The Arrest

It was both fascinating and frustrating in parts. In the end, the fascination came out ahead.

Fascinating: thinking about how a small town self-governs without a formal government. There was a mayor in East Tinderwick Maine, where all the action takes place, before technology stopped working (in an event called "the Arrest," hence the name of the book), but she just stopped being the mayor and started making baskets (or something, I forget) instead. The town is on a peninsula, and they have an uneasy bargain with a group of semi-nomadic folks who accept their food in return for keeping outsiders from invading.

Frustrating: the main character, Journeyman. He's in Maine because he was visiting his sister when the Arrest happened. Before that, he was living in LA working as a writer, but only ever on other people's scripts and ideas. He is perpetually ignorant, indecisive, drifting and weightless. He has no idea what's happening around him most of the time.

The arrival of the giant nuclear car shakes him forces him to have to make choices and take actions, and he seems to hate that. But his relationship with the car's driver is what gives the novel its meatiest sections. The driver is his old college buddy who made it big as a Hollywood producer. The old buddy is obsessed with an old idea for a sci-fi movie they had 30 years prior. The author uses their relationship to meditate on how we use scifi stories to not just escape from this world but also to create new ones.

The final confrontation is really quite satisfying, though.

Definitely worth reading. I'll be thinking about it for some time.

I went into 'The Arrest' with great hopes at finding a new love. It had the makings of something fascinating, my favourite of settings -an apocalypse. We enter a world where most technology has ceased to function, where a town has been isolated from the world for 5 years only to see the arrival of a bizarre and functioning vehicle... how could it go wrong?

Most unfortunately, this is a book in which neither the main character nor the reader had any idea of what was happening until slapped in the face with the resolution. The plot didn't happen to Journeyman, it didn't happen because of Journeyman; it happened around Journeyman. The most frustrating thing about this is that it had all the makings of something interesting and then did nothing with it. The ending was, for me, entirely foreseeable from about halfway through the book, and was entirely coordinated by other members of the town, and despite the labour he put into it he didn't bother to uncover what was actually going on.

Beyond an absolute lack of a plot, the protagonist also lacked a personality, seemingly existing only to bounce between his sister and Peter Todbaum - both of which would have made more interesting main characters. Even the local sex offender he made deliveries to was more compelling than Journeyman himself. Generally, I'm a fan of emotionally detached and neutral characters, but only when this apathy is accompanied by some sort of agency. Unfortunately, Journeyman made no real attempt to become an active member of any story, let alone his own, making behind his self-designated title even more ridiculous.

This book wasn't for me, and I wouldn't recommend it. However, I would like to thank Netgalley and Johnathan Lethem for giving me an opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.