BY JOE ANTOL
Volume 22, Number 54 | The Newspaper of Lower Manhattan | May 21 – 27, 2010
Author’s first foray into fiction won’t promote good sleep
Although “American Subversive” is David Goodwillie’s second book, it’s his first work of fiction. His debut memoir, “It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time,” was a hilarious account of his post-college years in the late 1990s. As confident in fiction as he was in the realm of memoir, “American Subversive” resonates with today’s increasing tensions between the left and the right — as Goodwillie explores both the history and relevance of domestic terror groups. The novel’s two protagonists represent the extremes of twenty-something American society.
Nine years after September 11th, a bomb destroys the fifteenth floor of a Manhattan office tower. The city is on edge and the police are baffled. Aidan Cole, a perpetual party boy and blogger for the celebrity gossip site Roorback (a thinly disguised Gawker), receives an anonymous email containing a photograph of an attractive young woman with long, dark hair and oversized sunglasses. The message in the email says: “This is Paige Roderick. She’s the one responsible.” With this and other information, Aidan sets off on a chase that leads to Fisher’s Island, the Catskills, rural Vermont and eventually back to Manhattan.
Paige Roderick, the alleged bomber, was an idealistic political science major at the University of North Carolina who wanted to change the world. After graduation, she moves to New York City, then to Washington DC — to put her beliefs into action. At twenty-eight, her life stops getting better. Despite her work in K-Street think tanks, she comes to the realization that position papers alone cannot cure government stagnation. When her brother Bobby dies in Iraq, she quits and moves back to her hometown of Maggie Valley in rural North Carolina. Jobless and stifled by her parents’ unending grief, she spends her days with local back-to-the-land activists. After meeting the handsome and mysterious “Keith” and other members of “The Movement,” she comes to realize that direct action — vandalism, arson and bombings — are a way to bring attention to an injustice, be it environmentally destructive coal mines or mysterious interconnected multi-national corporations.
Withholding evidence that could aid the police investigation of the bombing, Aidan’s pursuit of Paige starts as journalistic curiosity, and eventually becomes romance. His descent from apathetic blogger to fugitive is less believable than Paige’s; and it is here where the author falters a bit. Aidan slowly awakens to the possibility that there’s something out there bigger than himself and more important than the next party or celebrity “get” — but in the end, he is laid low by the oldest weakness of them all: a beautiful woman.
Given the insight and command of facts in “American Subversive,” I wonder if Goodwillie spent some of his pre-novelist years as a bomb-building radical himself. With a disturbing level of detail, he describes the intricacies of cleaning a safe-house; avoiding detection by the authorities; creating false identities; and “leaving no trace” when surfing the Internet. In reality, his research included studying the tactics and organization of active radical groups such as the Earth Liberation Front as well as utilizing his investigative skills to track down and interview surviving members of the 1970’s domestic terrorist group The Weathermen.
Goodwillie subtly highlights the misogyny inherent in these groups. Throughout recent history, radicals such as the Symbionese Liberation Army had at their core young upper middle class men as leaders, and a similar demographic of female followers. One expects radicals bent on world change to be more egalitarian than the average citizen; but nothing could be further from fact. The male-female dynamic is more Don and Betty Draper than Barack and Michelle Obama. True to form, Keith, the charismatic leader of the novel’s three-person terrorist cell, builds the bombs. Paige and Lindsay, a former lover of Keith’s, cook the meals, do the dishes and clean the house.
Don’t pick up this book with the expectation of a good night’s sleep. Not only are the domestic terrorism implications of the story unsettling, but the narrative is compelling, crackling with bits of Chandler-esque prose: “… a spacious lobby that had us talking under our breath out of respect for the marble…”
In any good detective tale, the intelligent reader should be able identify the clues and deduce possible conclusions. The colorful characters — Aidan’s ex-hippie mother and her artist boyfriend; his wealthy father and his beautiful young wife; and Aidan’s mysterious friend Touché’ — all keep the reader wondering about the identity of the mysterious informant sending cryptic emails which guide Aidan that so desperately wants him to find Paige.
David Goodwillie will be reading from “American Subversive” at the Greenwich Village Barnes & Noble (396 Sixth Ave. at 8th St.) on May 27th and at Cake Shop (152 Ludlow St.) on June 16th.
For a profile of the author, see previous page.
