William Nicholson, The Society of Others

The Society of Others

William Nicholson

Doubleday, Feb 2005, $23.95, 224 pp.

ISBN: 0385513275

He recently graduated college, but has no goals and speculates that life is meaningless. Why bother? However, tired of parental nagging, he decides on a coming-of-age grand adventure on the continent. He hitches a ride from the English side of the Chunnel with a philosophical truck driver on a three-day trek across Europe.

However, once they leave the land of the Euro into the heavily guarded East, thugs using a roadblock stop the truck, torture and kill the trucker, but his passenger escapes. They burn the books inside the truck, but the hitchhiker rescues one, along with an envelope that the driver gave him. The hiker reaches a nearby town where he meets Petra, who informs him that the burned books were targeted to go to those names listed in the envelop. He joins Petra's revolutionary band, but when her group torture the enemy at another roadblock, he flees into the woods in despair. By himself he ponders the meaning of life.

The first half of this novel is a great coming-of-age tale as the unnamed narrator (apropos label for the disenchanted) finds his grand tour turn into a nightmare. Nameless struggles ensue with both sides in the dispute who use any means to achieve their end. Once he flees from Petra, the storyline turns much more introspective as the lead character begins to analyze his relationships, especially with his parents even while he dodges the police and to a lesser degree the revolutionaries. This is a strong thriller worth reading due to the despairing antihero but the latter half, though superbly well-written, cannot match the incredible levels of excitement and suspense of the first part.

Harriet Klausner