- Surveillance (novel)
Infobox Book |
name = Surveillance
image_caption =
author =Jonathan Raban
country =United Kingdom
language = English
genre =Novel
publisher =Pantheon Books
pub_date =January 30 2007
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = 272 pp
isbn = ISBN 978-0-375-42244-7"Surveillance", a 2006 novel by
Jonathan Raban , explores the current political climate set in a near-futureSeattle .Plot summary
Freelance journalist Lucy Bengstrom has been hired by "GQ " magazine to write a profile of August Vanags, the bestselling author of "Boy 381", an account of his childhood as an
orphan making his way through the charred landscape ofWorld War II Europe . As Lucy researches Vanags's life, she begins to suspect he has falsified the entire account. When she receives a picture that purports to show the author as a child safely ensconced on an Englishchicken farm during the war years, she's almost sure he's a fake.Meanwhile, Lucy's daughter, Alida, struggles with being raised by a single mom; the gay man next door, Tad Zachary (also Lucy's best friend and surrogate father to Alida), may or may not be dying of
AIDS and spends much of his time finding fuel for his political rage in what Raban calls "the virtual counterworld"; Vanags's wife is in the early stages ofAlzheimer 's; and a grimU.S. government escalates its police-state techniques to defend against theterrorism threat.References
*"
The Guardian " 20th May, 2006 "We have mutated into a surveillance society - and must share the blame" [http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1779440,00.html]
*"The Guardian " 30th September, 2006 "We're all spooks now" [http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,,1883390,00.html]
*"The Telegraph" 12th September, 2006 "The Insider: don't smile, you're on camera" [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/09/10/svraban10.xml]External links
*
Pantheon Books [http://www.randomhouse.com/pantheon/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780375422447]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
