This brilliant and savage novel cuts to the heart of what we have become as it traces the movements of four former high school friends on a hot August night 10 years after their graduation from a small town Ohio high school. Drugs, abusive sexual relationships, high school melodrama and the rest formed these children and their school mates. Some went to war, some disappeared for a while, some died in Iraq or by their own hand, but these four lived to tell about it. None of the stories from after the high school graduations of the four now-adults profiled are pretty. But they are real. They reflect the times, and what the kids were given to work with. The writing is shocking at times, and in moments other-worldly beautiful. This was a tough novel to read. I would stop for months at a time and read something else because frankly, the book made me sad. The waste of human life on so many levels was appalling. It mirrors what we see every day. But, long slog that it was, I am so glad I finished the book because the ending said it all. Hats off to Stephen Markley for an absolutely spot-on book about our country today. Thanks to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for the opportunity to review

It takes a bit to get engrossed in the story & to care for the characters. However, if you stick with in the narra five is intriguing & enjoyable, if a bit long winded.

Ohio is a Faulkner-esque narrative focusing on one night in New Canaan, Ohio and the narratives of four former high-schoolers that return to their home towns. In true Faulkner fashion, Markley brings us closer and closer to the heart of the matter, before hitting his audience with what I suppose was the reveal in the final narrative. There were some aspects of this novel that I did like – particularly Stacey's narrative, the pacing at the close of the novel, and the coda. In these moments, this novel read more like a thriller - I am not sure the novel was marketed as such – which I very much enjoyed.

What I didn't like, however, outweighed the well done ending. I found the prose way overwrought, especially in Bill's first chapter. As other reviewers have mentioned as well, I found it slightly off-putting just how much these characters reminisce over high school. The trajectory of these character's lives are intrinsically shaped by their high school experiences, but I found the whole tracts of memory from their HS lives to be, well, unrealistic in a novel so desperately clinging to realism.

And, of course, the ending. I quickly realized what this narrative was probably leading to, perhaps because I knew the connotations of the Faulkner (Sound and the Fury) influence that Markley uses so much. But, I found Markley's handling of rape to be overwritten, overwrought, and included just because he needed something big to happen to his main female character. Perhaps he meant for this to be more genuine than the writing implied, but it did not seem to be that he exhibited much empathy for the very real life situation he uses in his novel.

A minor nitpick as well, but the few mentions of Kalyn's autistic brother were so poorly handled in Chapter 1, that I nearly DNF'd right then and there.

Perhaps because I've been watching too much Dead Mall Content and perhaps because of nostalgia, I cannot help but think of Rolling Acres Mall when I think of this novel. Sprawling in its prime, but perhaps somewhat doomed to fail. I cannot say that I enjoyed this novel entirely, but I can say that it has haunted me since I devoured it in a little over a day, so I suppose that counts for something. Perhaps that is the point of this novel – less about its own structure or content, but more about how it provokes the reader to consider the post-9/11 world themselves.

I didn't care for this one. It felt a little too Literary White Man for my tastes and I struggled to get through it.

I was so excited to read this book but I just could not get into the plot or the characters. I definitely think this is a perfect topic for our world today. Unfortunately the storyline felt hurried and i didn't enjoy it,

Reading Stephen Markley's "Ohio" reminded me in many ways of the thrilling experience of reading "Trainspotting" and other early works by Irvine Welsh. Not because the stories are alike, but because of the raw portrait of people living difficult lives in ways that make us uncomfortable, in places that we don't often read about. There is real promise displayed in "Ohio" and I hope the author continues to explore the people of this time and place in a similar way that Welsh did with his Skagboys.

Published on BookTrib.com

“Ohio” by Stephen Markley Introduces New Voice(s) in American Fiction

Published on June 13, 2018 in Fiction by Joanna Poncavage

Ohio by Stephen Markley (Simon & Schuster) deserves to be only the first of a series because its characters are worth more than one book, and the story of their America is worth more than one look.

This sprawling, spiraling novel begins one summer night in 2013, as four former high school classmates are about to meet again in New Canaan, their Rust Belt Ohio town. Each is traveling from far corners, each bearing memories that must be obeyed and secrets that will be revealed. The book is narrated from each of their viewpoints in a gripping saga that slowly builds into a symphony that hits all the right notes.

New Canaan is a snapshot of so many places in America, its industries gone, its farms taken over by agribusiness giants, and the hearts of its inhabitants broken by war, drugs and/or divorce. The landscape may be burned out but Markley’s prose is lush.

Bonded by watching the Twin Towers fall from their classroom television sets a decade before, and the punishing social web of adolescence (middle school crushes, senior class drinking parties, teenage carnality), all are about to face the whispered rumors of The Murder That Never Was. Follow the characters through a winding mystery that reveals the dreams and insecurities of a generation resilient to hardship, yet vulnerable as each individual faces their grim past.

