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Shifting Ground
“It has been said that there is a class of people who feel entitled to smash up things and creatures and then retreat back into their money. As certainly as that is still true…it is now a new aristocracy of bankers, lawyers and CEO’s who imagine they turn the levers of the world. Their whims are the highest law, consequences fall where they may for the great mass of people who don’t matter.”
Such are the thoughts of burnt out San Francisco banking lawyer, Michael Davis, who, having become the man he always swore he never would be, is teetering on the brink of emotional collapse. Atlanta Buchanan, who is questioning everything she thought she knew, sees in Michael something of herself. Her husband, Henry Buchanan, a proud one percenter, is unaware that everything he works so hard to keep under control is about to be upended.
America in the beginning of the new century is very much like America in the beginning of the last: a place of profound social and economic inequities. However, into the America of this century wafts the scent of revolution. This novel chronicles one fateful year in the lives of these people as they struggle to make hard choices in a time when ideas once considered dangerous and people once marginalized are moving in to colonize a center that cannot hold. A furious, modern riff on The Great Gatsby, A.Z. Zehava’s novel is a fierce story about a quiet insurgency happening in an America in transition.
Such are the thoughts of burnt out San Francisco banking lawyer, Michael Davis, who, having become the man he always swore he never would be, is teetering on the brink of emotional collapse. Atlanta Buchanan, who is questioning everything she thought she knew, sees in Michael something of herself. Her husband, Henry Buchanan, a proud one percenter, is unaware that everything he works so hard to keep under control is about to be upended.
America in the beginning of the new century is very much like America in the beginning of the last: a place of profound social and economic inequities. However, into the America of this century wafts the scent of revolution. This novel chronicles one fateful year in the lives of these people as they struggle to make hard choices in a time when ideas once considered dangerous and people once marginalized are moving in to colonize a center that cannot hold. A furious, modern riff on The Great Gatsby, A.Z. Zehava’s novel is a fierce story about a quiet insurgency happening in an America in transition.
360 pages, Paperback
First published December 23, 2013
663 people want to read
About the author
A.Z. Zehava
2 books14 followersA.Z. Zehava is an author, permaculturist, and healer living in Portland, Oregon with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 9, 2017
Was lucky enough to receive a copy through a First Reads giveaway! Thanks Goodreads!
If you're the type of person who ever contemplates the state of the US today, or wonders why we do the things we do, grow up and get jobs and have families and work to make money, then you should read what these characters have to say.
I started reading this book with virtually no expectations, as the plot description was somewhat vague and this is a debut author. I certainly wasn't expecting to very definitively give it five stars after finishing it. I just really really enjoyed reading this.
It's not often where I can relate to almost every character in a story. Usually it's just the protagonist. But in this story, which features a very diverse cast of characters, I was able to find something very personal in each one. Some of the concepts and ideas they discussed I've thought about before, and some of their ideas were eye-opening to me.
The story itself is much more character-driven and the really satisfying part of reading this is seeing the characters you have come to know so well completely develop and blossom.
I'm looking forward to reading more from A.Z. Zehava, and recommending this excellent, thought-provoking debut to others.
If you're the type of person who ever contemplates the state of the US today, or wonders why we do the things we do, grow up and get jobs and have families and work to make money, then you should read what these characters have to say.
I started reading this book with virtually no expectations, as the plot description was somewhat vague and this is a debut author. I certainly wasn't expecting to very definitively give it five stars after finishing it. I just really really enjoyed reading this.
It's not often where I can relate to almost every character in a story. Usually it's just the protagonist. But in this story, which features a very diverse cast of characters, I was able to find something very personal in each one. Some of the concepts and ideas they discussed I've thought about before, and some of their ideas were eye-opening to me.
The story itself is much more character-driven and the really satisfying part of reading this is seeing the characters you have come to know so well completely develop and blossom.
I'm looking forward to reading more from A.Z. Zehava, and recommending this excellent, thought-provoking debut to others.
April 24, 2014
I enjoyed reading 'Shifting Ground' more than I was expecting to. Th author could have chosen to call it 'Breaking People' just as easily as 'Shifting Ground' as everyone in this story, from parents to teenaged children to the grandparents seem to either be breaking or in the process of doing so. Breaking, but not broken.
Watching as the characters try to find their way to their own truths was a facinating and moving story. There were moments in the story that felt like a punch to the gut; they touched off the ringing of truth in what was written. I was surprised to learn that this was the author's debut novel. I will be recommending this book to my friends.
Watching as the characters try to find their way to their own truths was a facinating and moving story. There were moments in the story that felt like a punch to the gut; they touched off the ringing of truth in what was written. I was surprised to learn that this was the author's debut novel. I will be recommending this book to my friends.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews