Security
Stephen Amidon
Atlantic Books, 368pp, £12.99
As the title suggests, this brilliant novel roots around in the contradictions of security: the need to feel safe and protected in one’s own home and town, against the desire to live in a genuine community.
Thus Amidon’s Stoneleigh is a place of fidgeting paranoia where the rich live in gated homes and the innocent downtrodden are scrutinised by CCTV, Republican politicians, gossiping students and the local press.
With its frustrated college lecturers and dysfunctional family units, Security will draw inevitable comparisons with Franzen, Chabon, DeLillo and other post-Updike American miserabilists.
Yet Amidon is a more modest stylist and a better storyteller, nearer in spirit to Raymond Carver. In a relatively short book, he brings emphatically to life, through their realistic actions and expertly rendered dialogue, some dozen characters – including Walt Steckl, one of the best drunks in fiction.
The tragedy that forms the novel’s page-turning climax is a largely blameless one: Amidon’s characters are victims of superbly crafted circumstances.
By Martin Hemming
Stephen Amidon
Atlantic Books, 368pp, £12.99
As the title suggests, this brilliant novel roots around in the contradictions of security: the need to feel safe and protected in one’s own home and town, against the desire to live in a genuine community.
Thus Amidon’s Stoneleigh is a place of fidgeting paranoia where the rich live in gated homes and the innocent downtrodden are scrutinised by CCTV, Republican politicians, gossiping students and the local press.
With its frustrated college lecturers and dysfunctional family units, Security will draw inevitable comparisons with Franzen, Chabon, DeLillo and other post-Updike American miserabilists.
Yet Amidon is a more modest stylist and a better storyteller, nearer in spirit to Raymond Carver. In a relatively short book, he brings emphatically to life, through their realistic actions and expertly rendered dialogue, some dozen characters – including Walt Steckl, one of the best drunks in fiction.
The tragedy that forms the novel’s page-turning climax is a largely blameless one: Amidon’s characters are victims of superbly crafted circumstances.
By Martin Hemming