Bill Ashcraft is arriving after a 14 hour, LSD-fueled drive north from New Orleans, with a small package strapped to the undercarriage of his pick-up truck. Beat up in high school for wearing a President Bush t-shirt and the words, “Wanted: International Terrorist,” he’s been working for left-of-the-left causes and has a sour view of the American system: “It gives you cars and credit and religion and television and all this other comfort that we go and call ‘freedom.’ ”

Stacey Moore, a nascent lesbian in high school is now a doctoral candidate with a thesis titled “A Theory of Ecology, Literature, and Love Across Deep Time.” She’s in town to deliver a long overdue letter to her very religious brother and meet the woman she’s feared and hated for her entire adult life. Up her arm climbs a tattoo that reads, “All dreams of the soul end in a beautiful man’s or woman’s body.”

Dan Eaton, once skinny and pale with freckles, glasses and red hair, had three tours in Afghanistan, where he lost an eye. He’s come to New Canaan, back to the “flag and bumper sticker patriots” to see a former teacher before she dies, the woman who sparked his love of history. He’s also meeting his high school sweetheart who tells him “Girls, man — teenage girls can be so…fucked up,” before sharing secrets he immediately wants to forget.

And Tina Ross, an expert at living with secrets, is returning “to all the corners of her memory where she rarely ventured.” Once a timid religious girl, her beauty attracted the attention of the high school football star. Because she would do anything for him, she became someone she didn’t recognize.

On almost every page, Markley adds perspective to the story of America today with words that resonate, such as the following three bits, plucked at random:

“It’s hard to say how any of this ends or how it 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.”

“Because when we look at history, we only look at the victor…and it becomes difficult to contemplate any document of civilization as anything but a document of barbarism.”

“And in the last decade, everyone had learned to be a truth masseuse.”

Ohio will be available for purchase on August 21st.

ABOUT STEPHEN MARKLEY


IMAGE COURTESY OF WWW.STEPHENMARKLEY.COM
Stephen Markley is an author, screenwriter, and journalist. A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Markley’s previous books include the memoir Publish This Book: The Unbelievable True Story of How I Wrote, Sold, and Published This Very Book, and the travelogue Tales of Iceland. He lives in Los Angeles.

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TAGS: 2000SLGBTQMULTIPERSPECTIVITYMURDERMYSTERYNEW CAANANOHIOSTEPHEN MARKLEYWAR
Joanna Poncavage
JOANNA PONCAVAGE
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Joanna Poncavage had a 30-year career as an editor and writer for Rodale’s Organic Gardening magazine and The (Allentown, Pennsylvania) Morning Call newspaper. Author of several gardening books, she’s now a freelance journalist.

I'm a few months away from my 20-year high-school reunion. Reunions force people to reflect on their lives and recognize changes that have taken place since the last gathering. Changes can be stark and unwelcome.

I remember when my parents had their 25th high school reunion; in advance, they were asked to submit a picture as well as a summary of what they went on to accomplish. As I flipped through the booklet, some were lengthy humblebrag pieces; others, who remained in the same town and didn't go on to get any advanced degrees had an air of self-conscious failure. And then there were a couple who couldn't be tracked down or had passed away.

In Ohio by Stephen Markley we visit a typical town that has lost manufacturing plants and businesses and struggles to get by. When the book begins we are about 10-15 years removed from high school, and we get to know a group of individuals whose paths crossed in high school. Some of them remained in New Canaan, others are passing through and re-connect while they're back. Still others found fame or success but met an early end.

Each book section is narrated by a different character. I found this a successful way to change point of view and heighten the suspense. We see we are building to something, but just as we are about to get answers, we switch to another character to learn more of how specific high school events shaped them and impacted life afterwards and where they are on the fateful night the book focuses on.

The overlying theme seems to be how we can be destroyed in so many ways; some of our failures are due to our own actions and weaknesses, others can be traced back to how individuals or circumstances have manipulated and harmed us; whatever the cause, it seems nearly impossible to pull yourself out and find redemption.

If you are sensitive to language, you may want to avoid it; additionally, some of the circumstances had me rushing past because the events would turn my stomach. At nearly 500 pages, it's a commitment. When it culminates, though, you can see how Markley planned it out precisely.

This debut novel is cleverly orchestrated. When I finished, I immediately flipped around to different sections to better pick up the clues. We'll see more from Markley, and future endeavors will be met with interest, as this first novel gathered a following and found itself on several end-of-year book recommendations.

(I received a digital ARC from NetGalley and Simon & Schuster in exchange for my honest review.)

Excerpt from Review: "...The more I read, the more I was drawn into the story. Not just because I found that the author and I shared similar views, but because the characters were extremely interesting and relatable...The ending is so surprising as to evoke a “No WAY!” from me...And that’s why I encourage readers to stick with Ohio, even if you don’t agree with the views of the characters or their actions, because the end results are terrific. Stephen Markley is an excellent storyteller, keeping us interested (in my case, seriously addicted) until the very end. Ohio is definitely a book worth reading and I can’t wait to read more from Stephen Markle."

