to the oil found on the family land, collapses alone in her home. With no one to help her she reflects back on her life on the ranch where she was partially raised by her great-grandfather Eli who had already become a legend.
Though she has older brothers, J.A. always knows that she is the only one who will care for the ranch. When her three older brothers go to fight in WWII J.A. is told by her granduncle Phineas that her father is a weak man who is playing at being a cattle rancher while losing hundred of thousands of dollars. Shortly after J.A.'s father dies and she inherits all the McCullough land. J.A. becomes a multi-millionaire by 19. Her granduncle Phineas sets her up with Henry Boudreaux, a man hired to help tap the oil on the land. J.A. eventually marries Henry though to his disappointment she does not take to motherhood and after her third child she returns to work. Henry later dies in a hunting accident and J.A. lives out the rest of her life amassing money and lovers and feeling her children are failures. Several times she is contacted by Mexicans claiming to be related to her whom she dismisses. In her 90s a young man called Ulises Garcia comes to work for her. He eventually is able to prove that Peter is his grandfather, but despite knowing that he is speaking the truth, J.A. calls the police on him, only to fall and hit her head.
Knowing that he will be blamed for what happened to J.A., Ulises leaves in a panic but not before setting J.A.'s house on fire.
Reception
The novel received wide praise upon publication. Will Blythe writing for The New York Times called the novel "masterly" and compared it to Cormac McCarthy's Western Blood Meridian.[3] Ron Charles writing for The Washington Post praised the book's wide-ranging scope and called it a "monumental novel".[4] The Guardian praised the novel for "its careful dissection of imperial power".[5]
Awards
The Son was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[6] The novel also made the 2015 International Dublin Literary Award longlist.[7] Kirkus listed it as one of the Best Fiction Books of 2013.[8]
In 2014 the novel won the Lucien Barrière Literary Award which was presented at the 2014 Deauville American Film Festival.[9]
References
- "How author Philipp Meyer fell in love with Texas". dallasnews.com. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
- Fienberg, Daniel (2017). "'The Son': TV Review | SXSW 2017". Retrieved 12 June 2019.
- Blythe, Will. "Lone Star". Retrieved 12 June 2019.
- Charles, Ron. "Philipp Meyer's 'The Son,' reviewed by Ron Charles". Retrieved 12 June 2019.
- Burnside, John. "The Son by Philipp Meyer – review". Retrieved 12 June 2019.
- "Finalist: The Son, by Philipp Meyer (Ecco)". Retrieved 12 June 2019.
- "37 American novels in the running for the 2015 Prize". Retrieved 12 June 2019.
- "BEST FICTION BOOKS OF 2013". Retrieved 13 June 2019.
- "The Lucien Barrière Literary Award". Retrieved 15 June 2019.