Union Atlantic by Adam Haslett

"Your feelings. I mean if they're intense enough, they have consequences, right?...Do you really think our feelings are important enough to write books about?"
After reading a few positive reviews and seeing it featured at the Tattered Cover, I picked this up with great expectation. While Haslett has been forecasted to be a Fitzgerald for this generation, I was disappointed by how uneven the characters were. Some drawn with a completeness (even those on the periphery) and a few main characters left rather sterile and rudimentary.

"You ask me what's going on but you don't actually want to know. Not unless you already understand it. There's a lot of that going around at the moment--your kind of certainty."
The first half of the book escaped my usual guidelines, as it seemed to alternate every 30 pages in keeping my interest. Loosely centered on the financial climate, specifically the rise and fall of a large securities company, I was easily bored with the specifics of the markets. I was, however, initially piqued by the more broadly focused and consuming loneliness of Doug Fanning and Charlotte Graves, neighbors in the smalltown of Finden, Massachusetts.

"People pay for what they do, and more, for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it simply with the lives they lead."
As a soldier on the Vincennes, responsible for shooting down an Iranian jet over Bahrain, killing nearly 200 civilians, Fanning has spent his life reliving his part in the tragedy. He's gone on to gain tremendous success in the business world. He has recently built an offensively large mansion next door to Graves. Charlotte is a high-minded retired history teacher whose grandfather owned the land upon which Fanning's monstrosity now sits. A legal battle ensues, as we watch their interactions and reactions to the world around them.

"How insupportable, he thought, to remember in the way she did. The present didn't stand a chance against such a perfectly recollected world."
Torn relationships and severed connections eventually become the focus of all storylines, leaving this reader wanting more for these people. A melancholy satisfaction.