Customer Reviews

Next: A Novel

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

As I read this it went from O.K to so-so, to surprising and interestingly different at the end. Here's the upsides and downsides of it for me to help decide if it's for you:

- The book is written so you are living for a few hours inside the mind of a depressing, self-absorbed middle-aged man in the midst of a mid-life crisis while he kills time in Austin waiting for an interview. As a middle-ager myself, I hoped to like or at least empathize w/ him. But, for me, he never was really that much of an interesting or sympathetic character.

- It's divided into three sections. The first two (which make up about 90%) were slow-going for me. They led me to think that there was no real point to the story. Any minor action, from seeing the way someone walks to tearing his pants are seemingly only provided to trigger long, almost stream-of-concious type recollections and reflections about his past girlfriends and life.

- The author is a very descriptive writer with a gift for metaphor, themes and description. But, since the main character is mostly living in his own head dialogue and action are limited, and paragraphs often run for two or more pages as he spins through a memory or thought.

- The third section is the saving grace of the book. It combines action, dialogue, and a surprise ending that cleverly brings meaning to what appeared meaningless and reveals Hynes as a better crafter of a tale than I'd suspected. And, whether you like the ending or not, it is thought-provoking and becomes more so upon reflection of what preceded it.

Bottom Line: If you can stick with living in the head of a man in a mid-life crisis for awhile, and seemingly random morbid reflections on his life until you get to the end, you'll discover there's an interestingly crafted, thought-provoking result.

James Hynes -- one of the most mordantly funny and original writers today -- is not widely known, and more's the pity. In NEXT, arguably his finest novel, he masterfully captures the post 9/11 world through the prism of an anti-hero in the midst of a midlife crisis.

Kevin Quinn, a liberal and self-absorbed Ann Arbor editor who is a classic textbook case of arrested development, lands in Austin, Texas to interview for a new job. Against the backdrop of a world that's still quaking from the terror assaults, his own life is shaky: his job is stullifying, his much younger girlfriend is clamoring for a baby, and he's been told that he "lacks tenderness and passion." The vast portion of the story takes place in just four-and-a-half hours. It's a feat that Ian McEwan was able to master in his novel SATURDAY; but it's challenging for most writers to sustain interest in such a tight timeframe. James Hynes succeeds.

The city of Austin itself comes alive under the pen of Mr. Hynes; even those who have never visited will wither in the hot Texas sun, and feel the energy of the coffee shops, Mexican restaurants, health food stores, running paths and more. With hours to go before the interview, Kevin Quinn spends an unremarkable day, rather creepily following the beautiful younger Asian-American girl he sat next on the plane whom he sees as his last hope of redemption, reminiscing about his carnal relationships with ex-girlfriends, wandering in and out of stores, and admiring the incredible looks and stamina of the Austin women. His life seems vaguely pathetic; there is no woman whom he doesn't obsess about and his wandering appears aimless as he waits to interview for a job he doesn't really want in a city he doesn't want to live in. Austin feels "foreign" to him, one more example of a man who is out of place in life.

Toward the end of the first part, he experiences a relatively minor fall -- tripped by a dog on an Austin bridge -- a harbinger for a much greater fall later on. He's "saved" by a Latina surgeon, who quite literally doctors to his injury, and, in ways he never did with younger girlfriend, he becomes reflective with her and with himself. Upon parting from her, he wonders: "What would I be willing to die for -- anything? Who would I be willing to die for? That's what passion does -- passion makes you stupid, passion loses you and then throws you away."

Much has been made already about the last 50 pages of this book -- Part 3 -- where there's a major shift in the plot and tone and where all Kevin's musings begin to form a cohesive shape. Each reader must experience the ending for herself or himself, but suffice to say, it WILL grab you into its vortex and shake you up. It's a true example of what fine writing can do. Ultimately, Mr. Hynes suggests that it's possible to get out of self-involvement, embrace one's passion and confront what's next...and sometimes, to obtain the flash of insight to welcome it.

Brief summary, NO spoilers. (And I emphasis NO, because I think it's important to not know what happens next to fully enjoy this amazing novel.)

Kevin Quinn is a 50-something year old man who has been working for years as an editor for an academic publisher at the University of Michigan. He is a childless divorcee, and is currently in an ambivalent relationship with a younger woman named Stella. Unbeknownst to everyone in his home town in Ann Arbor, Kevin takes a planned one-day trip to Austin to interview for a new job. He does this in part because he is frustrated with his life, he feels he is an underachiever, and because he misses the feelings of promise and anticipation that came with youth. In short, Kevin is suffering from a real midlife crisis.

While on the plane to Texas, Kevin sits next to a pretty young Asian woman he names Joy Luck because of the book she is reading. After he lands and while waiting for his interview, Kevin spots her on the streets of Ausin and he begins a figurative and literal chase as he contemplates his life and his past relationships (and regrets), both with girlfriends and with family. Adding to Kevin's angst is the fact there there has been a new, alarming rash of terrorist bombings and attacks that have recently taken place in Europe and in the U.S.

Because I don't want to give anyway any spoilers, I don't want to say much more about the plot other than this book has several twists and turns and truly shocking moments. Even if this novel may seem to be a slow-go for some of you at first, hang in there, and I dare anyone to put it down during the incredible last 50 pages. The last part of the book will have you rethinking the book as a whole. It's a remarkable look at middle-age, and how our recollections and memories of past grievances color the way we look at ourselves and our future. And throw in a lot of humor to boot.

I highly recommend this book for anyone, but especially for those of us in our middle-age years and older, and of special note - for those of you familiar with Austin, Texas. There is a lot of description of that town, which would make this an additional treat for someone from there.

* Wanted to add that we choice this book for our book club, and it was one of the best discussions we've ever had. Everyone seemed to have a different opinion about this book, but by the time we were done with our discussion we each had a new appreciation for it.

`Next' opens with some of the most infectiously commanding sentences I've read in literature as of late. I was completely spellbound with how absorbed I became in the novel's first few pages. I never wanted to put it down.

And then, I did want to.

Here's the issue that I have with James Hynes' `Next'. The novel is a little too wordy and `stuffy' for its own good. It has a GREAT premise and a fantastic (albeit heartbreaking) ending that is totally worth reading just to experience, but getting there can, at times, become a chore.

The novel tells the story of Kevin Quinn, a fifty year old man who has traveled to Austin from Ann Arbor for a job interview. He's currently living with his younger girlfriend Stella, who has no idea that Kevin is thinking of leaving her and moving to Austin. Kevin has a commitment phobia that makes it difficult for him to really `love' someone (this apparently stems from some relationship issues in his youth). Stella has been pressuring him for a child, something that defines the word `commitment' and so he is attempting to escape her by moving. Aside from this mid-life crisis, Kevin is also a slave to the panic-stricken fear of terrorism, beings that this is post-911 and with one `bad news flash' after another, Kevin is anxious beyond belief.

The panic is certainly what made the novel's first few pages fly by with ease, for the way in which words and sentences were just thrown at you with an abrasive edge was tantalizing to my core.

Sadly, this wasn't kept up.

I have a few major issues with this novel, and I'm finding it hard to formulate exactly how I want to go about dissecting them for you. I'll start with the biggest issue, Kevin. I think maybe he is my only issue and that all of the other issues I have with the novel stem from him. I just don't like him. I know that there are all types of people, but Kevin is not the type of person you want to read a whole novel about. I couldn't help but think, while I was reading, that this would have made a far better film than a novel. The idea is near perfect and the structure of the novel is really suited for the big screen (and that whole "Austin, Texas, directed by Ridley Scott" part towards the end of the second section made me salivate at the idea of Russell Crowe tackling this role in a big screen adaptation). Unlikable characters are much more tolerable and even enjoyable in a film as apposed to a novel. For me, the character of Kevin is so immature that he becomes grating. Now, I think a lot of this is due to Hynes' writing style. Like I mentioned, he has an abrasive nature to the way he strings his sentences, BUT when he starts to babble too much about things that are not too gripping the novel (and our interpretation of Kevin) becomes obscured. Kevin is the definition of a horn-dog, a fifty year old man with the mentality of a teenage boy. When he first starts recalling his salacious encounters I thought "wow, Hynes' has gall to create a character that is human to a fault" but as the pages kept coming and Kevin kept recalling these encounters in a ridiculously bragging nature I began to consider his scope trivial and unimportant.

I stopped caring about him.

Hynes also bogs down the novel with far too many flashbacks that don't truly propel the novel anywhere. Instead of using the flashbacks to build a foundation of who Kevin really is or why he is the way he is, he uses the flashbacks to create more erotic encounters and paint Kevin as a self-centered and shallow man. In fact, there are only two flashbacks (or one flashback and one scene where he tells another person a story of his youth) that add any depth to Kevin as a person, and one of them comes at the most inopportune time.

Yes, when the ending is revealed and you are on the edge of your seat, gripping the pages intensely as you await the fate of our protagonist, it is disappointing to be pulled away from the action to be told, in excruciating detail, about the night his grandfather died.

For me, this is a novel that could have been magnificent. It takes place over one day, not even 24-hours, and so it really should have been edited down a bit. The novel needed a brisker pace in order to maintain the intensity it needed (spending nearly half the novel watching out protagonist chase after a young Asian girl he doesn't know but wants to bed borders on obnoxious and doesn't do anything to endear us to a man we are spending 320 pages with).

I hate that this book didn't nail it. I give this a C+. Still, this would make a spellbinding film (if the right liberties are taken with some of the novels ridiculous plot points) and I for one am just in awe of the way Hynes chose to end this.

Now, don't do like Stella and peak at the ending before you get there.

On a sweltering spring day in Austin, Texas, Kevin Quinn spends several hours exploring the city while waiting to go to a job interview downtown. He has just arrived from Ann Arbor, where he is a small-time academic editor, and a big-time commitment-phobe with women. He is thinking of leaving his latest girlfriend, Stella, but he hasn't even told her about the interview. Over the course of the day, the reader will be thrust into the poignant loves that Kevin has left behind in the wake of the last twenty-five years.

Kevin, at 50, is used to attracting younger women, and having imagined sexual encounters, but he knows his number is up soon. His enlarged prostate and whisker-sprouting ears are a sign of the vicissitudes of middle-age. But he continues to pamper his inner adolescent, and ill-advisedly follows a comely twenty-year-old woman from the plane and attempts to keep her at close range. Perspiration accumulates on his brow and under his arms, and he makes a pretty ragged mess of his suit as he proceeds to have some risible misadventures over at the hike-and-bike trail.

As an Austin resident, I was thrilled to read such adroit descriptions of local landmarks. I don't think I can ever look at the wide bleached sky or view the Austin skylight the same ever again. Hynes' descriptions venture into the hyperreal, and he refers to the "Longhorn Tower" where he has his interview as Barad-dur, right out of the Tolkien universe. Austin occasionally lifts to fantasy heights in Hynes' literary universe.

Hynes writes with dazzling and savvy prose and has a keen eye for the details of human behavior and countenance. He described a moment dancing with a woman he loved-- "She was always watching you like she was right on the cusp of derision. But in a good way..." Kevin's vulnerability is both hilarious and heartbreaking, and his ability to acknowledge his limitations mitigates the blustery and bloated ego that keeps him at arm's length in relationships.

This darkly comic story of a man's confrontation with his moral ambiguity is biting and marvelously warped, absurd and surreal. The author structured juxtapositions between past and present with a split-second precision that fairly teeters and often had me laughing out loud. One moment he would be with Stella in an Ann Arbor food market, and the next sentence or paragraph, he would be chasing a woman at a same-named market in Austin. His scenes are elaborately detailed with spot-on timing. The results are uncanny and ripe with an ominously comic gusto.

This is an author who knows how to blend highbrow, lowbrow and pop culture to create a frenzied portrait of a desperate and appalling man that you nevertheless root for and empathize with--a lecherous loser who keeps searching, who never gives up, who strives for a tattered integrity. He knows his fatal flaws, his salacious impetuosity, his lack of engagement with the future. In a particularly revealing scene in a Mexican restaurant, he shares some pivotal moments of his past with a beautiful woman who is compelled to first share a secret of her own. If you are not touched by that scene, then this probably isn't a book you will connect with conclusively. Later, there is a mordant scene in a bathroom of a clothing store that is searingly bald and telling.

There is a moral compass here--it is cracked and bent, but Kevin is holding onto it for dear life. The author delivers a magnificent ending, a daring and audacious finale that airlifts every emotion simultaneously. Hynes gives us a complex and ultimately sympathetic character portrayed through a brutal and magnified lens.

Addendum: This author likes Firesign Theater and quoted them in the book, which indubitably delighted me--so way cool. Let's to the Winter Palace!

James Hynes' "Next" has found itself on my bookshelf alongside some of my favorite middle-age introspective novels (e.g., Richard Ford's Bascombe novels, John Updike's Rabbit novels). Hynes' Kevin Quinn is an everyman for the post-911 era. "Next" is a thoughtful, downright hilarious, and beautifully written novel. This isn't exaggeration folks, this is a great book. The plot is pretty easy to summarize--Hynes gives us eight consecutive hours in the life of Kevin Quinn. Quinn is a 50-something University of Michigan employee (an editor of some kind) who flies from Ann Arbor to Austin for a job interview. Quinn is in the midst of an unsteady relationship with a younger woman (not his first) and he embarks on an unannounced trip south to interview for a job he's not even certain he wants. Sure, call it a mid-life crisis.

It's post-911 and in this novel the U.S. is under occasional attack from terrorists (not unlike 2010, but more rampant). Kevin's worried about the safety of his air travel and is somewhat uncertain as to his motivation to go for the interview in the first place. The reader is treated to Kevin's repeated commentary on those he interacts with during his flight and time in Austin prior to his job interview (particularly the women he encounters/observes). This commentary is often amusing and brilliantly rendered in the poetic and observant writing of Hynes. I found myself both laughing out loud and reciting multiple sentences to those I tried to push this book upon. Kevin arrives in Austin too early for his interview so he basically spends the day wasting time at coffee shops, in a park, at a restaurant, and shopping. This never gets boring because Hynes continually puts the amusing and introspective observations of Quinn on page after page. Eventually--and it's not a tiresome, but an entertaining journey--Quinn gets to interview time. I won't discuss the denouement of this fine novel as I don't want to risk a spoiler. The book ends and the reader will be glad to have spent eight hours with Hynes' Quinn. This is a great and moving and humorous and thoughtful novel and very highly recommended.

Many may not enjoy this novel because Kevin Quinn comes across as an insufferable, chief protagonist---a developmentally arrested, neurotic, middle aged man, running from his own life review, responsibility, and commitment. But, I don't think we need to like Kevin. The journey is to voyeuristically watch him, and, listen to his relentless internal dialogue---the dialogue of a conflicted man that is often times quite humorous, sometimes disgusting, and ultimately sad. Whether you find yourself liking, or loathing Kevin, I bet you will know someone much like him.

If you like psychologically driven work, you will discover a touch of brilliance here. I could vividly see Kevin's id, ego and superego dueling. He is a man that comes across as self-centered, but also one of self recrimination and doubt. He is not a happy man! All of these emotions reach a tipping point, as his girlfriend begins to complicate their relationship, his job becomes tedious, and, he starts ruminating obsessively about escalating terrorist attacks. His free-floating anxiety is palpable; he's now starting to understand the fragility of life, perhaps for the first time.

On flight to Austin for a job interview, a young woman in the next seat fuels past memories---memories of a lost love. When he arrives in Austin, he begins stalking her, hoping to recapture that moment in time. He recognizes his thinking is somewhat illogical but he can't give up the chase. Besides, he has three hours to kill before his interview.

As he wanders through Austin, he has several crazy mishaps, and, a few secondary characters are introduced, to successfully drive the plot. But the spotlight remains primarily on Kevin. This is HIS story, until the very end when he has a chance for redemption; a chance to selflessly reach out to another, through a bizarre and horrifying climax, when he finds a moment of strength and clarity. I found myself cheering for Kevin finally becoming a man, in spite of the extreme darkness of the event. It's an ending you won't soon forget.

