Dan Chaon is a crafty writer. First, he lures you in with a story of a young man who has had his hand severed under suspicious circumstances. Then, the story jumps to a history teacher and a former student who decide to “disappear.” Finally, a third story line about a brother who is searching for his twin emerges. All three story lines run parallel to each other until around page 200 when they start to intersect and the enormity of the relationships among the characters starts to crystallize. Chaon juggles all three plots deftly until he blends them together. This takes some getting used to at the beginning of Await Your Reply, but if you stay with it as the plots unfold, you’ll enjoy a masterful, suspenseful performance. GRADE: A-
Loved his first novel and I have to tell you he wrote a great short story called THE BEES, which is included in the 17th annual Fantasy and Horror stories. He’s a really fine writer.
In AWAIT YOUR REPLY Chaon puts on a clinc on how to use time, Patti. He illustrates everything that was in THE ART OF TIME IN FICTION by having three different story lines operating in three different time lines. It’s a brilliant performance!
I see he’s a nominee and yet I never heard of him.
Too many books, too little time.
Find time for AWAIT YOUR REPLY, Jeff. This book is a winner!
Just read about his first novel and it sounds quite similar in style to this one, George. I’ll add him to my list to check out, especially his two collections of stories.
I’m ordering Chaon’s short story collections, too, Jeff.
Sounds interesting.
I’m up – Soundtrack is up. Finally.
You would enjoy AWAIT YOUR REPLY, Rick. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book this cleverly written.
This was the first book I finished in 2010 and I fully expect it to be one of the best books I read all of this year: A meditation on identity (especially in the age of the internet, when so much of who we are is on-line) and also a gripping mystery. Starting off with a dismemberment was a real stroke of genius; I was on tenderhooks for the next 200 pages waiting to see how it happened. I guessed one of the connections between the characters quite early in the book (perhaps that was intentional on Chaon’s part because I’m usually not very perceptive about the “surprise” in most mysteries), but a subsequent revelation was (to me) completely out of left field and yet, when I looked back, I could see how all the clues were there.
You seem to have liked AWAIT YOUR REPLAY as much as I did, Deb. The way Chaon juggles the story lines is amazing!
This is moving up on my list. Nice comments, Deb!