Reading the Washington Post this morning, I discovered a new novel by first-time novelist Philipp Meyer called American Rust. This novel, set in a mining town in Pennsylvania, connects two unlikely friends as they struggle to get out of a dying town. I won’t say too much more as I haven’t even read this book yet. But I will recommend that you read the Washington Post review by Ron Charles, “A Wealth of Despair Among the Impoverished;” if you do not have a Washington Post login and you don’t want to sign up, you can always visit BugMeNot. Also, check out the Amazon page on American Rust. Meyer offers, on Amazon, a nice autobiography. I will say that Meyer’s novel sounds in a similar genre to my own novel, which is a connection I happily make; there is definitely a dearth of noir/gothic literary novels out there that actually tell a story. I’m sick of all this popular fiction that is little more than thinly-veiled autobiography.