“Against the Country” by Ben Metcalf

A Book Review I wrote via “Against the Country” by Ben Metcalf

“Here, then, is what I learned on, or because of, the American schoolbus:”

Above is an opening line to an early chapter in the “novel”, Against The Country, by Ben Metcalf (country being rural surrounded by small town). It’s a difficult, award winning book (Ten best books of the year, Vulture, Best book of the year, 2015, NPR), written by an author who’s been compared to literary legends such as David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest) & William Falkner (The Sound & The Fury), and I placed the word Novel in quotations, because it stretches and almost subverts the idea of what a proper novel is. This isn’t ordinary fiction, nor is it escapism; Against The Country is literature, a book some will love and more will dislike, for its never-ending sentences and southern dialect heard throughout, a voice, that gets stuck in your head.

When I first picked up the book (randomly based on the green cover with nice large font) I hadn’t heard of Ben Metcalf. I suppose that was part of the problem, and I say that because you almost need to know who the author is, and how he was a literary editor at Harper’s Magazine, born in Illinois/raised in Virginia. Later on, Metcalf taught at Columbia University. Ben’s an author who knows what he’s doing, and what he wants to pull off with his book. So, it doesn’t hurt being versed in the styles that the author uses in telling his story, such as Falknerian (long sentences with emotional, cerebral, and Gothic elements). Against The Country is a dense work of art, a first person narrative lacking a straight forward plot, and is it good or bad? Well, like the novel itself, that’s a complicated question. It is one of those books (think any Henry Miller Novel) that when you accept you’ll never figure it out, and stop trying to classify what box it fits into, you’ll discover what a truly rich and beautiful book it is. Sure, it’s a hard undertaking to let go of our preconceptions, and of the eccentric nature of the Unknown Narrator. But you can turn to any page and find nuggets of truth, wisdom, and brilliant sociological observations, written in some of the most twang worthy and sweeping prose since Mark Twain. The book isn’t for everyone, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad book.

Against The Country is about The Town, its “potato-fed bullies with guns”, and about the false claim that the rural country is the heart of The United States. It’s a coming of age narrative that stumbles as much as the unconventional plot does. Readers-be-warned: You must give it an ample amount of time to sink in. It’s one of those books you have to re-read. But once you do, you’ll discover something perhaps even better than a “plot”. You’ll find a story about America. A story told by a character who like Holden Caulfield, will be a part of you even after the last page.