Union Atlantic: A Novel (Lambda Literary Award)

Wow-- How many great books can one 300 page novel channel? Reviews of the book in the MSM highlighted the Bonfire of the Vanities/Barbarians at the Gate aspects, and it does a great job of telling the story of how a Bank can almost topple the world economy, and how it might be too big to fail, and how bailouts actually benefit the "little people" as much as, if not more, than they reward the bad behavior of the Masters of the Universe. But wait, there's more: a coming of age story with a twist, and maybe an overly long discussion of a mushroom trip. There's also a tale of the waning of the Ralph Lauren ads class, and the chief barbarian is Jay Gatsby for a new century...and it all works as just a sincere story and as black comedy and as acid commentary on the modern age, high finance-style. I seldom re-read books, but this one is in the hopper. A great read!

A wonderful first novel. The clash between Doug Fanning, a ruthless financial Frankenstein, and Charlotte Graves, former history teacher and one of the "Best Generation," who is fading into dementia, is timely and timeless. Her brother, a widower who is president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York tries to clean up the messes caused by both of these people who refuse to take the paths well trodden. Doug and his sex partner both suffer from fathers who let them down and left them early. Their relationship and the motivations behind it seemed to be the weakest part of the story. Doug's failed relations with his mother strike the right chords, and his last visit with her shows how far their lives have spun away from each other. Like Gatsby, his fabulous house on the hill is a beacon to draw her to him. I love novels that give me a belly laugh, like "Empire Falls." The Fourth of July party, hosted by a drunk who thinks money can buy her anything she deserves, made me laugh for several minutes. I won't spoil your fun, but it's worth the price of the book.

I loved You Are Not a Stranger Here: Stories -- well-crafted short stories with depth and a dark beauty. Haslett's prose was very masculine without being drenched in testosterone. I was looking forward to another book by him. In the meantime, I came across a story of his in the Atlantic's 2005 Fiction Issue, titled "City Visit." That story told of a very troubled gay high school student who saved up his money so he could purchase a sexual encounter on a visit to New York with his seemingly clueless mother. It had a perverse and even sadder Salinger-esque quality about it. Haslett's first novel, "Union Atlantic" exhibits that same masculine prose. In style, it reads like a Mailer or Bellow work from the early 1960s. But the substance of the book could not be more contemporary. The book illustrates an America that has lost its way, where "the center will not hold." There are four main characters: Doug Fanning, Charlotte Graves, her brother, Henry Graves, and Nate Fuller. The central character is Doug Fanning the uber-American -- born of a single mom, he left high school to join the Navy, put himself through business school, and is now a militant master of high finance for a maverick investment bank. Charlotte Graves is the moral compass of the book, wise in her knowledge of American History and a long-time high school teacher whose mission was not simply to teach her students the facts of American History, but to offer them an unvarnished context in which to understand these facts. Charlotte is now close to 80 and is fading into a senility. her decline reflects that of America as a moral force -- "the center will not hold." Henry Graves, Charlotte's younger brother is now head of the New York Fed (the position Tim Geithner held before becoming Treasury Secretary). He has always admired Charlotte. But, though still concerned with doing the right thing, Henry has had to shave his ethics a bit as one situated at the interface between the worlds of finance and politics. The fourth main character is Nate Fuller, a high school slacker, who is part of a close-knit foursome of teenagers, three boys and a girl, all of whom are straight except for Nate. The book begins with Fanning at the tail end of his time in the Navy, serving in the Persian Gulf in 1988 on the missile cruiser USS Vincennes during the [real] incident in which a blunder by some crew members caused the Vincennes to shoot down an Iranian passenger plane, killing 290 passengers aboard including 66 children. Doug draws lessons as he watches the US Government and Navy lie about what happened and attempt to avoid moral responsibility for the incident. We next meet Fanning in a post 9/11 world in which he has made a fortune as a financial genius who is willing to play fast and loose with the Securities laws when his calculations indicate the effort will pay off. He is the star of Union Atlantic, a very successful new investment banking firm in Boston. Fanning is the new America

With his debut novel, Adam Haslett has written a nuanced story for our times. Arguably, it is the story of self-made banker, Doug Fanning, as the novel begins and ends with him. However, Fanning is just one of a small ensemble of richly-drawn characters orbiting and intersecting each other. The banker is embroiled in a lawsuit and property dispute with Charlotte Graves. Charlotte is an aging schoolteacher who is in the process of slowly, sadly loosing her mind. Witnessing this is Charlotte's brother, Henry, who also happens to be the President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Henry is the ultimate authority to whom bankers like Fanning, who play fast and loose with their clients' money, must answer. And finally there is 18-year-old Nate Fuller, infatuated with Fanning and Charlotte in very different ways. These characters and several others defy easy classification. It's far too simplistic to paint Fanning as the villain of this story. Although this novel is set in 2002, Haslett sheds a great deal of light on the banking environment that led to the recent bailouts. No one sets out to defraud the public. No one thinks they're the bad guy. One small decision leads to others; events snowball and grow out of control. Fanning relies on situational ethics in both his personal and professional life, with devastating consequences. Charlotte, on the other hand brings to bear an unyielding moral code that does almost as much harm. The story that unfolded on the pages of Union Atlantic was filled with ethical and emotional complexities. They made the novel feel like so much... more... than a mere story in a book. It had the complexity and messiness of life. Haslett's prose shines throughout, but does not overshadow, the tale he's telling. Wow, talk about a writer to watch! Surely, this will be one of the strongest debuts of the year.