It Is Called "The Locals," Not "The Locos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                           Let  me start by saying that this is one of the best novels I have read this year.  Along with "Lincoln In The Bardo," it could make my Ten Best List.  Even if I hadn't been reading all this Brat Pack stuff, Jonathan Dee's novel would still be refreshing, because he is such a wise and insightful writer.

                                           Small town stories will come and go.  Telling them is timeless, but their dynamics change, with the times.  They have moved from the scandalous exposition of Sinclair Lewis, Henry Bellamy, and, of course, the gold standard, "Peyton Place," by Grace Metalious; beyond the florid romanticism of Helen Hooven Santmyer's "....And Ladies Of The Club," to a calmer, more objective depiction of life outside urban locales.

                                             And Jonathan Dee leads the movement.  He brilliantly objectified city life with "The Privileges," now he does the same with the small Massachusetts town in "The Locals."

                                              The title refers both to the citizens of Howland, Massachusetts, and to the Firth family, who seem to embody it.  One thing that puzzled me was its opening.  The novel begins with a nameless narrator who has to keep his identity low profile, because he is a registered sex offender.  I was waiting for the big reveal throughout the book, but none is given.  I was sure either Mark's brother, Gerry, or his work partner, Barrett Taylor, would be the one, but now I am forced to think it was Philip Hadi, as he and his family leave as mysteriously as they arrive.  But no confirmation is given.  This is my one criticism of this book.  Dee should not have left this dangling.  He began the book the way he did for a reason, so he needs to clarify that reason.  Or at least confirm that I am right--or wrong.

                                               As for the dynamics of the Firths, they are universally entertaining--priggish, self-righteous Mark; his resentful wife Karen; their daughter, Haley, who rebels in a way I should have when visiting Hollis House in Louisiana; martyred daughter Candace, and Renee, the unseen sibling, hated by all, because she escaped to Colorado.   I knew these people well, and there are components of myself, and I am guessing all of us, in them.  I couldn't stop reading  this book, wondering how it would end.  Its ending is exactly right.

                                               Jonathan Dee has written one of this year's best books.  But who is the sex offender, John?  I wish he had told us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                "The Locals" will resonate with anyone living, or having lived, in a small town.  With this book, Dee becomes the latest sage chronicler of the hinterland.