The Son

Philipp Meyer's epic "The Son" begins at the end: reflections from the deathbed (or floor) by two generations of McCulloughs, a Scottish-transplant family well-suited for the rawboned and rough-hewn land of Texas.Eli McCullough claims to be "the first male child of this new republic," born to settlers "intent on getting rich if they could stay alive long enough." No easy task, considering the neighbors. "Then came the Comanche. The earth had seen nothing like them since the Mongols; they drove the Apaches into the sea, destroyed the Spanish Army, turned Mexico into a slave market."Barely into his teens, Eli is kidnapped in 1849 by the Comanches in a brutally bloody raid on his family's home. Eli survives a grueling trek across the plains, and the war party's leader, Toshaway, sees potential in the boy as long as the tribe can beat the white off him. Eli is set to work doing the tasks the Comanche women feel are beneath them until a good swift punch to the groin reminds him he has balls big enough to tell the women to fetch their own water. "The white one becomes a man." Sort of. The tribal leaders decide he doesn't have to fetch anymore, but "being retarded in all things they found important," Eli is deemed fit company mostly for the children, who teach him how to hunt and ride and shoot with a bow. As he gets older and tougher and browner, Eli graduates to breaking wild ponies and aiding the warriors in target practice (Eli serves as the target).Meyer puts his Melville influence to use as he catalogs in great detail the Comanche way. As Eli grows stronger and becomes a surer hand with a horse and scalping knife (his marksmanship with a bow and arrow is still the subject of much derision), he joins the veteran warriors as they rampage through herds of buffalo, Mexican villages and rival tribes. Eli finds several opportunities to run away and rejoin the whites, but he never takes them. This has become his life.But the Comanches' time on top is coming to a close as settlers encroach, as food runs out, as smallpox spreads and as the Apaches, Mexicans and whites pursue a payback that's been a long time coming. "The world is against us," Toshaway says. One key difference between Eli and the "us" that is his adopted family is that, as a white man, Eli has the option of survival.About 160 years later, oil baroness Jeanne Anne McCullough wakes up on the floor of her mansion, paralyzed, wondering how she got there. She knows her own death is near, and she knows that death will be an occasion for celebration among Texas' environmentalists and do-gooders. Regardless, looking back on her life, she finds no cause for repentance."She had done right. Made something out of nothing. The human life span had doubled, you did not get to the hospital without oil, the medicines you took could not be made, the food you ate did not reach the store, the tractor did not leave the farmer's barn. She took something useless under the ground and brought it to the surface, into the light, where it meant something. It was creation. Her entire life."To Jeannie, "people made no sense. ... Men, with whom she had everything in common, did not want her around. Women, with whom she had nothing in common, smiled too much, laughed too loud, and mostly reminded her of small dogs. ... There had never been a place for a person like her." At a very young age, Jeannie determines she's going to follow her heathen great-grandfather Eli straight to hell. Eli, called the Colonel, likes to sit on the family's gallery, drinking mint juleps and regaling listeners with wild tales about frontier days and being raised by the Comanches.Despite discouragement from the males and the more ladylike females in her family, Jeannie is determined to wrest out her rightful place in the McCullough cattle business: ropin' and ridin' and wranglin' along with the cowboys. Great-Grandpa Eli has assured her "that one day she would do something important."Jeannie's great-uncle Phineas calls her to his office one day to lay out the future of the family -- and Texas. Raising cattle has become a largely profitless game for rich men who like to play cowboy. The ranch is a fantasy that yields more romance than revenue. The future, the money, the power lie in oil. And decades earlier, Eli had the foresight to buy up all the oil leases he could get his hands on. Jeannie's father, Charles, remains stubbornly dedicated to life on the ranch, and Phineas knows the girl is vital to getting the property out of Charles' incompetent hands."She knew then why she had been called: he wanted her to betray her father. To her surprise she did not object to this as much as she might have hoped. Her father, for all his rough-and-tumble image, was a dandy. She had always known this, perhaps because the Colonel was always pointing it out. Earning money was the furthest thing from her father's mind."It's no easy feat to become a successful woman in a business controlled by oilMEN. Jeannie can't just run her operation from the office, she has to learn how each employee and every piece of equipment functions and contributes to the machinery as a whole. "In order to be respected she had to know their jobs as well as hers."The traditionalists of Texas find fault with Jeannie's ambition. "It had never stopped being strange that what was praised in men -- the need to be good at everything, to be someone important -- would be considered