James Hynes is the American answer to David Lodge in being the best academic satirist working today.
His new novel, Next, is a slight change although it does feature an academic editor who works at the University of Michigan. Kevin Quinn needs a change of plans, so without telling his younger girlfriend, he goes for a job interview in Austin, Texas. Europe has just been hit with multiple terrorist attacks, so this looms in Kevin’s mind and he feels a bomb will drop any second.
When not thinking about his imminent demise, Kevin thinks about sex and his past relationships while he follows (aka basically stalking,) a young Asian girl around town, whom he meets on the plane. Sex and Death are so connected, so it could be why Kevin is going over his romantic history and his failures.
This another classic James Hynes novel, like The Lecturer’s Tale , and it has an ending that is shocking and brilliant.
–Reviewed by The Lit Guy
