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Union Atlantic [Hardcover]

Adam Haslett (Author)
3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Publication Date: 1 July 2010
'The first great novel of the new century. It's big and ambitious, like novels used to be. It's about us, now. All of us.' Esquire

Doug Fanning lives an apparently gilded existence. A Gulf war veteran turned banker at the vast investment bank Union Atlantic, he is wealthy, handsome and powerful - the epitome of Wall Street success.

Charlotte Graves lives in self-imposed exile deep in the forests of rural Massachusetts, stubbornly refusing to engage with a country she feels to be in morally bankrupt.

When Fanning decides to build himself a sprawling mansion adjacent to her home, her isolation is threatened and she determines to evict him from his land and, if she can, his kind from her country. Union Atlantic is a deeply involving novel of the modern world - a world in crisis, where individual humanity is pitted against the global marketplace, and we must decide what, in the end, we value most highly.

Product details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Tuskar Rock (1 July 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1848874979
  • ISBN-13: 978-1848874978
  • Product Dimensions: 15.7 x 21.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 399,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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› Visit Amazon's Adam Haslett Page
Adam Haslett
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Product Description

Review

Absolutely brilliant. --Kate Atkinson

Adam Haslett has the rarest of talents: the ability to combine a powerful intelligence with storytelling that is both elegant and suspenseful, and to break your heart in the process. Union Atlantic is a masterful portrait of our age. --Malcolm Gladwell

This is the rare novel that is both urgently of its time and fully true to itself. Adam Haslett saw it all coming: our particular moment, our particular crisis. And because he was so far ahead of our leaders and our opinion-makers - because he is a true writer - he could take the time to fashion a book of exceptional maturity, completeness, compassion, comedy and suspense. It's been a long time since we've seen an American novelist reach for so much and achieve so much of what he's reached for. --Jonathan Franzen

About the Author

Adam Haslett is the author of the short story collection, You Are Not A Stranger Here, was a New York Times bestseller. It was shortlisted for both the Pulitzer Prize and the US National Book Award, and has been translated into fifteen languages. His essays and fiction have appeared in The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, Best American Short Stories, among others. He lives in New York.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely brilliant... 11 Aug 2010
By Mr. Steve Jansen VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Union Atlantic is a rare treat; gorgeously written, with a deft line in characters, a novel that through sheer skill alone builds in such potency as to affect the reader's moments and experiences away from its sparkling prose. With a plot that is secondary, but nevertheless expertly threaded through events, Haslett's brilliance - in this his first proper novel - sparkles via his jewel-like observations and poetic takes on eternal truths, somehow fashioning them as brand new and marking himself out as a truly talented author to follow.

As you've probably already heard, Union Atlantic is essentially about economics, more specifically financial meltdown, set as it is against the contemporary American stock exchange. However, despite some engaging insider views on the rabid passions and bizarre, otherworldly, foreign language of financial chicanery, this novel is more about the singular, yet powerful, place finance has in the world at large, and beyond that how actions in life's maze can ripple out, bringing down a whole heap of events to impact on seemingly unconnected individuals far beyond a person's intentions.

With characters connected either through family or fate are steadily introduced in a fashion that in other hands may have proved tedious and distracting - but guided by Haslett unravel into a mesmerizing treat of observation - Union Atlantic spreads out into a fascinating snapshot of everyday American life during this first decade of the twenty-first century. Inevitably, upon starting Union Atlantic, F.Scott Fitzgerald very quickly comes to mind, as well as the notion of the Great American Novel; and whilst much is made of the latter, in conjuring such a beautiful, evocative novel of manners to equal the former's Great Gatsby, Haslett has subtly delivered a work which will surely resonate for many years to come.

Whatever you do, don't for one moment be put off by the subject matter referenced in discussions about this novel. For Union Atlantic is arguably one of the most compelling, beautiful and urgent novels to emerge in a very long time.

