American Boy

August 29, 2011
Watson’s new novel about a young man’s coming-of-age in rural Minnesota during the early ’60s never veers off course. Working-class narrator Matthew Garth has always been treated well by best friend Johnny Dunbar’s well-to-do family, particularly by Johnny’s father, Dr. Dunbar. In the town of Willow Falls, the doctor’s wealth and commanding presence position him as a leader to some, but to others—including Matt’s mother—he remains an ostentatious outsider. He treats Louisa Lindahl, a young woman shot by her boyfriend (who later strangles himself while in custody); having “no resources and no place to go,” Louisa recuperates with the Dunbars and stays on to live and work with the family. Matt develops an infatuation for Louisa, but her own plans, about which the reader is never unaware, lead to explosive changes in Matt’s standing with the Dunbar family. Though the novel’s dénouement packs a punch, much about Matt, from episodes relating to women to his trajectory with the Dunbars, is foreshadowed to the point of draining the story of drama. Though Watson’s (Montana 1948) laconic prose fits the setting, his decision to telegraph every narrative turn is disappointing.

October 1, 2011
Watson's (Montana 1948, 1993, etc.) sixth novel resonates with language as clear and images as crisp as the spare, flat prairie of its Minnesota setting. Matthew Garth's father died when Matt was a young boy, leaving him to be raised, or watched over as he raised himself, by a withdrawn, hard-working waitress mother. But Matt has a second family, the Dunbars, parents of his best friend, Johnny. Rex Dunbar is Willow Fall's most prominent physician, and his passion for medicine fascinates Matt and Johnny, high-school seniors. Dunbar often allows them to follow along as he carries out his practice, always offering instructions about medicine's basics. It is Thanksgiving 1962. Kennedy is president but all that is Willow Falls is evocative of Eisenhower and Father Knows Best. The Dunbars, with Matt, are celebrating when word comes that young Louisa Lindahl has been shot by her boyfriend and has gone missing. The boys are sent to help search. Dr. Dunbar prepares his clinic. Louisa is discovered by other searchers, and when the boys return, Dr. Dunbar has completed surgery. The boys are curious about the nature of a gunshot wound, and as Dunbar lifts the sheet from the unconscious woman to explain his abdominal surgery, Matt catches a glimpse of her breasts. Matt is captivated, and with that, a vivid story of sexual tension, family loyalty and betrayal unfolds. Matt wants Louisa, mysterious and thoroughly erotic, everything high-school girls are not, and since her lover and assailant committed suicide, he believes he can have her. Louisa is also a manipulative opportunist. After she is given shelter by the Dunbars, she quietly sets out to seduce the doctor, determined to "…advance her station in life through imitation and force of will." The introspective, insightful and reflective narrative unfolds from Matt's adult perspective, easily inferred early but not confirmed until the conclusion. A literary tale chronicling the painful struggle required of a boy to birth himself as a man.

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Starred review from October 1, 2011

Starting with In a Dark Time (1980) and with highlights like Montana 1948, Watson has penned some of the best contemporary fiction about small-town America, and his new novel does not disappoint. Teenage narrator Matthew Garth begins his story in 1962, in Willow Falls, MN, where he is enjoying a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner with the Dunbar family. He and Johnny Dunbar are inseparable, despite their families' disparity in status: Johnny's father is a physician, while Matthew is the only child of a single working mother. Their elegant meal is interrupted when the sheriff calls Dr. Dunbar to the scene of a shooting. The authorities soon bring young Louisa Lindahl, wounded by her boyfriend during an argument, to recuperate at Dr. Dunbar's clinic; before long, Louisa has moved into the Dunbar household. Matthew longs for this seductive young woman from the day he sees her wounded, unclothed body at the clinic. He sees himself as Louisa's rescuer, and a rift soon opens up between him and the Dunbars. VERDICT With his graceful writing style, well-drawn characters, and subtly moving plot, Watson masterfully portrays the dark side of small-town America. Highly readable and enthusiastically recommended.--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 15, 2011
Eighteen years ago, Milkweed published Watson's breakthrough novel, Montana 1948. Now the author returns to Milkweed with another powerful coming-of-age story about a teenage boy being shocked into maturity by a moment of sudden and unexpected violence. On Thanksgiving Day 1962 in Willow Falls, Minnesota, a young woman is shot by her drunken boyfriend, and Dr. Dunbar, the local physician, treats her wounds. Matthew Garth, best friend of the doctor's son, Johnny, is with the family when the shooting victim, Louisa Lindahl, is brought to the house. (I was seventeen years old when I first saw a woman's bare breasts. . . . But when you consider that I also saw my first bullet wound on that same body, you have a set of circumstances truly rare.) Louisa is Matthew's entr'e into the adult world of sex and violence, and his fascination with her never dims, even as she starts to look like a small-town femme fatale, and even as Matthew begins to wonder if the seemingly idyllic Dunbar family's life (so very different from his own wrong-side-of-the-tracks existence with his bitter single mother) may be in jeopardy. Like Holden Caulfied trying to catch innocent children before they fall off the cliff adjoining that field of rye, Matthew struggles to save the Dunbars and, in so doing, save himself. He fails, of course, but that's the point of much of Watson's always melancholic, always morally ambiguous fiction: coming-of-age is as much about failure as it is about growth.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)