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Type of bind: Audio CD
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN num: 9781433212277
ISBN number: 1433212277
Label: Blackstone Audiobooks
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audiobooks
Quantity: 6
Printing Date: 2008-04
Publishing house: Blackstone Audiobooks
Sale Popularity Level: 756221
Studio: Blackstone Audiobooks
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Product Description:
The year is 1978. Ares Ramirez, age 12, lives with his mother, Laurel, and his younger brother Malcolm in a trailer at the edge of the Salton Sea, an unintentionally man-made body of water in the middle of the Southern California desert. It is a desolate, forgotten place, whose inhabitants thrive amidst seemingly impossible circumstances.
Where birds fly by day across the desert sky, by night government fighter planes and helicopters make training runs using live ammunition, and an anonymous dead body floats in from the sea. These events inspire Ares, on the cusp of his adolescence, to enact elaborate fantasies of mortal combat. His membership in a troubled family marks Ares as a casualty of a different kind of war. Malcolm, age 7, is mentally handicapped, and his mother chooses not to do anything about it.
Ares' struggle with the burden of responsibility -- to himself and to others -- draws him into a world of drugs, violence, and sex that he is not prepared for, launching him into a very personal battle for his own identity, one that has a lethal outcome.
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Rated by buyers 
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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.
Rated by buyers -
As a mother, it was a reminder to me of how children interpret events to either blame or reward themselves, which frequently isn't reality. I was impressed by the author's ability to show the main characters sense of responsibility conflicting with teenage angst and the pull of wanting parental love and being furious with it. It was a nice morning read. My primary complaint would be with the pacing of the book. The lead up to the climax is the very first 90% of the book, then the "event" occurs and things feel wrapped up too quick.
Rated by buyers 
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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.
Rated by buyers -
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.
Rated by buyers -
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!
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