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The God of War By Marisa Silver
By Rita Cook

A fiction finalist for the Los Angeles Times book prize, "The God of War" now available in paperback is a raw, emotional book noted to be "unapologetically honest" in its regard to the evocation of childhood's end. The story of Ares Ramirez, a 12-year-old who has been named after the Greek god of war, lives with his mother and young brother, Malcolm in a trailer parked next to the Salton Sea in the Southern California desert.

In "The God of War" it has also been observed Silver's ability to "find metaphors for disconnection in Los Angeles' arid sprawl." Her theme in "The God of War" being one such metaphor enthused with its setting and the characters therein.

The Salton Sea did indeed inspire Silver the setting as she notes it is an unintentional manmade body of water that, when she first saw it, struck her with two opposite feelings," a good place for the setting of her book screaming to be noticed she notes, "I found the sea and the desert that surrounded it both beautiful and desolate," also adding "The water and the land spoke to me of a kind of lonely grittiness and of survival against odds."

In "The God of War" readers will find many themes woven together in Silver's storytelling, but one that is especially worth mentioning is the theme of the war we often find ourselves in when it comes to responsibility between ourselves and others. Lead character Ares finds himself torn between the burden of his own unspoken guilt and his mother's often unconventional choices. His own guilt too rears its head in that he believes the fault of his brother's mental disability lies on him.

Ares mother, Laurel, denies her young son's disability in part due to her mistrust of society including doctors and the government. Thus with this attitude she tries, in her attempt to protect her son, to ignore all the implications of his disability looking on them as attributes and strength and leaving Ares alone to defend for his young brother. And so, Ares is forced to play that role - defender - defending his brother against the neighborhood bullies, problems at school and even getting him to his dentist appointments on time while also being left to face Malcolm's violent temper becoming increasingly worse as the days go by.

In the long run it is too much for Ares to take on, too much responsibility for a young son whose mother has left him to raise his brother. In this need he also, at the same time, meets a 15-year-old foster son of the school librarian named Kevin. Kevin, in and out of juvenile detention centers and, as a foster child, exudes his behavioral issues in a way that is everything Ares is not. However, everything too that strikes fear and admiration in Ares heart.

So, Ares finds himself battling for his personal identity - who he is and who he wishes to be with influences pulling him in every direction. As well, making these choices sets him on a path that can only create havoc for both him and his brother forever.

The story of adolescent, youth and finding one's way, the setting is a perfect backdrop to the tale with the underlying theme of family, love and self and the limits often placed on each one. Silver has a way too of defining the relationships in her story with an unforgettable style and grace.

Silver made her fiction debut in "The New Yorker" in the magazine's debut fiction issue and has had a number of stories published since that time. She has also being published in the anthology "Best American Short Stories" and in the "O. Henry Prize Stories." Her talent is even more telling in that Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo has noted she is a "writer of striking talent."

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