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In Arcadia
A dark but playful journey to post climate change fortress suburbia. An enclave of outrageous entitlement defended by a community hell-bent on protecting its insatiable affluence from an increasingly desperate outside world. A terrifying home invasion forces Tom and his young family to flee the crumbling, crime-ridden inner-city for a fresh start in Arcadia; an idyllic suburb nestled on the city fringe that offers security and a sparkling new civic morality. Arcadia's refreshing way of life quickly begins to tarnish when Tom stumbles upon some harsh and unpalatable realities that underpin the suburb's affluent lifestyle.
274 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 4, 2016
This is a comic novel that depicts a near future Melbourne collapsing at a social level. The woes seem to be economic and agricultural in nature but the precise cause isn't exactly clear. The "climate" does get a few mentions however so it fits quite neatly alongside some of the other books I've been reading lately.
The hero and narrator is a typical Melbourne dad (Tom) living with his family in a place that feels very much like Brunswick. Unfortunately the streets of the inner north are becoming overrun with unemployed vagabonds (even more than usual it would seem). Tom and his family decide to flee to the farthest edge of suburbia - to a walled community called Arcadia. Of course there turns out to be some pretty unpleasant things going on in the community and Tom is soon deeply entangled in most of it.
The thing I thought most important about this book was the portrayal of characters desperately trying to hold on to a vanishing suburban ideal. In the quest for luxury these characters are very quick to dispose of their notions of morality. The other thing I liked a lot were the farcical scenes of misadventure and destruction. There is some wildly unfashionable comic writing going here and I was laughing out loud in quite a few places.
My only criticism is that I wanted a lot more detail about what was going on in the rest of the city. The story ends with a sense of a new journey beginning so perhaps (hopefully) the author will keep writing and produce a sequel one day.
review first appeared at: http://bench-press.blogspot.com.au/
The hero and narrator is a typical Melbourne dad (Tom) living with his family in a place that feels very much like Brunswick. Unfortunately the streets of the inner north are becoming overrun with unemployed vagabonds (even more than usual it would seem). Tom and his family decide to flee to the farthest edge of suburbia - to a walled community called Arcadia. Of course there turns out to be some pretty unpleasant things going on in the community and Tom is soon deeply entangled in most of it.
The thing I thought most important about this book was the portrayal of characters desperately trying to hold on to a vanishing suburban ideal. In the quest for luxury these characters are very quick to dispose of their notions of morality. The other thing I liked a lot were the farcical scenes of misadventure and destruction. There is some wildly unfashionable comic writing going here and I was laughing out loud in quite a few places.
My only criticism is that I wanted a lot more detail about what was going on in the rest of the city. The story ends with a sense of a new journey beginning so perhaps (hopefully) the author will keep writing and produce a sequel one day.
review first appeared at: http://bench-press.blogspot.com.au/
August 8, 2013
Ok so this book is about a not too distant future where resources are scarce, droughts are permanent and Tom and his family in the inner city find their life overrun by beggars coming in to the city from farms looking for food and work. Eventually the city feels unsafe from the intrusion by these beggars and the family escape to the utopic-sounding suburb of Arcadia, where the grass is greener (literally), everyone is a tight knit community, and they are protected from the outside world in gated security. But just how does this gated community prosper? It quickly becomes clear to Tom that there's a high price to pay living here in suburbia, but will his family be able to get out intact?
The idea, plot and characters in this book are so well thought out, I really enjoyed getting into the story, particularly loved the fact that this is set in a non specific city of Australia. However the writing isn't great through the last half. A lot of description gets in the way of the pacing, dialogue and action to the point where I had to speed read my way through to keep any momentum or interest. I'm still really glad I read it though.
The idea, plot and characters in this book are so well thought out, I really enjoyed getting into the story, particularly loved the fact that this is set in a non specific city of Australia. However the writing isn't great through the last half. A lot of description gets in the way of the pacing, dialogue and action to the point where I had to speed read my way through to keep any momentum or interest. I'm still really glad I read it though.
July 22, 2014
I loved this book, what a great read! Clifi black comedy at its finest.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews