Customer Reviews

The God of War: A Novel

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This profound exploration of what it means to be family is set by The Salton Sea. Located in the southeastern corner of California, this vast body of water is actually a lake, the largest in California and a huge magnet for birds and other forms of wildlife. But the very things that make this lake so unique are placing the Sea's existence at risk. Also at risk is the twelve-year old Ares, who lives in a ramshackle trailer in the town of Bombay Beach, on the edge of the Sea with his free-spirited mother, Laurel and his severely autistic younger brother, Malcolm.

A thoughtful and introspective boy, Ares seems content to be with just this "solitary family of three,' even as he lives an enchanted life in this run-down desert outpost, under the spell of his mother, who conjures a life for them out of nothing. In Laurel's world milk crates are upended to become chairs, and discarded cardboard boxes from the grocery story are covered with madras bedspreads and transformed into coffee tables. A woman who can't bear to be hemmed in by other people, Laurel manages as best she can, working as a therapeutic masseuse, while Ares shoulders the lion's share of Malcolm's care, looking out for him at school and deflecting the cruelties of Malcolm's classmates.

Although he grew up with great physical freedom and a mother who obviously loves him, Ares has few friends; he and his mother are content to eschew that few rules that may conflict with their privacy with Laurel of the conviction that society has little to offer them. Ultimately, however, Ares blames himself for a terrible accident involving Malcolm, the memory always coming alive to him just, as it was five years earlier.

Over time, the disbelief, the fear, and a first nearly imperceptible seed of guilt has taken root inside of him and steadily grows. In the end, the accident left Malcolm a damaged boy, unable to speak, forever trapped in his own little world, his head facing towards the sky perhaps wishing he could fly like the birds that fly across the desert towards the water, "their pale wings reflected the sun like sails on a boat."

Hoping to somehow escape the misery of his culpability and the minefield of recriminations that he's convinced he stumbles across daily, Ares forms a friendship with the kindly librarian Mrs. Poole, partly because he's angry at his mother for her fierce but sometimes neglectful love, and for not doing enough for Malcolm, and also angry at his brother, as just for once, he would have liked his brother to look at him like he really knew who he was. When Mrs. Poole offers to work with Malcolm on his speech, Ares takes the opportunely to spend some time at her house and is almost at once spellbound by the way her home speaks so simply of a life different from the one that he knows.

Like a dream or a heroic fantasy, Ares feels trapped between a life he had once enjoyed and one that now feels miserable and lonely and bitter. His time with Mrs. Poole not only gives him a break from his mother, it also a releases him from the life of the careful and guilt ridden boy, a boy who is always shadowed by an "old and mongrel guilt," but also a boy who can invent himself as someone who can perhaps do things right.

When Mrs. Poole's self-obsessed and incurious adopted-son Kevin returns to the fold, events take a turn for the unexpected. Ken is a dangerous boy who Mrs. Poole and her husband are desperately trying to turn into a loving and giving son. Unfortunately, Ares underestimates the persuasive power of Kevin's rebelliousness and finds himself mesmerized by the evident power of the older boy's apathy. It is with Kevin - and later an incident with Laurel's part-time lover Richard beneath the shadows of the Chocolate Mountains - that Ares eventually realizes that he can no longer be so self-effacing and so remorseful.

This is a beautiful novel about innocence and guilt, about the grievous mistakes and their consequences, and also about the punishing ramifications of willful ignorance. Ares, Laurel and Malcolm are mostly trapped in history and are unable to transcend the labels of the time. Despite the obvious obstacles, it is this bond of brotherhood between Ares and Malcolm that gives this novel so much of its heart with Malcolm's disability telling us much about how far as a society we have come in the way we view and treat autism.

Obviously the Salton Sea and its surrounds make up an integral part of this book with its constant listless movement and descriptions of the few birds that float in the water and then take off again "like cars at a drive through," perhaps providing an allegorical reflection of Malcolm's need to belong and to make peace with himself. Without a doubt, the desert itself is a symbolic miniature world with its own tiny valleys and mountains, "square inches of variegated detail, even as it helps propel Ares forwards with the choices that he is forced to make in life.

A truly remarkable coming-of-age story, The God of War shows that you can never be sure what something is in a world that is often so desolate and uncompromising with people who always seem to be living on the edge, struggling to survive. As Ares gravitates between crazed and calm, truly believing in what he had done to injure Malcolm, it is eventually an act of self-effacing love involving a violent gun accident that perfectly cements their relationship and finally tests Ares metal as a loyal brother to Malcolm and as a devoted son to Laurel. Mike Leonard May 08.

Marisa Silver's 'The God of War' is an absorbing and elegant novel. A story of darkness, despair, disappointment, and doubt.

Ares Ramirez, the 12 year old protagonist and narrator of this work spends his days helping to care for his younger brother Malcolm, whom Ares dropped on his head as a baby, and lives each day with the guilt of this, as he watches his brother struggle to communicate and to live. Ares, Malcolm, and their mother Laurel all live in a trailer in the less than lively area of Bombay Beach, on the shore of a man-made lake, and closeby to government bomb testing.

When difficulties arise at school, Malcolm begins work with the school Librarian, Mrs. Poole, to try to enhance his communication and development skills. As he accompanies his younger brother to these weekly sessions in the Pooles' home, Ares feels a strong pull to Mrs. Poole, and is intrigued to meet her foster son, Kevin, who is a few years older than Ares, and much more despondant and 'empty inside'. Kevin's release from a juvenile detention facility enhances and complicates Ares' life far more than he ever anticipated.

What follows is breathtaking, tragic, heart-wrenching, and poignant, as Ares befriends a boy far more 'hollow' than himself. The conclusion of this novel, while I will not spoil it for those who have not yet read it, will touch even the hardest of hearts.

