Book Review: Await Your Reply

Dan Chaon's Await Your Reply has been discussed and reviewed in almost every newspaper and magazine from the most prominent in the country to your everyday bloggers like myself. It was also on numerous top ten lists for 2009. Clearly, it has something about it that attracts readers and I just had to know what that was. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed because after all of the rave reviews I found this book to be a bit lacking. Of course the plot was compelling, the issues addressed were extremely intriguing and thought provoking, and the narration was exceptional. Still, I found something about it to be dull.

Basically, there are three stories that all revolve around the same theme: identity and its fluidity. The first story is that of a college dropout named Ryan who is introduced to the reader as his hand is being cut off by a mobster of some sort who is after his father. The reader soon finds out that Ryan and his father have had a troubled past that has just recently been revealed to Ryan. The second storyline follows that of Miles who is trying to track down his long lost brother. Miles believes that his brother is a paranoid schizophrenic or something of the sort and only receives sporadic correspondence from him. Yet, whenever he does receive one of his brother's cryptic letters, Miles spends weeks and months trying to locate his brother. It is one of these trips that opens Miles' section. Lastly, is the storyline that revolves around Lucy and her boyfriend (and high school teacher) George. Lucy has little family and finds solace in George's affections. It is for this reason that the two decide to run away together and start a new life.

Each of these story lines runs independently throughout the book until the finally all come together in the last few pages. Yet, an observant reader could easily see their connection much earlier. I thought that each story as extremely compelling. The characters were well developed and the atmosphere was perpetually heavy. The majority of the novel read like a thriller which made me speed through it in only a couple of days. Once I got to the end, I was a bit unsatisfied. All of the events that I predicted had some to fruition and I felt that there was little surprise or intrigue towards the novel's conclusion.

The overall story was unique in that it dealt with issues of identity theft and fraud. While centuries of writers have written of issues involving identity, this book delves into the modern issues of identity and how easy it has become to manipulate one's identity using technology. Though I don't believe it was one of the best of 2009, I did find it to be extremely interesting and it raised questions that I think people will continue to battle with for decades.

-DLP