Poor Little Rich Person

... or how the rhetoric of indignation can ruin your life.

This quote from Aristotle has helped me to find a way into motivation in Alan Glynn's novel "Graveland" that was not easily found when I first read the book.

"Are there too many corpses here?", I found myself wondering.

Why Lizzie loves Alex was one of the least of my problems. Their reclusive, very exclusive relationship which cuts them off from much contact with other students on campus became more of a mystery to me than the question of why top notch public figures, wealthy and in the public eye, were being exterminated in a very methodical fashion.

I found myself asking myself as many questions about the characters in "Graveland" as they ask of one another. And, of course, "why" was top of the list.

Why, when you have your life before you, do you turn to violent crime? It's a question being asked often about a generation in their late teens and early 'twenties that is edgy, poised on the brink of an employment abyss, if one were to believe the media coverage that frightens some older readers so much.

Peter Rozovsky has referred to how Mr Glynn captures the scary side of the American zeitgeist so perfectly. Since I don't find the United States frightening, possibly because I never go there, I look to the writers, rather than to lived experience to unravel just exactly what might be going on in that land of pursued dreams. It is a place, or so many media pundits insist, that is losing power on the world stage and which is not enjoying the experience.

In Alan Glynn I find satisfaction at the pleasure of finding an author who understands people and the desire to have power over one's own life. The truism that power corrupts is central to the Glynn universe. Students today are that bit different, or so they seem through the eyes of the central protagonist, Ellen Dorsey. Through their ability to network and use digital media they are an increasingly powerful force and I particularly liked the way that Twitter is used.

When visiting Atherton campus she finds a helpful and closely bonded group which helps move the plot forward very convincingly:

"There's an air of confidence and self-assurance about the place that she's finding unfamiliar, and not a little strange. The crowd she ran with at Cartwright were all cocky and opinionated, no question about that, but this is not the same thing. This is like a sense of entitlement, or of ownership..."

Mr Glynn writes well about women and is very aware of how they look at one another. I find his forty-one year old heroine, a hack on the verge of losing her job, a very plausible portrait of a member of America's working poor. Ellen is not destitute, but she will be if her magazine employer, "Parallax" closes. She is aware of a wealthy woman in the subway:

"... as Ellen trails behind along the platform, she fantasises briefly about having this woman's life - the confidence to wear those clothes, the because-she's worth it hair, the Jell-O-on springs gait."

Many people in Europe discuss the poverty in America and the fear that has hit the educated middle classes there since the recent slump. Graveland is a dramatic enactment of what might happen when people have their backs to the wall and the bookseller who sold it to me admired my choice.

"You'll enjoy this!"



"Graveland" is the third of a triology, where each book stands alone. I feel that Vaughan, the wealthy magnate whose actions are shrouded in mystery may be one of the author's favourite characters. His family's secret is finally revealed in this story.

In fact, that is largely what this political thriller is about.