A wonderful read, and the kind of novel that makes you wish for twice or three times the number of pages, so that (no matter how dark the subject matter) the story would go on and on. Highly recommended, and I look forward to more titles from the same author.

This book was so much more than I thought it would be upon choosing it. The setting of this book, Bombay Beach and Slab City on the Salton Sea in far Southern California, is one I had not heard of since my school days but in the hands of Marisa Silver becomes a character in and of itself. If you decide to read this book take a quick peek at google and hit some of the pictures of Bombay Beach & Slab City and the Salton Sea and get this place in your mind's eye. It makes the book that much richer. Ares, Malcolm and Laurel's dilapidated trailer home inhabits it's own little world and I am glad I visited.

This is a well-told, engaging story about a dysfunctional family, told from the point of view of one of the children. Sounds like the same old, overdone theme. But in Marisa Silver's hands, it's new and touching and beautiful.

The story is set in a run-down trailer in a run-down area in a harsh part of our own country. In this environment, 12-year-old Ares tries to protect and take care of his mixed-up mother and his autistic brother, while trying to figure things out on his own. He is tough and can handle most things he's faced with, but he's also kind and gentle with his mother and his brother. Aries is strong and capable in spite of being almost crippled by the certain knowledge that he is the cause of his brother's severe disability because he dropped him as an infant. The mother refuses to discuss the brother's disability, and Aries is consumed by guilt, until incredulous professionals explain to him the real basis of his brother's problems.

There is a lot of action in this novel; it's not just a psychological drama. It not only paints an interesting picture of a unique part of the country, but it also gives us a young hero bearing huge burdens that are not his to bear.

A truly stunning novel that simultaneously captures the essence of the Salton Sea and its peoples along with the timeless struggle of a boy becoming a man with the wrenching changes manhood brings. EXPERTLY written and most decidedly a page turner. I'm a Salton Sea reclamation advocate and this novel did justice to the Salton Sea and the people who live there. This is an amazing book. Buy it! Tell friends!

Marisa Silver's new book is about love somehow surviving in the most challenging of places and in the most imperfect of people. Set in the one of the few truly unique places left in this country - the Salton Sea - Silver's story is hard to forget once you've read it. A terrific book.

The desert surrounding California's Salton Sea and the wounded and disenfranchised people who live there is the setting for Marisa Silver's "The God of War". Ares, a 12 year old boy, lives there with his single mother and mentally handicapped younger brother Malcolm. As Ares struggles with adolescence and caring for himself as well as his brother, in a sometimes heartbreaking fashion, the harsh realities of his life mirror those of the bleak desert. This is a story of hardship, of simple joys, of anguish and of secrets....Ms. Silver's novel begs to be taken to your nearest book club and shared.

Okay first off, I can't hold back any longer: I LOVED this book!!! I was not sure I would, when I looked at the cover and read the title but, "don't judge a book by its cover"---trust me on this one, and the story is not about war either.

The God of War, by Marisa Silver is actually a coming of age story. It is one of those rare gems that I did not want to put down once I started it, and, when I turned the final page (just 271), I had wished it was longer.

The story takes place in 1978, and is narrated by twelve (almost 13) year old Ares (God of War - Greek Mythology), Ramirez. Ares, lives with his unconventional mother Laurel in a run down trailer in a remote desert community near San Diego. Laurel loves the Salton Sea (actually a polluted lake near San Diego). She tells her twelve year old son she wants to be buried there and her ashes spread into the sea. Laurel does not trust: government, corporations or schools, and she has even warned her son, Ares about religion. The boys are pretty much free to do as they please while their mother works or spends time with the latest man in her life. Still there is no doubt Laurel loves her sons.

Ares is a sensitive but conflicted boy who feels responsible for his brother Malcolm. Ares dropped his brother Malcolm when he was just one year old. For six years he has lived with guilt as a result of that accident.

Malcolm is almost seven year old now and appears mentally disabled: he cannot speak, reacts inappropriately, acts out in school, and cannot read or write. When Malcolm bites his teacher, it seems to be the final straw for him in a regular classroom. However, Mrs Poole, the school librarian agrees to work with Malcolm at her home on a weekly basis.

Ares visits Mrs. Poole's home while she is working with his brother, and seems to enjoy being there. The stability of a seemingly normal home appeals to Ares, but The Pooles have problems of their own -- Kevin is a troubled foster son who has been in and out of residential treatment facilities. Ares and Kevin begin to spend time together when tragedy strikes.

The God of War is an intense story with memorable but flawed characters that most readers will not easily forget. One of the best coming of age stories that I've read in years. I look forward to reading more books by this talented author. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Marisa Silver has written a novel from the perspective of a twelve year old boy so believably that it is hard to believe that she is not a twelve year old boy. This book was so gripping and painful that I didn't want to put it down until I knew that Ares was going to be okay. Named after the Greek God of war by his free spirited, eccentric mother, Ares has lived with the pain of his younger brother's severe mental disability for more than five years. He has a level of maturity and responsibility well beyond his years, but he is still only a boy who needs love and attention. I imagine great book club discussions will come from this one, starting with Laurel, the fiercely loving and protective but overwhelmed and sometimes unable to cope mother of Ares and his brother Malcolm.

This is a very compelling, well-crafted book. It is a coming-of-age story that grapples with poverty, disability, sibling bonding, single parenting and much more. Although the author is an adult female, she relates the story from the point of view of the protagonist who is a pre-adolescent male throughout most of the book--she does this expertly and it definitely rings true. Silver clearly understands how easy it is to have a false understanding that can color and direct a family's every action and interaction for years, and this is what she writes on.

The best book I've read this summer!

This book would provide a rich cacophony of discussion options for a book club.