Kurt Andersen’s new novel, “The Breakup,” is the culmination of a trilogy that started with two earlier nonfiction books, 2017’s “Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire,” and 2020’s “Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History.”
Perhaps it sounds strange to think of a work of fiction as a trilogy with two nonfictional works, but Andersen’s project over the last decade-plus has been to map how we’ve devolved into a society where seemingly the most basic elements of fact and fiction cannot be agreed upon. “The Breakup” is a speculative work that follows on those two novels, essentially asking what happens if, ultimately, we cannot come together as a country, rooted in reality?
The main action takes place over the span of a few weeks in the year 2045 and focuses on married couple Natalie and Asher. He is an economist and former academic now working for a (possibly) good billionaire running an institute that studies human and non-human intelligence in Silicon Valley. She is a poet and essayist who has found herself an occasional cultural lightning rod for expressing opinions possibly at odds with liberal dogma.
The couple has been living separately for months as Natalie has failed to thrive in Silicon Valley as Asher’s plus-one among the tech intelligentsia and instead retreated to a rural outpost in Tennessee, their home when Asher was an administrator at Vanderbilt.The country is also going through a period of “disunion” following a second Civil War from just under a decade earlier, really a series of terrorist insurgencies coming out of various, non-centralized factions in the southern states calling themselves WOMFAT (Well-Organized Militia Fighting American Tyranny). The war is recounted through a series of historical news articles by a journalist, Nicole Stokes, and disunion is the mutually agreed-upon solution to the problem of people in proximity to each other who cannot live together.
Natalie and Asher will be together to accompany their youngest child, Logan, on a tour of colleges that will have them bouncing between the United States and the new Free American Republic. The final deadline for each state and urban municipality to decide to stick with the U.S. or break away (Brexit-style) is approaching, as is the apparent inflection point where Asher and Natalie must decide if they are to be together or apart.
There is too much going on here for this novel to work, but Andersen is an uncommon writer, a skilled historical novelist as well as an astute cultural observer and historical interpreter. The novel explores the implications of economics, AI, media, politics, science, and other elements as they shape both the country and the individuals who live within it. The war is tech-mediated and gun-saturated, coordinated drone attacks mixed with bands of men in SUVs and trucks killing indiscriminately. Asher has an omnipresent AI assistant who serves as a kind of fixer/scheduler/confessor.
The institute Asher works for has used AI to tap into the memories of the oldest living creatures on earth (the giant sea turtle), unearthing testimony of the long history of mankind’s horrors.
Natalie wants a simpler life connected to nature and the land, but their Tennessee home may soon not be part of the United States.
It takes a while for the road trip to start, but once it does, I found myself invested in the well-being of these people, maybe even a little bit hopeful that both the small and big disunions in the story are not permanent or fatal.
But Andersen keeps introducing threats, both external and internal, and the reader can’t help but worry.
A one-of-a-kind book that only this writer could produce.
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “Villa Coco” by Andrew Sean Greer
2. “The Things We Never Say” by Elizabeth Strout
3. “My Husband’s Wife” by Alice Feeney
4. “Yesteryear” by Caro Claire Burke
5. “Daughter of Egypt” by Marie Benedict
— Lori H., Chicago
Lori feels like a good candidate for Ruth Ozeki’s world-spanning “A Tale for the Time Being.”
1. “The Passengers” by John Marrs
2. “The Passenger” by Lisa Lutz
3. “The Passenger” by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
4. “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show” by Jonathan Karl
5. “James” by Percival Everett
— Emilia K., Oak Lawn
I’m going to lean into Emilia’s theme and go with Vijay Khurana’s “The Passenger Seat.”
1. “Somebody’s Fool” by Richard Russo
2. “Everybody’s Fool” by Richard Russo
3. “The Deserters” by M.G. Lamb
4. “The Divide: Global Inequality from Conquest to Free Markets” by Jason Hickel
5. “The Shock Doctrine” by Naomi Klein
— Joe M., Kankakee
For Joe, I’m recommending the first installment of what is reported to be a long family saga of the 20th and 21st centuries, Jonathan Franzen’s “Crossroads.”
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com.
John Warner is the author of books including “More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI.” You can find him at biblioracle.com.