I very rarely do not finish a book. This was one I couldn't do. So boring and slow and I didn't care about anyone. This is a stereotypical backward bumpkin look at a midwestern town. So just so disappointing.

Excellent character-driven novel of a group of people who all went to high school together in a small Ohio town. They reunite years later and as their secrets come out, they (and we) learn that there is more to people than what you see on the surface. The author does a good job of showing how people are formed not just by their genes and experiences, but also by the time and place they inhabit.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free e-ARC of this book.

An honest look at the rust belt and the lives it produces. As a product of the region myself, this book gave me a chilling but-for-the-grace-go-I feeling from cover to cover.

This book needed an editor. There might be a good story someplace in this book but I was done in by the writing style. It’s bloated with too much description, sentences that go on forever, just too many words in general. As tedious as it is for me to read about teenagers, it’s even more tedious to read about people who are fixated on their teenage years. I don’t have the patience for it and gave up. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

If you believe that the midwest is the depressed, drug and alcohol poisoned, hopeless home of forsaken Americans, look no further than "Ohio" to confirm your beliefs. This story, told in four parts by four graduates of New Canaan High School, is a litany of tragedy and sorrow. Teen pregnancy, home-grown terrorism, drug overdoses, alcoholism, homophobia, murder. There is very little to brighten the lives of these young adults as they careen or are swept from one bad decision to another. Even those who, from the purest of motives, chose to enlist in the military, come back in a coffin, or mutilated in body or soul.

The post-9/11 years with their accompanying economic and political turmoil, have been unsettling for most Americans, but in “Ohio”, Markley directly personalizes that turmoil in the lives of his characters. This is not a book to encourage hopefulness about this generation.

“Ohio” is well structured and written. I believed in the characters, and kept hoping for a brighter future for them.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Ohio is a well-crafted, epic story surrounding a group of people from a small town -- their interconnected lives growing up together, and how their family history and high school actions send them spiraling on messed-up, mostly tragic paths many years later. Stupid mistakes become ghosts that haunt those characters that survive them, stemming from and leading to varying degrees of searching for answers in military service, music, substances, religion, and sex. Large chapters focus on some major characters, (while others are always present, looming like ghosts) telescoping between high school and the present in the way memory persists and influences behavior and decisions -- in this case almost exclusively in the negative.
A very compelling book about what people can get up to when left to their own devices without positive adult supervision, how they can get in over their heads with social power, and cause themselves and others massive regret. The power structures of the jock group and the manipulative nature of peer influence lead to dire consequences for everyone involved, and the small, unnoticed disappearance have far graver consequences than the massive parade for a military hero that kicks off the story.
A great, powerful work -- a difficult but worthwhile read showing where desperation, amorality, boredom, and lack of opportunity can lead.

I keep asking myself did I love this book or hate it... I like many of the characters in this book was born and raised in Ohio in the mid 80s... my school resonated with the same emotions that ran through the novel, but we were just a bit more normal I guess is the word I am looking for.

Like many new acclaimed novels, this story had almost too much going on. Death, sex, manipulation, drug abuse, parental abuse, political agendas, etc. I miss the novels of the past that focused on one driving theme and didn't try to address all the worlds problems in one go. In some ways these books mirror the world around us... can someone we know who works a simple job and lives a "regular" life be a killer when pushed? Today anything seems possible and today's novelists push the boundaries of believability on a constant basis.

So, my final judgement is that I enjoyed the book, but wish it had tried a little less to push every button.

I did not finish this title. I found the author's delivery too slick, too clever.... it got in the way of being able to develop empathy with or sympathy for the characters. At some point I just stopped caring about any of them and once that point is reached I've lost curiosity about the outcome of their stories.

As someone who grew up in the Midwest back in the '70s, graduating in the class of '80, I could relate to the characters and culture of this book.

Markley is a good writer and there were several masterful turns of phrase that my wife, also a bookseller, read to me out loud, which became the reason I read this book at all - I'm almost strictly a reader of nonfiction, but she always lets me know if there's something I "need to read.."

While the author goes a little over-the-top in a few places, the character and plot development are excellent, with twists and turns, overlapping points of view, and foreshadowing/hindsight through the magic of time-shifting by the omniscient narrator.

A good alternative and an antidote to whatever Hillbilly Elegy was supposed to tell you about growing up poor in Trump nation and failed miserably.

This was a bit grittier than I expected, and after the first character's segment I had to take a break for a bit. But when I picked it back up, wow. Each character's POV gets more and more interesting, and the ending -wow. I identified with a lot of the problems in this, as I am also from a deteriorating small town in Ohio. On one hand that made it more engrossing, at the same time harder to take. Still, I recommend this book. It just keeps building and gets better all the way to its bang of a conclusion.

This was a depressing novel. I'm not offended by that , it took me a long time to get into it and it was too verbose. Being from the Midwest, I do understand what the author was trying to do, but it became heavy-handed. Lots of characters to keep track of. The ending tied everything together and in my opinion was the best part of the book.