Central Square

Joe, an African-American from California, is mistaken for a shaman from Africa who can heal others and guide their lives down the paths of which they've always dreamed. Eric, a struggling writer, is trying to find his place in the literary world, as well as his niche in the world of his pregnant wife, Jane. Paula, a social worker, is dispirited with her job, her alcoholic mother, and the fact that she is still single in her thirties. Together, these three fascinating people find their way into The Community, and try to understand what exactly has drawn them all there and where they should go now. George Packer (The Village of Waiting, The Half Man) has beautifully depicted the pains and misfortunes of urban life in the twentieth century. Packer describes his characters and their stories with immense detail and precision and never loses the captivation of the reader. Central Square is a reminder of the moral decisions that have to be made when desire and consequences collide. Packer forces the reader to question his or her beliefs through The Community, an extremist political group who believes they can count on no one or no thing other than that which ties them together: the idea that "every other institution in our lives has failed us." Packer's writing, although moralistic, is bursting with so much energy and modernism that it never sounds didactic or sermonic. Packer's traditional style and observant approach to his characters make this novel an absorbing read on a subject which any citizen of any race or class could relate. Packer challenges the mind, the morals, the madness, and the magic of the reader by revealing the truths of three contemporary urban lives trying to survive in one Community.

Packer is an American Martin Amis who writes with a powerful grasp of language, and captures the intersection of disintegrating lives with a vivid and empathetic touch. He writes women with as much insight as men, and makes Cambridge (Mass)a map of American social and cultural relations. Men who don't read novels will like this one, and women who do will like it even better. (No, I'm not related to Packer -- I just appreciate strong writing.) This book deserves to be read widely.