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Americanitis
'An involving literary jest.' ― Suzi Feay, Financial Times
'I had a blast with this freewheeling debut… Beard more than sustains his manic high-wire act in a book that lives on the strength of its satirical detail and rug-pulling glee.' ― Anthony Cummins, The Daily Mail
‘If you look closely you can still see some tear splotches on these pages, here and there.’
Following the death of his wife, Miles, an academic and hypochondriac suffering from acute anxiety, finds himself in need of professional help. Back in his native Scotland from a research trip to the US he conducted in the weeks preceding his wife’s death, his therapist encourages him to write a fictionalised version of his life in order to pinpoint the sources of his anxiety.
In penning this record of his memories, Miles reveals the complicated double life he has been leading – tortured academic by day, Internet troll hounding people under a pseudonym by night – and unsettling details surrounding the US trip begin to surface. As the narrative progresses, questions build as to what actually happened during the final days of Miles and Sarah’s marriage.
Americanitis is an extraordinary work that mercilessly blends fact with fiction and leaves the reader scrabbling for truth.
'I had a blast with this freewheeling debut… Beard more than sustains his manic high-wire act in a book that lives on the strength of its satirical detail and rug-pulling glee.' ― Anthony Cummins, The Daily Mail
‘If you look closely you can still see some tear splotches on these pages, here and there.’
Following the death of his wife, Miles, an academic and hypochondriac suffering from acute anxiety, finds himself in need of professional help. Back in his native Scotland from a research trip to the US he conducted in the weeks preceding his wife’s death, his therapist encourages him to write a fictionalised version of his life in order to pinpoint the sources of his anxiety.
In penning this record of his memories, Miles reveals the complicated double life he has been leading – tortured academic by day, Internet troll hounding people under a pseudonym by night – and unsettling details surrounding the US trip begin to surface. As the narrative progresses, questions build as to what actually happened during the final days of Miles and Sarah’s marriage.
Americanitis is an extraordinary work that mercilessly blends fact with fiction and leaves the reader scrabbling for truth.
- GenresContemporaryFiction
264 pages, Paperback
Published August 14, 2024
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60 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 26, 2025
Best book I read this year.
The story was compelling throughout and by the end the protagonist felt like an old friend, albeit a troubled one who has perhaps shared too much information with me…
I was really engaged by the discussions of other books and authors too. I don’t think you need to have any familiarity with them to appreciate but this novel will be of particular interest to those who have loved or loathed authors like Bret Easton Ellis, Paul Auster, John Updike, Philip Roth, and David Foster Wallace.
And it’s hard to discuss without giving too much away so I’ll just say despite playing around with the tropes and conventions of autofiction and confessionals, it's a cerebral page-turner that reads more like a thriller.
The story was compelling throughout and by the end the protagonist felt like an old friend, albeit a troubled one who has perhaps shared too much information with me…
I was really engaged by the discussions of other books and authors too. I don’t think you need to have any familiarity with them to appreciate but this novel will be of particular interest to those who have loved or loathed authors like Bret Easton Ellis, Paul Auster, John Updike, Philip Roth, and David Foster Wallace.
And it’s hard to discuss without giving too much away so I’ll just say despite playing around with the tropes and conventions of autofiction and confessionals, it's a cerebral page-turner that reads more like a thriller.
March 4, 2025
I genuinely loved this book. The pace was perfect, with just enough intrigue to keep you glued until the very end. I appreciated how he slowly revealed the crux of the story and the teasing manner in which he did so. I’m looking forward to the next volume from this talented young author.
September 23, 2024
Funny, challenging, salacious, and insightful.
November 9, 2025
I didn’t know this was grief therapy-prompted autofiction by a writing prof - the devil’s brew. It’s also terribly executed and nauseatingly self-indulgent.
The prose is the blandest thing, the ideas so uncouth and tame. Embarrassing name dropping and philosophical digressions galore, it’s really the meme: what dumb people think smart people sound like.
He thought this was smart or something:
“In the streets of America, you could see it plain on their faces: they simply didn’t have enough to live. To survive, yes. Not live. (…) America was a classless society, maybe. But hardly a casteless one.”
The prose is the blandest thing, the ideas so uncouth and tame. Embarrassing name dropping and philosophical digressions galore, it’s really the meme: what dumb people think smart people sound like.
