October 27, 2014
Goldhagen’s smart but unfulfilling second novel (after Family and Other Accidents) traces the lives of four people from high school to their mid-30s as they struggle to find their places in the world. In 1992, Adam, Sharon, Phoebe, and Ollie are all in very different places, emotionally and geographically, when the film adaptation of the comic book Eons & Empires opens in movie theaters. As they gravitate in and out of each other’s orbits, this clunky motif connects them. A-student Adam leaves behind smalltown Florida in search of success as an actor; quiet, Midwestern Sharon struggles to adjust to big-city living as a writer in New York City; Phoebe turns her back on Chicago and her boyfriend, Ollie, and crosses paths with Adam in her pursuit of acting gigs in L.A. Each character’s individual story is compelling, though their pursuit of meaning in their never-satisfied lives, while witty and heartfelt, never comes together.