Book Review: The God of War

Don't be fooled by the title. This is not a war story. The God of War is an exquisitely shaped gem of a childhood memory novel, a tight little drama about mothers and sons with characters as complex as life.

Ares Ramirez is both the angry 12-year-old at the center of the story and the narrator looking back on the year everything changed. He tells the reader right from the start what will happen in 1978--a ne'er-do-well boy will die, Ares's own six-year-old brother Malcolm will become famous and Ares himself will be incorrectly declared a hero by the press. How and why this will all come about creates considerable suspense.

Home for Ares is a trailer in Bombay Beach in Southern California, not far from the Salton Sea. His mother, irresponsible, charismatic Laurel Connors, is enjoying nature and allowing her two sons to raise themselves, with a little help from her Vietnam vet boyfriend of three years. Her youngest son doesn't talk but can flawlessly imitate birdcalls. Ares guards his brother from school bullies and cranky teachers, eternally guilty knowing that when Malcolm was a baby, he dropped him and Malcolm hit his head.

With the roar overhead of test planes dropping bombs and a desert full of dangerous treasures, three boys, a bicycle and a buried gun at the beach have a fateful convergence in this carefully crafted novel. To reveal any more would be to cheat you of the surprises in the second half of the book. Author Marisa Silver doesn't waste a word, and every scene counts in this coming-of-age story so full of love and misunderstanding.--Nick DiMartino