American Rust: A Novel

Isaac, 20 years old and living in the depressed, slowly dying town of Buell, Pennsylvania, embodies every creative and intellectual spirit struggling to escape the small towns that cannot nurture their ambitions. A stellar student with a high IQ (as well as some measure of social awkwardness), Isaac wants to study the stars, but he is trapped in Buell, caring for his father, who uses a wheelchair after an industrial accident in a steel mill. His sister Lee has already fled—in the wake of their mother’s suicide—graduated Yale, and married into a wealthy New England family. Isaac, however, cannot seem to detach himself from his family obligations. He tells himself that he is the more responsible sibling for staying with Henry and doing the ethical thing, but in reality he stays for his father’s approval. Too timid to confront his father, he dutifully caretakes, resentment slowly festering until he reaches a breaking point. By the time he steals his father’s pension, he has fully justified it in his mind—it is his overdue payment for the years he’s sacrificed as a caregiver while his sister followed her dreams.

A frail physical presence, Isaac has cultivated his intellect (as opposed to Poe, who has cultivated his body).