a character flaw in her."Jeannie's drive to be important, rich and respected pushes more standard roles of motherhood and family into the back seat. And the next generation of McCulloughs, born of privilege and entitlement, grows up never having to work, never having to think, learning only how to spend and gratify the self.Providing counterpoint to the larger-than-life sagas of Eli and Jeannie are diaries from the early 1900s, written by Peter McCullough, Eli's estranged son: "the only true record." Peter knows where the bodies are buried in the family history (and literally tends some of the unmarked graves). In a state populated by misfits and miscreants, Peter still can't find a place to belong. For being levelheaded and halfway civilized, Peter is held in contempt by his father, Eli, and the vaqueros who work on the family spread. He's the classic ineffectual intellectual, a do-nothing railing against the crimes of the doers.Peter feels more comfortable in the company of rural rancher Pedro Garcia, with whom Eli wants to pick a range war. A few livestock thefts give Eli his opening. The Garcias are branded Mexican radicals, and Eli, a couple of Texas Rangers and a small army of yahoos attack the Garcia ranch and wipe out every person they can aim at through the gunsmoke -- for which they are hailed as heroes by the state newspapers. "People continued to arrive at the house, bringing cakes, roasts, and regrets that they had not been able to reach us in time to help -- how brave we were to assault the Mexicans with such a small force. By that they mean seventy-three against ten. Fifteen if you count the women. Nineteen if you count the children."It's not long before the range war escalates into a largely one-sided race war. Peter offers the Tejano families shelter at the McCullough ranch from the roaming gangs of redneck lynch mobs, for which the Mexicans are eternally grateful -- to "Don Eli." When things settle down, the McCulloughs are on top once again, and the state gratefully offers them a great price on the Garcia property."Now that we have clear title to the Garcia land, it is just as my father supposed -- we look like benevolent kings. Where Pedro was tight-fisted, we employ half the men in town. Anyone who wants work now has it: clearing brush, digging irrigation, rounding up twenty years of maverick longhorn bulls. ... How we can appear to have clean hands, despite what happened, I find baffling. And depressing. As if I alone remember the truth."Trying to atone for his family's sins and assuage his own guilt over complicity, Peter defies Eli by taking in Maria, the last survivor of the Garcia family.The Colonel orders Peter to get rid of the girl, but for a while, Eli's too preoccupied with oil and mineral rights to ensure his son's compliance. All around Peter, the Colonel and his men are building elaborate mechanical straws to punch through the Earth's crust and suck out the riches below, the process turning the McCullough property into a "pit of stinking black sludge."Amid the environmental hell, Peter falls in love with Maria, a romance that opens an irreparable rift in the McCullough family.Meyer's first novel, "American Rust," depicted a country pillaged by corporations and plummeting toward an irreversible decline -- an America that, in a rabid frenzy of consumption, chewed off its own strong right arm and traded it for a heaping handful of get-rich fairy dust. Meyer enlarges on this theme in his ambitious follow-up.Right from its epigraph, "The Son" concerns itself with the transitory nature of empire. Eli's opening reflections are on Alexander the Great, who sought immortality but was dragged back to bed by his wife to die like everybody else. Again and again, throughout the century and a half chronicled in the novel, the powerful attain status through the brutal subjugation of a previous regime, then topple from their pinnacle. Sometimes the conquering hand comes from outside forces even more powerful; sometimes the fatal weakness comes from flaws within. Whatever the cause of failure, no one stays on top forever.Cormac McCarthy, to whom Meyer owes an obvious and sizable debt, has written extensively about the violence inherent in the land, particularly along the border with Mexico. As if there was something growing in the ground that requires nurturing through regular waterings of bloodshed. That's an intriguing concept for metaphysical musings, but I'm afraid the truth might be rather more prosaic -- and more bothersome: Human beings, in all their hues, are simply awful people.But don't go in expecting a tiresome sermon or populist propaganda. Within the first 20 pages or so, "The Son" announces itself as one of those "settle in" books: You might as well find a comfortable perch and settle in because you're going to be busy for the next few weeks, happily engrossed in this world.Many novelists, after producing something as good as "American Rust" on their first outing, might justifiably coast a little bit on their second book. Do something small and personal, maybe. Instead, Philipp Meyer, a Baltimore native, ran off to Texas and sought to capture the sprawling, brawling, untamed nature of that most unruly of U.S. states.As a Texan (sadly transplanted but still bearing the image of my home tattooed above my heart), I extend a hand of greeting to Mr. Meyer and invite him to make himself at home: Welcome, Son.

