Phil LaMarche’s first novel uses firearms as a starting point for a considered and, for the most part, compelling analysis of an impressionable individual attempting to orientate himself within a troubled social landscape.
Teddy LeClare’s tragedy strikes him at that most vulnerable of times, the border of adolescence. Trying to impress friends with his family’s gun collection, ‘the boy’ (as LaMarche insistently calls him throughout) is involved in an accidental shooting which kills another teenager. His protective mother insists he lie about his involvement, though Teddy feels deep misgivings about this needless deceit.
When Teddy transfers to senior high school, he reluctantly becomes involved with a conservative clique called American Youth. Presenting themselves as protectors of US traditions, these boys commit acts of minor vandalism in the name of their cause. They represent an extremist, immature version of their local society: the LeClares’ small New England town is a thoughtful portrayal of an older America, a land of hunting and traditional values, but a land also undergoing social flux. Many townsfolk live in fear of encroaching housing developments bringing with them blandly suburban ideals and liberal middle-class values.
Teddy’s struggles with his conscience constitute the backbone of this short novel, but his rites-of-passage journey also involves standing up to the increasingly volatile American Youth. Guns themselves do not feature heavily in the book, but LaMarche incorporates several cleverly ambivalent scenes that could be read either as condemnations or celebrations of the place of the gun within American society.
LaMarche’s prose is fluid and unobtrusive and his dialogue convincing, while his experience as a short-story writer lends the novel a sense of effortless compression. However, the very title of American Youth may hint at a limited target demographic. It seems an ideal book to guide a teenager through those difficult years of self-discovery. Beyond the young adult audience, though, readers may find less to commit their attention.