He thought this was smart or something:
“In the streets of America, you could see it plain on their faces: they simply didn’t have enough to live. To survive, yes. Not live. (…) America was a classless society, maybe. But hardly a casteless one.”
September 7, 2024
Autofiction. In a book dedicated to his dead wife, Miles Beard, author, writes about the death of the wife of Miles Beard, narrator.
This is a palimpsest of narrative layers. Much of the narrative is a memoir written for his therapist. Miles the narrator himself has an alter ego called Alazon who acts as an internet troll. Real people such as singer-songwriter Sophie Auster appear.
There's a version of the 'Hero's Journey' in the structure of this book. It starts in the protagonist's home world of Scotland which he then leaves for a dream-like research fellowship in the US which culminates in a near-breakdown and a nightmarish journey (very On the Road, very Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, also autofictions) from East to West Coast before he returns home. In the US section (from which the novel takes his name: Americanitis being a nickname for neurasthenia, a nineteenth-century psychological exhaustion attributed to the stresses of urban civilization) he faces trials and ordeals. But the ultimate tribulation assails him back in Scotland. At the end he emerges a wiser and perhaps a better man.
The question of what happened to his wife is drip-fed through the first three-quarters of the book; it becomes a puzzle for the reader to solve. The narrative shifts into another gear once enlightenment dawns. So for the bulk of the of the book it is the challenges which create a stimulating and engaging read, whilst towards the end I was gripped by the story.
It's not an easy read. The author (who is also the narrator, who is also the protagonist) researches into and lectures on literature. This is reflected in a number of throwaway cultural references, many of which I found obscure. It is also, from time to time, modelled in the prose. But it is beautifully written with characters who were three-dimensional and complex adult humans and a protagonist who is a modern Everyman in his hypochondria, his double standards, and his moral weaknesses. His tortured journey is one with which we can all empathise, if not identify.
A fascinating and brilliant exploration of some of the darker experiences of life.
This is a palimpsest of narrative layers. Much of the narrative is a memoir written for his therapist. Miles the narrator himself has an alter ego called Alazon who acts as an internet troll. Real people such as singer-songwriter Sophie Auster appear.
There's a version of the 'Hero's Journey' in the structure of this book. It starts in the protagonist's home world of Scotland which he then leaves for a dream-like research fellowship in the US which culminates in a near-breakdown and a nightmarish journey (very On the Road, very Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, also autofictions) from East to West Coast before he returns home. In the US section (from which the novel takes his name: Americanitis being a nickname for neurasthenia, a nineteenth-century psychological exhaustion attributed to the stresses of urban civilization) he faces trials and ordeals. But the ultimate tribulation assails him back in Scotland. At the end he emerges a wiser and perhaps a better man.
The question of what happened to his wife is drip-fed through the first three-quarters of the book; it becomes a puzzle for the reader to solve. The narrative shifts into another gear once enlightenment dawns. So for the bulk of the of the book it is the challenges which create a stimulating and engaging read, whilst towards the end I was gripped by the story.
It's not an easy read. The author (who is also the narrator, who is also the protagonist) researches into and lectures on literature. This is reflected in a number of throwaway cultural references, many of which I found obscure. It is also, from time to time, modelled in the prose. But it is beautifully written with characters who were three-dimensional and complex adult humans and a protagonist who is a modern Everyman in his hypochondria, his double standards, and his moral weaknesses. His tortured journey is one with which we can all empathise, if not identify.
A fascinating and brilliant exploration of some of the darker experiences of life.
November 14, 2025
A truly unique debut novel from an exciting and exceptionally talented new writer. The fingerprints of Beard's influences are all over "Americanitis," which may in fact be part of the point (the protagonist, also named Miles Beard (no relation (?!)) mentions said influences regularly throughout the course of the story), and it should be said that one of the primary joys of the book is working to solve its own internal mystery and pin down its thesis. It's a work of autofiction ABOUT autofiction (or is it?), and if that initially sounds a bit meta and conceptual, the reality is that the story, which centers on Miles's academically-funded adventures in the United States and dubious musings on the nature of illness, academia, and relationships, is actually a bonafide page-turner. Truly couldn't put this one down and would recommend it to any readers with an appetite for unreliable narrators, quasi-sincere takedowns of academia, and tightly constructed psychological thrillers.
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January 16, 2025FNA DNF @70%
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews