so-so
I've heard good things about Charles Baxter, but I should have started with one of the works he's known for instead of his latest, which is one that almost works but not quite. It's got an intriguing plot involving a middle-aged couple concerned for their missing son who may have gotten involved in a group called The Sun Collective, which is split between community service and radical violence. There's a bit of magical realism I also enjoyed 👇
Billypar The biggest problem is how Baxter mistakes the activism of the present younger generation for a thinly disguised version of the 1960s radical left movement, which made the portions focused on the younger main characters ring false. Those characters also seemed thinner in general - it would have been better to stick with the older couple's perspective and get more editorial input on the younger characters from readers of a similar age. 9mo
Billypar It also features some cringy satire involving a president that is a Trump stand-in named...wait for it...Amos Alonzo Thorkelson 😵💫 9mo
Leftcoastzen OMG that name! Really?!? 9mo
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Billypar @Leftcoastzen I couldn't make that up. And he wants people to call him 'Coach' as a nickname 😅 9mo
Aimeesue Great review. I started to notice the IRL attempts to paint BLM activists as equivalent to 60‘s radical leftists as soon as the protests started. All the "oh no, antifa" pearl-clutching was ridiculous. Can people really not tell the difference? 9mo
Billypar @Aimeesue Right? It doesn't seem like something you need to squint to distinguish. It's true that Baxter is writing from the left politically, so it comes across a bit like a cautionary tale. But it's pretty clearly set in present-day society, so that makes it seem more like a misread of the current political environment. 9mo
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