I read Meyer's first book, AMERICAN RUST and really liked it, set in the decaying towns of Western Pennsylvania. He had a way of bringing to life those dying towns, the people that still live in them. THE SON, however, is set in Texas, as Meyer follows five generations of Texans, from the mid 1800's up to the present.
The major protagonist is one Eli Mc Cullough, patriarch of this wealthy oil rich Texan family, though not your usual story. He was the son of parents killed in the 1830's by Comanches and Eli was taken by the Native Americans, literally became one of them for close to 15 years. He hunted with them, went on raids, and was accepted as a brother. Alternating chapters tell his story, how he learned to survive, to become adept and admired by his Indian brothers, eventually leaving them only when it was a benefit to his tribe. He never really does take to civilized life after this experience, though he marries, becomes a Texas Ranger for at time, before settling down and realizing that oil not cattle was the way to make money. He lays the seed for the next couple of generations, who take his beginning gambles and parley them into great success, right up their with the Hunt's and the King ranch.
The down side of the rise of Texas as a power state is the way that the whites took advantages of the indigenous Mexicans, literally made up laws to take their land, much like they did with the Native Americans. It's an awful, truly disgusting part of the American experience, the settling of the West by taking it from the Native Americans and Mexicans, by violent means and trumped up laws, to benefit the whites. Eli, though having lived with the Native Americans, takes their belief in realizing that everyone is the enemy if they want your land and thus, does whatever is necessary to get what he wants.
Another narrative involves Eli's son Peter, who is different from his father, a humanist, an idealist, who witnesses his father's violent take over of the Garcia families lands, justifying it by making up the story that they were behind in their taxes. Peter never forgives his father, never fits int with Eli's Machiavellian take on life, which is either 'eat or be eaten,' and eventually leaves to live with the only remaining daughter of the Garcia's, a slap in the fact to his father and all he stands for. Peter disappears in to Mexico and we learn little about him other than the fact that he does have a son with his Mexican wife, who appears briefly, later in the novel and is turned away by the dying matriarch, Jeanne Anne, whose story the novel also follows.
Jeanne Anne is the fourth generation, ignored by her chauvinistic father, who only loves his sons. She is the symbol of the frustrated woman, in a men only world. She rebels against both her father and brothers, especially against the roles that she was given as a woman, learning how to ride, rope, and live outdoors like her brothers. Things change dramatically when her father dies in a lightning storm, and her brothers are killed in Europe during WWI. She is thus thrust in to the leadership of her families cattle and oil business and learns what it's like to be a woman in Texas, especially one in the oil business. Gradually, she learns the ways of survival, inheriting some of her great grand father Eli's genes, and makes a success of both the oil and cattle business, taking it to new heights, though she is never really accepted the way she would have been had she been a man. She does fall in love, has three children, loves and admires her rough neck husband but he is killed early on and she must go it alone. She lives long enough to bemoan the decline of grandchildren, softened by wealth, privilege, and a lack of discipline and hard work. Sound familiar?
The novel is 561 pages, a saga, as it follows this family, its rise, the ups and downs, the struggles within the family to live with their violent, often unlawful history. And we see what it's like to be a woman, strangled by the unwritten laws of custom, and a son, who believes in equality and law and justice though it brings him no peace.
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