In the absence of heroes

Anthony McCarten – Vintage - $28.99

Reviewed on Radio New Zealand National today.

Anthony McCarten started his working life as a journalist inNew Plymouth but after a couple of years flagged it away to go to universitywhere he gained an arts degree. Fifteen years ago he ended up in London and hehas been there ever since.

The good news is that he is coming “home” in May as a guestof the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival where he will no doubt be talkingabout the just published title we are talking about today.

In the Absence of Heroes is a sequel to his earlier novel“The Death of a Superhero” and again features the Delpe family who live in“hyper-tense, hyper-populated” North London but who have decided to move to thecountry to try and reconnect with each other. This is McCarten again exploringhow we are living our increasingly complex modern lives, and specifically theimpact of the Internet on the breakdown of family relationships.

The book opens with this quote:

50% of the peopleonline lie about their age, weight, job, marital status and gender.

20% of people goingonline will experience clear negative impacts to their life.

Use of the Internet isa contributing factor in nearly 50% of all relationship and family problems.

11% of people onlineare becoming compulsive or addicted.

Women are now onlinemore than men.

The Delpe family is transformed by the internet when Jim,the father and husband, and successful lawyer, searching for his run-away son,enters the son's online world of computer gaming and becomes addicted himselfto a game called “Life of Lore”. Jim finds himself cast in the role of hisson's cyber-space saviour while the son, in the real world, decides whether hewill repay the favour.

Meanwhile Renata, mother and wife, has taken up a secretinternet relationship with an anonymous stranger and she has become increasinglydistant from Jim and the couple’s surviving son Jeff. I should mention forthose who haven’t read the earlier title, The Death of a Superhero”, that inthat book another son, Donny, dies from cancer. So when we meet them in thisnew book the family have already been cast into a state of grief and isolationfrom each other as a result of that death.

I have to say that although I greatly admire McCarten’swriting - his narrative, dialogue, use of satire, plot development andcharacterisation are all most impressive - I didn’t particularly enjoy thisbook. Just too many side issues along with a few unnecessary characters (Jim’ssister and the builder working on their country home for example),coupled withlashings of angst and unhappiness, and who wants to read about a dysfunctionalunhappy bunch of people and the disintegration of a marriage? Not me!

About the author:

Anthony McCarten's novels have been translated into 14languages. His collection of short stories, A Modest Apocalypse, wasshortlisted in the Heinemann-Reed Fiction Award in 1991. Death Of A Superherowon the 2008 Austrian Youth Literature Prize and was a finalist for the GermanYouth Literature Prize. He has published five novels to date and also writtennumerous stage plays, including co-writing with Stephen Sinclair the work he isprobably best-known for, the world-wide success Ladies Night, which won boththe prestigious Moliere prize and the Meilleure Piece Comique in 2001. Whilemost of his novels have been turned into successful feature films by otherfilm-makers, McCarten directed Show of Hands himself, as well as his adaptionof his play Via Satellite.

His work, (from Wikipedia):

Novels

Spinners Random House New Zealand (1999) HarperPerennial (US) (2001)

The EnglishHarem Picador (2002),reprinted (film-tie-in) Alma Books (2006)

Death of aSuperhero Alma Books (2006,2007)

Show Of Hands (2008) Diogenes (Germ.), Simon and Shuster(US), Random House (NZ)

In The AbsenceOf Heroes (2012) RandomHouse (NZ), Diogenes (Germ.)

Brilliance (2012) Alma Books (UK)

Films

Nocturne in a Room(1992) (Short)

Fluff (1995) (Short)

Via Satellite(1999)

The EnglishHarem (2005) (TVAdaptation)

Show of Hands(2008)

Death Of ASuperhero (2011)

Plays

Invitation to aSecond Class Carriage. Depot Theatre, Wellington, 1984.

Yellow CanaryMazurka. Circa, 1987.

LadiesNight With Stephen Sinclair.Mercury, 1987.

Pigeon English. Playwrights’ Workshop, 1988; Depot, 1989.

Weed. Circa, 1990.

Via Satellite. Circa, 1991, and the winner of the NZListener Best Play and Wellington Theatre Critics’ Best Production awards for1991.

Hang on a Minute,Mate. Downstage, 1992.

Ladies’ Night 2. With Stephen Sinclair. Mercury, 1992.

FILTH (Failed inLondon, Try Hong Kong). Circa, 1995.

Four Cities aka "Continental Breakfast". LosAngeles, 1996.