I was oddly fascinated with Ohio
So I will tell you a bit about it, and you can decide for yourself whether it may be for you…
I did appreciate the narrative format, which I will also discuss in this post.
Ohio is set in New Canaan, a struggling rust belt town, where industry has fled, and drugs, alcohol and other vices rage. And even the people who “got out” of town to, for example, serve their country, go off to college, or on other adventures didn’t fare much better. I can’t think of one happy character in this book!
On a summer weekend in 2013 (about 10 years after high school graduation), several mostly disillusioned former friends/classmates find themselves “back home” for various reasons.
Format of interweaving stories
This story is told in four main sections, each from the perspective of a different classmate/friend who narrates both past and present storylines.
As we get through the sections, the overall plot fills itself in – including past high school situations and the specific events of the present day. For example, Bill sees someone in a bar who later tells his own story about meeting in that bar; they also provide perspectives on each other from both eras.
It actually reminded me a bit of Ulysses, when, for example, different characters at different points in the book see the same item floating down the river at different times.
The stories build with a tension that something dramatic is going to happen this summer night while at the same time you are learning more questionable and horrible things that did happen during the high school years.
An example of the language and theme of time used in this storytelling:
“Its hard to say where any of this ends or how it ever began, because what you eventually learn is that there is no such thing as linear. There is only this wild, fucked-up flamethrower of a collective dream in which we were all born and traveled and died.”
Beyond the angst of high school – which wow a lot of these “memories” and characterizations seemed unrealistic to me. Here’s a snippet from character #2’s, Stacey’s section:
“She always noticed how people tended to view their high school days as foundational even if they didn’t realize it. Get them talking about those years, and they suddenly had all these stories of dread and wonder you could wrap whole novels around.”
I totally agree high school and its experiences are foundational…however I wouldn’t have much to wrap a novel around. Actually most of my worries, concerns, events seem much less significant at this point than they did then. However, these characters certainly have some stories to tell, from then and now.
There are heavy topics dealt with in this novel including drug addiction, sexual assault, sexual identity, prejudices, politics and war, terrorism, and death in various situations. Whew!
This is a novel that kept my interest. But beyond being impressed with the format and poetic story telling, I am not sure it provided me any value (meaning inspiring ideas to add to my life). Most all of the characters are really F-ED UP for various reasons, but I could still identify or emphasize with them as they were telling their own version of events. By the end, the book reads like a mystery, and I was invested to see how it ended. My final thought is that this book has some literary value, but is not for someone who wants lighter reading.
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