Await Your Reply

A Novel

By: Dan Chaon

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne

Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

From the award-winning author of Among the Missing, Fitting Ends, and You Remind Me of Me, comes an ambitious, gripping, and beautifully written new novel about identity in the tradition of The Talented Mr. Ripley and Case Histories.

Three strangers who are trying to find their way in the wake of loss become entwined in an identity theft scheme, which has a resounding impact on them all.

Longing to get on with his life, Miles Cheshire nevertheless can't stop searching for his troubled twin brother, Hayden, who has been missing for ten years.

A few days after graduating from high school, Lucy Lattimore sneaks away from the small town of Pompey, Ohio, with her charismatic former history teacher. They arrive in Nebraska, in the middle of nowhere, at a long-deserted motel next to a dried-up reservoir, to figure out the next move on their path to a new life.

My whole life is a lie, thinks Ryan Schuyler, who has recently learned some shocking news. In response, he walks off the Northwestern University campus, hops on a bus, and breaks loose from his existence, which suddenly seems abstract and tenuous.

A gorgeously written psychological study, and a meditation on identity in the modern world, this is a literary novel with the haunting momentum of a thriller.

©2009 Dan Chaon (P)2009 Phoenix

Critic reviews

"This novel's structure echoes that of his well-received debut - also a book of threes - even as it bests that book's elegant prose, haunting plot and knockout literary excellence." ( Publishers Weekly)

Good But You Have to Wait For It.

Overall this book is very enjoyable. Not only is the story interesting, but Chaon offers up a series of scenarios that ask the question, sometimes a little heavy handed, of the true meaning of 'self.' Who are we? Are we really more than a name and a SSN? If people forget us, are we still alive?

One of the drawbacks of this book is that it takes a while to pull you in. The characters are not very lovable or interesting for the first 1/2 of the story, but once they truly begin to develop, you do start to care about them and are holding your breath to hear what happens next.

Be careful reading other reviews about this book...I did and some made comments about aspects of the story that I would have rather not known about. Just a friendly heads up.

So-so

(I wrote this as my review for goodreads) I listened to this as an audiobook so please excuse any mis-spellings. This review also has spoilers.

The only reason I kept going with this book was because I wanted to see how all of the characters would 'meet' or how the story would resolve, but the author didn't quite do that, and I was disappointed.

The book starts off really well, but then it drags for most of the middle, picking up again for the last third, then hitting you with an ending that is a real let down. The book description gives the impression that all of the characters are going to be related or come to some 'a-ha' moment together, but that isn't the case. There is one consistent character throughout all of the stories, (you don't realize this until the end though), but to me that isn't the same thing.

I really didn't care for any of the characters except Ryan, and at times even he got on my nerves.

The ending was really annoying because we have no idea why or who the last three folk are. We can guess that some identity or money stolen affected them, but there's no closure. It's like a Kay Scarpetta novel my book club just read - the entire book is about searching for a serial killer and then the killer turns out to be some random person that we were only introduced to when we were told he was the killer. I personally don't like stories like that - the killer/bad guys should be part of the plot, in my humble opinion, else what's the point? True, this book wasn't about the three Russians, but why couldn't we know what had been done to get them riled up and looking for Hayden?

I think early on we got the point that it's really easy to steal folks' identities; it's the rest of the story we were waiting on

Waiting and waiting for this story to get started.

Long drawn out character descriptions, but where is the plot? Three hours in and nothing is happening!

Well Narrated, but Thoroughly Depressing

Funny - or maybe not funny - but promising American writers like Dan Chaon tend to define literary realism as 'devoid of any human feelings aside from deep morbid depression.' Sure, it's well written, but each character that is introduced in Await Your Reply is less interesting and more dislikable than the last. There isn't a grain of humor in this book. If that is realism, let's have some fantasy.