Ohio by Stephen Markley
Published by Simon Schuster on August 21, 2018
Genres: Literature & Fiction
Pages: 496
Format: ARC
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Best Books of Summer 2018 Selection
* Vulture * Time * New York Post * The Millions *
The debut of a major talent; a lyrical and emotional novel set in an archetypal small town in northeastern Ohio—a region ravaged by the Great Recession, an opioid crisis, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—depicting one feverish, fateful summer night in 2013 when four former classmates converge on their hometown, each with a mission, all haunted by the ghosts of their shared histories.
Since the turn of the century, a generation has come of age knowing only war, recession, political gridlock, racial hostility, and a simmering fear of environmental calamity. In the country’s forgotten pockets, where industry long ago fled, where foreclosures, Walmarts, and opiates riddle the land, death rates for rural whites have skyrocketed, fueled by suicide, addiction and a rampant sense of marginalization and disillusionment. This is the world the characters in Stephen Markley’s brilliant debut novel, Ohio, inherit. This is New Canaan.
On one fateful summer night in 2013, four former classmates converge on the rust belt town where they grew up, each of them with a mission, all of them haunted by regrets, secrets, lost loves. There’s Bill Ashcraft, an alcoholic, drug-abusing activist, whose fruitless ambitions have taken him from Cambodia to Zuccotti Park to New Orleans, and now back to “The Cane” with a mysterious package strapped to the underside of his truck; Stacey Moore, a doctoral candidate reluctantly confronting the mother of her former lover; Dan Eaton, a shy veteran of three tours in Iraq, home for a dinner date with the high school sweetheart he’s tried to forget; and the beautiful, fragile Tina Ross, whose rendezvous with the captain of the football team triggers the novel’s shocking climax.
At once a murder mystery and a social critique, Ohio ingeniously captures the fractured zeitgeist of a nation through the viewfinder of an embattled Midwestern town and offers a prescient vision for America at the dawn of a turbulent new age.
Having a blogger relationship with NetGalley, I often have the opportunity to read new books and learn about new authors that I would otherwise miss out on. Today’s post is a book I asked to read and review for one simple reason: I’m from Ohio. Period.
The book first starts out with the prelude, where readers are dropped right into the memorial parade for Rick, who was killed Iraq. Readers see this patriotic side of the town, while they also see the darker side of town – the meth and opiate crisis.
Then the book jumps forward six years to a summer evening in 2013. Four former school classmates, two men and two women, who are about to be reunited again in their hometown of New Canaan, a small rust belt town in Ohio. Each of the four has their own memories and secrets and are returning to New Canaan for their own reasons.
The book is narrated from each of their viewpoints and their stories are told in separate chapters, but constantly intertwining. Ohio is not a book about living in the past, nor is it about trying to change the past, but as the author so eloquently puts it, it’s about the storm called progress.
This is a powerful, character-driven book and it’s really hard to believe this is Stephen Markley’s first novel. It’s that well written. While it’s a bit bleak and dark, it’s also emotional and the characters are identifiable to all sorts of readers. I even appreciated the secondary characters in this book as they added to the story.
You can order Ohio: A Novel here:
Hardcover: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | BAM | Powell’s
Ebook: iBooks | Kobo | Google Play
Audiobook: Audible | iTunes | Google Play
Stephen Markley is the author of Ohio: a Novel, from Simon & Schuster. He’s also the author of Publish This Book and Tales of Iceland. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop and his essays and short fiction can be found scattered across the internet. He currently lives in Los Angeles.
I was provided with a complimentary digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review and unbiased opinion.
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