A bellwether new book
The Locals Jonathan Dee Random House
Jonathan Dee’s novels may not be ripped from the headlines, but his plots hug the contours of our era. In such books as The Privileges, a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, Dee writes about how financial upheaval shapes modern relationships.
His prescient sensitivity has never been more unnerving than in his new novel, The Locals, which describes a billionaire running for office in a small town. Given that premise, it’s tempting to interpret this story as a parable of our present political plight, but the timing makes that improbable. A complex novel takes years, and there’s no parallel between Dee’s hypercompetent billionaire and the one flailing around in the White House. Instead, The Locals feels attuned to the broader currents of our culture.
The story begins in New York in the aftermath of 9/11, with a portrait of the way it affected people not directly affected. Like Phil Hadi, a wealthy man who removes his family from Manhattan to the Berkshires, Mass. Hadi loves the town of Howland. When a seat opens on the Howland board of selectmen, he wins the election by promising to forgo a salary and carry many of the town’s expenses himself.
There’s something unnerving about Hadi’s eagerness to brush aside the messiness of democracy with the efficiency of his own fortune. As unlikely as Hadi’s benevolent government seems, The Locals never slips into political paranoia. In fact, the novel isn’t really about Hadi at all. It’s about the locals who feel the distortion of his wealth.
Dee focuses on three generations of the Firth family. Mark Firth is a contractor who lost money to a fraudulent investor. His wife, Karen, doubts his financial competence. Meanwhile, Mark’s parents struggle with dementia. His sister is climbing down the ladder of success. His daughter is slipping out of reach. There are lots of other unhappy characters, too, all elegantly choreographed in a dance of discontent.
With this version of America, Dee has constructed a world where no one is content. Determined to be more than a contractor, Mark takes on debt and starts buying foreclosed homes. It’s one of many enterprises Dee describe, teasing out the way commerce puts these characters against one another, dissolving the bonds of community and family, in the fight for financial survival. If anything, Hadi’s generous realm only makes people more suspicious of each other.
Which is a little exhausting. You don’t have to be a Pollyanna to believe there is love in the world, and graciousness and selflessness, too. Those qualities are missing in these characters. Hardly anyone is allowed a moment of inspiration.
Almost without exception, the men are resentful, clinging to a doctrine of self-reliance they club everyone else with. Howland becomes poisoned with rage. These guys imagine they’re victims in a society of irresponsible people making false claims to victimhood. Organize that blinding anger into a political party, and you’ve got a town that would rather destroy itself than risk someone getting anything he doesn’t deserve. In today’s vicious political climate, The Locals is a smoke alarm.