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.

Meyer has written an historical epic of American greed, violence and corruption set around the disappearance of the western frontier centred around Texas. He reportedly read some 250 texts focused on this era as well as learning a number of Native American skills in order to establish a highly credible level of authenticity. A powerful, engaging and disturbing narrative. For those who have “enjoyed” Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian”!

The page is rough not good quality and the cover is a little bit torn and the font is freakishly small - if don't have any problem with small font can use magnifying glass go ahead buy

Un roman historique -- mais bien plus que ça -- qui retrace la saga familiale des McCullough: Eli qui a connu au 19ème siècle à la fois la vie au sein d'une tribu Comanche et l'ascension d'un empire familiale dans un état blanc, son fils Peter qui remet tout en question (je n'en dirai pas plus) et son arrière petite fille Jeanne qui réussit dans le monde masculin et macho du pétrole. L'auteur réussit remarquablement bien à nous faire pénétrer dans les mentalités de ses personnages. Leurs rapports avec les populations mexicaines et indiennes sont très bien rendus. Il n'oublie pas pour autant d'évoquer les paysages grandioses qu'on a l'habitude de voir au cinéma mais plus rarement avec autant d'intensité et de maîtrise dans les pages d'un roman. Ce que j'ai particulièrement apprécié c'était sa façon de relier toutes les générations -- pas seulement celles du roman mais en remontant très loin dans le passé et en regardant vers l'avenir. Du grand art !Si je mets quatre étoiles au lieu de cinq c'est à cause de l'omniprésence de la violence. Certes les scènes de viol, de torture, voire de génocide servent à définir les personnages et ne sont pas gratuites, mais elles peuvent être extrêmement déstabilisantes.

Esta novela relata la ficticia historia de los McCullough desde que en los albores de 1850 Eli McCulloguh fuera secuestrado por los comanches tras masacrar salvajemente a su familia antes sus propios ojos hasta que cien años más tarde sus descendientes nadaran en la opulencia de los petrodólares. El entorno de la historia está enmarcado en un fondo rigurosamente histórico y relatado de forma realmente peculiar.A lo largo de la novela se intercalan regularmente la historia de Eli McCullough, su abducción y su vida con los comanches, la reincorporación al mundo de los blancos, una experiencia que pudo ser igual a las de la gran cantidad de niños blancos que pasaron realmente por esta experiencia. El diario de Peter McCullough, hijo de Eli -a quien todos llaman el Coronel- y la de Jean-Ann McCullough, nieta de Peter. Con estos tres presonajes intercalados y aparentemente desonectados el uno del otro, Philip Meyer construye la historia de esta saga a base de relatos cortos, unos relatos que te mantienen pegado a las páginas del libro.Conocer algo de la historia de Texas resulta de gran ayuda pero aún para quienes la desconocen el libro es cautivador y muy recomendable.

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!