Caleb Crain

Well, folks, the first Occupy novel is here and it's mostly fine, I guess. The novel begins when Matthew, a thirty-year-old graduate student working on his dissertation, meets Leif, a younger skater dude. Instead of hooking up, Leif takes him to meet a small group of people convinced that they can read people's minds, or at least Leif and Elspeth might be able to. They spend a lot of time over at Zucotti Park trying to recruit other Occupiers to their working group, but so far it's just a small group of six.

An encounter with police leads Leif to think he's read the mind of one of the authorities. Testing that leads the group into illegal corners and divides the group.

Each chapter, of widely varying lengths, focuses on one member of the working group. With one exception, they are not people I was interested in knowing, although the characters did not lack depth. Crain is a solid, if verbose writer, although his love of using obscure words when simpler ones would have served the novel better was annoying and pulled me out of the story again and again. Crain's portrayal of Elspeth, the quiet girlfriend, the provider of space and support, who only comes into her own once everyone else is gone and she discovers herself, was the most compelling character and I would have liked more of her and less of the others. This was a lot longer than it should have been, and I say that as someone who enjoys a long, discursive novel, but rambling is not a trait that suits what is, at heart, a thriller.

After all that, though, I wouldn't be entirely against reading another novel by this author.… (mer)

This was okay. But I feel like much circumlocution was happening - both in the entire book itself (it seemed like there was SO much that could have been cut from the book). The book didn't need to be this long. But also, the characters seemed to be vague about what they were about, The Working Group for the Refinement of the Perception of Feelings. Which is funny because a group of people who are about government transparency weren't very transparent. If the reader doesn't know what is going on, how can the reader connect to the book? I didn't really know who these characters are... but small details like one of them saying they loved the show 'Freaks & Geeks' is like a lifeboat to me. I loved reading about Chris volunteering after Katrina, but it doesn't even seem like his friends know anything about him. So there seems to be too much unnecessary here, but at the same time, not enough to connect. It's too muddled for me to make sense of (maybe I'm not smart enough to "get" this one), though I do like the point I thought the book was trying to make. But a clearer picture would have made it so much easier! One of the plot points itself it seemed Mr. Crain didn't want to commit to, and making it vague doesn't help. The last chapter is a bit like showing how a magic trick works, when the audience is already asleep. Even my writing about this book is probably muddled and doesn't make sense.… (mer)

Like Magic Mountain? If yes, then read this. The background lurker is not TB; it's capitalism. (Don't worry--no one catches it, even though the young expat English teachers are accused of being missionaries for the new order)

The setting, not a mountaintop sanitarium; it's Prague after the Velvet Revolution.

And Miss Chauchat; well there are several passive young men--remember this is the twenty-first century.

And dissipation--not really, just everything is on pause. I wont give away the plot because there is none--at least it's not very important.

The book is a pleasant slog through youth and 90's Prague, in case you missed them.… (mer)

I liked this book about a young American teacher rebounding from a relationship in the US, arriving in Prague, looking for the European experience. Some reviewer here have mentioned the leisurely pace of the plot. Caleb Crain's novel doesn't double as a potential film script. It doesn't rush into Jacob's entry into the newness of Prague's ex-pat scene. A working person's portrait of Prague, it's back streets, neighborhoods, transit routes, little restaurants and bars, not just its touristy monuments, enhance the realism of the story. Without getting too "literary", there's a Proustian flavor where plot meshes with surroundings. While the main characters are ex-pats from various countries, good attention is given to Jacob's landlord and family, revealing portraits of the locals, and even his pet guinea pig,… (mer)