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.

I really enjoyed this story,and particularly liked the way it was told from the brother's point of view. I was captivated by Ares' experience as the older brother of a mentally disabled child. Ares' conflicting feelings of love, guilt and anger towards his brother were a major force in keeping the story interesting. Some of the writing was exceptionally beautiful, but some of the dialog fell short, and was not always realistic. All in all, a really good story and very well written.

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!

Is Marisa Silver a fantastic writer? Undeniably. But more importantly, is she a great storyteller? Based on this novel, sadly no. Honestly, I felt a little deceived by all the rave reviews I read for this book, but I noticed a theme among them. Most of the reviews for this novel focus on the setting -- the Salton Sea. It is true, the prose with which this book reveals its world is elegant and even conjures memories of the classic novels of John Steinbeck (which is a huge compliment to Silver). Unfortunately Silver's characters do not demand the kind of empathy that Steinbeck's do, and when I'm two hundred pages into a novel and I still don't really know what it's about, that's a problem.

The setting is vivid and beautiful, but the characters seem to be lacking a vital dimension (particularly the mother, who is the center of the conflict). The story is difficult to detect until the very end and still one wonders why it took 270 pages to tell.

This is the kind of book that ruins other books for a while. I fell so hard into this story set by Salton Sea...I've passed through places like Needles, CA and Quartzsite, AZ where everything is so sharp and bright it almost hurts to look...and I didn't stay to look long, but Marisa Silver looks so deeply into the world of this desert town by the Salton Sea, and especially into the heart of Ares Ramirez. Ares, our protagonist, is a beautiful boy who carries the weight of the world in his own heart - a mix of guilt and love and crushing responsibility for a kid who is only twelve. He is also a caregiver for his younger brother who is, as they say in the South, "not right." The mother, Lauren, believes what she needs to believe to survive in this trailer-life with her sons - even at the cost of never really knowing who they are...though of course she feels knows everything...and yet she's impossible to hate...she's just immensely frustrating and so knowable. I felt like I knew the characters on a such deep level. THE GOD OF WAR came along when I really needed a great story to escape into, and this was it. Ella Taylor says it best in her review at the following link: http://www.laweekly.com/art+books/books/the-wasteland-marisa-silvers-novel-the-god-of-war/18939/