Aug 18 2008
More Missing People
Today’s offering is a quick read, Now You See It, by Allison Lynn, courtesy of a worn reader’s proof from 2004, probably a donation from my holiday spent working at Barnes & Noble. Again I wonder: If I started today, how long could I read books from my home before running out of material? And while I was away, would Amazon stock dip, even slightly?
Missing persons seem (seems?) to be a frequent theme in my reading selections of late, and Now You See It slides comfortably into that trend. David and Jessica are a hip-but-not-too-hip Manhattan couple with a new apartment and an impending adoption. When David returns home from a business trip to find Jessica gone, everyone, including the police are confounded. No signs of struggle, no missing keys or wallet or money. Nothing amiss. What is interesting abou this novel, however, is that this event, seemingly pivotal, is ultimately just a piece of David’s life, a life that comes under self-scrutiny as he ponders how well he has ever known anyone: the parallel missing people–Jessica and an American businessman who disappeared in Peru, a story that helped David make a journalistic name for himself–his family, his so-called friends, and, most disturbingly, himself. The novel begins as a bit of a murder mystery, but shifts subtley into an examination of life by a guy in early mid-life crisis before you know it. It’s a quick, but slightly different read, with a little Peruvian travelogue thrown in for good measure.
