Author Description

From BooklistThe dullness of repetition and nonimaginative yearnings define the complacency that permeates the lives of the aimless young Brits in Jones' debut novel. Though seemingly well-employed and decently housed with a nice enough housemate, Lily, her protagonist, can't seem to shake her restlessness long enough to decide on a general direction for her adulthood, let alone a specific one. She wonders when she started to identify with the company employing her so much that she thinks of herself and it as "we." Passively, she goes though the surface motions of living as though rehearsing for the real thing, waiting for some recognizably decisive incident to give her past clarity and her future a roadmap providing the direction and purpose she lacks. This ennui verging on anomie is prevalent in a number of recent writings about bright, thirtyish Brits. Can this be the result of England's post-Thatcher stable growth, where good jobs and comfortable lives are taken for granted? Where did the rebellion and passion go? Whatever happened to England's beautiful Angry Young Men?Whitney ScottCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved