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Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon By Melissa J Wantuck  |
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Critically acclaimed author Dan Chaon’s new book, Await Your Reply (Ballantine Books, 2009), released August 25 showcases a mixed bag of themes encompassing a slew of characters on a jumbled timeline. Chaon’s dark and heavy situations use some of the toughest scenarios to spin a tale of intrigue spanning around the globe and on both sides of the equator.
In a fast-paced technological world where virtual danger lingers around every bend of the information highway, the crime of identity theft steals an irreplaceable inanimate object victims find almost impossible to repair. But Chaon isn’t writing about the effects on the victims but rather the practices of the perpetrators. He weaves heavy themes into his narrative, tackling family dynamics and psychosis as he explores what drives those who destroy reputations.
Ryan, a college sophomore is looking for direction in his life and thinks he’s found something to satisfy his yearning when his long-lost uncle contacts him. Uncle Jay offers him a job and after learning some startling news from his uncle, Ryan accepts the offer. His life as he knew it is now over and his new one may be more than he bargained for.
Lucy was left in the care of her older sister following her parent’s death. She spent her senior year trying to find a ride out of town after graduation. Her focus was on attending a prestigious college but when that let her down, she followed her backup plan out west to a dried up resort town. Lucy’s boyfriend, who was also her history teacher, took her to his boyhood home with promises of security and comfort for the rest of their lives. She was blanketed in his constant reassurances until things begin to unravel.
Miles, thirty-two, single and alone, has spent ten years hunting after his twin brother, Hayden. After spending their teenage years marked by tragedy, the different responses by the brothers to the events of their most formative years sends their relationship into a continual spiral of cat and mouse games for the next twelve years. Hayden runs away after another attempt by their mother to institutionalize him for his erratic behavior and Miles begins the task of hunting for his brother that will consume his life until he brings him home.
Chaon packs a lot of drama into a little over 300 pages. The effects of his sprint-style storytelling may leave his reader resembling a runner at the end of a race. He has won awards for his short story collections and he seems to have taken that form of writing and molded it into a new leap frog genre of the novella.
Backtracking may be required to remember specific details that aid the plot of each storyline. Many of the characters motives are vague as well as some of the conclusions that leave a dry taste in the mouth due to their resemblance to various social and political clichés. The final feel of the book becomes a realization of the existence of reading time theft.
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