I loved this novel because it speaks to the imperfections of man; the longings, the losses, the fears and often poor choices that drive our lives; the fulminating plague of 'what ifs.' It is much deeper than it may appear on the surface, so give it some time to unfold.

For the right reader, this is one not to be missed. I know it is not a self-help book, but I came away from it with a new daily mantra, 'life life with no regrets.'

I really shouldn't have liked this book. Its main character - 50-something Kevin Quinn - spends much of the first two-thirds of the novel wallowing in epic self-absorption. A mid-level university employee, Kevin flys to Austin, Texas for a job interview. He's not sure he wants the job, though it will give him the chance to escape his younger girlfriend.

The flight and subsequent time spent in Austin give Kevin plenty of time to think about the failures of his previous relationships. It's almost as if James Joyce developed a southern twang and set about to chronicle the post-9/11 world as Kevin wanders aimlessly around Austin (rather than Dublin). The tale takes on a creepy, Nabokov feel when he sees the young Asian woman he sat next to on his flight from Michigan and begins to follow her around. It's as if Humbert Humbert turned stalker.

Kevin is not exactly a character to be admired, but he is one that I not only could identify with but felt like I was seeing the world through his eyes. He's the kind of person we pass every day on the streets or see in coffee shops. He's neither charismatic enough to draw our attention not pathetic enough to trigger our pity. In sort, he's the sort of unremarkable person who passes through life mostly unremarked upon ... just like the majority of us.

Kevin Quinn was exactly the sort of person T.S. Eliot had in mind when he wrote these lines in "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock:

I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;

Am an attendant lord, one that will do

To swell a progress, start a scene or two

Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,

Deferential, glad to be of use,

Politic, cautious, and meticulous;

Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;

At times, indeed, almost ridiculous--

Almost, at times, the Fool.

Let's not forget that the same poem also contains the line "Do I dare disturb the Universe?" Kevin, our every-fool, gets to do just that in the last section of the book (which I won't give away here other than pointing out there is plenty of foreshadowing in the book, but even with those hints you'll likely still be taken by surprise).

In short, I'm astonished by this book. Even after a few days to let the novel settle like a heavy feast, I'm still finding new connections and insights in its pages.

James Hynes has put together one of the most maddening, fascinating and bizarre novels of the year with his offering "Next." "Next" defies categorization as it tracks one day in the life of "everyman" Kevin Quinn while he journeys to Austin, Texas for a job interview. Part mid-life meditation, part socio-political satire--this stream of consciousness rant covers every topic that pops into Quinn's head for approximately eight hours. Quinn is an emotionally stunted man-child whose main focus in life revolves around his romantic humiliations. Pursuing women many years his junior, Quinn is constantly on the prowl. The problem is that he undermines and sabotages any mature relationship he's had in pursuit of what's just around the corner. There must always be something better coming up NEXT.

Insightful and surprisingly humorous, I thoroughly enjoyed spending the day stalking the streets of Austin with our man Quinn. However, about half of the time, I wanted to smack him around. He is simultaneously fearful of the world that surrounds him and oblivious to what's unfolding beneath his very nose. Hynes does provide a few unexpected turns to awaken what's really important--but by then, it may just be too late for Quinn to process this new self-awareness.

The final sequence in "Next" is an audacious wake-up call. While maybe not the most believable moment in literature this year, Hynes commits fully to an ending that is bold and outrageous. And, for my money, the closing line of "Next" is one of the most brilliant enders I've encountered! So if you've got some time, you might want to climb into Kevin Quinn's head and see what's going on. As infuriating as it can be at times, it's definitely worth the mind trip.

This is a book that knows what it's doing -- even though neither you nor the protagonist will get a hint of what it is doing until the climactic last 50 pages . And even if you THINK you know what it's doing, you don't. But you WILL be grateful.

Easily one of the best pieces of American fiction I have read in a long, long time.

So the NEXT thing you should do is buy this book. And the next thing you should do after that is read this book. The rest is up to you.