Hugely recommended.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but disjointed 23 Nov 2010
By R. Lawson VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
This is an odd book to try to place exactly. On the one hand it sets off with the feel of a thriller, with a US army veteran now a banking executive sailing close to the wind. On the other hand it has a rather literary style, which comes to the fore when describing the past life of his neighbour, a batty but likeable elderly lady who stands against the ostentation he has brought to the neighbourhood specifically and indeed against the pre-eminence of money that this represents.
The observations of modern society's obsession with money and power are well made and thought provoking (though the detail of the financial machinations were to me at times rather obscure) and there was a certain impetus to the story that gave it interest. However, the tension between the literary explorations of character and background, and the needs for plot to drive onwards with pace were never fully resolved. The book chops between a section of languid and thoughtful description and frantic action in an unsatisfactory way that gives a disjointed whole.
It's a shame really because clearly there is good quality prose here, and a good idea, but the two don't quite meet in the middle. Nevertheless, I'd be interested in reading another novel by the same author in the future, and would certainly be willing to give it a try with an optimistic approach.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Foreclosed dreams 5 July 2010
By Mo VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Having just finished reading the book I'm actually finding it hard to describe, but I can assure you it's not a title to overlook.

This short novel, which can be read within a week at a relaxed place, could be seen as a sort of fusion of the movies Syriana and Wall Street...Those two analogies are probably enough to avoid spoiling the book; but there's also some comedy in there, albeit not of the laugh-out-loud sort.

The first striking thing about Haslett's style is how perfectly poetic his words are - they're not overly decorative but vivid and dynamic in a fat-free way, from little details like how traffic lights look on a rainy windscreen to describing drug trips. There are times though when the financial-speak washed over my head and the italicised "preacher" speak was a bit heavy going, but that's more my failing - that said grasping the stories of the protagonists isn't hard. I also must add that as a straight man, there was something quite involving about the gay sex scenes.

Multiple themes seem to be touched here, the ones that stand out are the nature of a dog eat dog world and the value of principles. The characters are well rounded and seem believable as they're planted very well into a non-fictional backdrop. I agree with the professional critics that this is a timely release given that we're in a "new-cession" (a term I heard by a delivery man), but it's also timeless as the moods it brings up in the emotional side of things will always resonate.

All in all, a great book by Haslett, perhaps only losing full marks because it had some predictable turns.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars A tawdry post-crisis revelation.
This book reaffirms or knowledge of the shady banking practises that have crippled our global economies. Nothing earthmoving comes out of this book. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Rudy K
3.0 out of 5 stars a modern book with old fashioned morales
very much in the style of Jonathan Franzen but lacking in his naturalism this rather stiff and wordy book deals with American Capitalism in the form of two neigbours clashing over... Read more
Published 11 months ago by pete
1.0 out of 5 stars Cliched, and entirely predictable
It is sad to write that this was an incredibly boring book.

I had high hopes: the idea of a clash of ideas within a small area is a very fertile ground. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mr. K. P. Rogers
3.0 out of 5 stars Misstate of the Union
As an opener for the state of society in the early 21st century the book is entertaining and illuminating but not likely to achieve classic status. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Dudley Serious
1.0 out of 5 stars This year's Dan Brown -- and not in a good way
This is easily the worst novel I've read since The Da Vinci Code. The first chapter -- set on the USS Vincennes when it shot down an Iranian passenger plane (a real incident) is... Read more
Published 22 months ago by jimweibo
2.0 out of 5 stars union city blues
If ever we needed a story about rogue bankers destroying lives and each other in the pursuit of wealth and glory, then the first years of the 21st century is a good a time to place... Read more
Published on 16 April 2011 by mfl
4.0 out of 5 stars power play
This book is very revealing of the operations of high finance and how easily the young and innocent can be seduced. Read more
Published on 11 April 2011 by lizi
3.0 out of 5 stars Haslett is trying to be a Tom Wolfe for the 21st century
About three chapters into this book I thought - "good god, this is the book that Tom Wolfe would have written about the financial crisis" The nature of the stories, the characters... Read more
Published on 1 April 2011 by Mr. Rob Bassett
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent first novel by a young American writer
'Union Atlantic' is the first novel by a forty-year-old American writer previously known for his short stories. Read more
Published on 22 Feb 2011 by Paul Bowes
1.0 out of 5 stars waste of a good idea
Haslett had the kernel of a novel, and a good one at that, but then he chose to completely waste it by hurling in several half-formed thoughts in lieu of creating any real... Read more
Published on 3 Feb 2011 by D L
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