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Novel Pursuits, December 1999
by Pilar Webster

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Turn of the Century
By Kurt Andersen

Though he apparently had Anthony Trollope's 1874 classic The Way We Live Now in mind, Kurt Andersen lacks the Victorian giant's gift of character delineation and his grasp of human nature. Nevertheless he does present a startlingly accurate portrait of certain aspects of modern day society: the high wire worlds of the computer industry, television news, and stock speculation. Andersen illustrates the duality of the baby boomer psyche - 1960's radicalism and 1990's acquisitive greed. Real-live 1990's celebrities mingle with fictional characters. Bill Gates' fate at the hands of youthful computer hackers is amusing. Computer and stock market savvy readers especially will enjoy Turn of the Century.

1901 is the year for Buffalo, New York. One of the nation's leading centers of commerce and culture, the Great Lakes city is poised for even greater prominence with the hydro-electric development of Niagara Falls and the upcoming Grand Pan-American Exposition at which President William McKinley is set to preside.

Underneath this prosperous surface are the tensions created by the opposing camps of labor, industry, nature conservationists and civil rights agitators. This turmoil is observed through the eyes of Louisa Barrett, the highly respected and respectable headmistress of exclusive girls' school. An attractive "thirty-something," Louisa practices rigid self-control and discretion in order to conceal a secret from her past. Eventually Louisa's private business and the political machinations of the city fathers become enmeshed, in this highly readable first novel by a young author, Lauren Belfer.

Elizabeth Strout is another first time novelist who has succeeded in writing about a mother and daughter relationship set in the New England mill town of Shirley Falls. It is about loneliness and boredom and tiny betrayals of everyday life. Isabelle is a single mother who has never revealed that her daughter is illegitimate. She craves love and respectability but is too poor to befriend the upper echelon of Shirley Falls and too proud to befriend her co-workers at the mill. But it is Amy who finds love when she responds to the advances of Thomas Robertson, the substitute math teacher. The novel explores the complex psychology between Amy and Isabelle. Ultimately, Amy and Isabelle is about a coming of age for both mother and daughter.