Subdivision by J. Robert Lennon
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Not Kansas; Not Even Scotland

I had hoped for more. Turns out the book is more or less The Wizard of Oz (1939) for the current generation - trauma-generated dreams placed in a leafy suburb rather than another-world paradise. Others have done it before, of course. Ian Banks’s The Bridge (1986) and William Golding’s Pincher Martin (1956) are but two examples of the genre. But The Wizard is also first class political satire; The Bridge contains an interesting love story; and Pincher Martin has a surprise ending. Subdivision on the other hand has no interesting external references, only hints at a possible background story, and proliferates characters who have no discernible part in the life of the protagonist. The unresolved symbolism used throughout - from quantum physics to vision distortions - can only be called trite. Whatever the quality of the author’s prose, I found the book derivative and tedious.

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