The Daredevils

March 7, 2016
Existential questions are continually debated in this muddled novel from Amdahl (Visigoth), which takes place in America in the early 20th century. As a foreign war brews, union organizers are beginning to flex their muscles. Meanwhile, Charles Minot, born to a wealthy family, ponders where his place is in life, in his family, and in the universe. Living in San Francisco, Charles has an auspicious start in life as a well-known boy soprano who performs classical music with his mother. As an adult, he runs a theater (where he also performs), meeting an actress named Vera with a millworking background who is caught up in the burgeoning worker's movement. Some time after the theater is bombedâwhich may have originated in union dissatisfactionâCharles's father sets him up in Minnesota to mediate problems between wheat farmers and businessmen. Vera, accompanying him, becomes more drawn to union politics. Though there are some interesting themesâcan a man of privilege really understand the plight of the working poor? How far can one go to sacrifice for the common good?âthere's too much going on here, and the myriad philosophical ruminations and confusing dream-like passages undermine the story.

December 1, 2015
Amid the violent labor struggles of early-20th-century America, the wealthy son of a prominent San Francisco family immerses himself in theater and politics and obsesses over the distinction (or lack thereof) between performance and "real" life. All the world's a stage in Amdahl's (The Intimidator Still Lives in Our Hearts, 2013, etc.) dense, sometimes confounding novel. The bulk of the action takes place in the run-up to America's entry into World War I. Charles Minot, son of a mover and shaker with connections to Theodore Roosevelt, is staging a production of Henry James' The American at his family's theater. Self-serious and insecure, Charles becomes involved with Vera, one of his actresses, and through her dives headfirst into the gritty world of radical labor activists. After Charles' affiliation with alleged anarchists is revealed in the press, his theater is bombed during a performance. Charles and Vera repair to the Midwest, where they consort with a colorful cast of unionists and their adversaries and revel in the performative nature of "reality." This obsession with life as theater is provocative, but the idea is explored so often and so pointedly ("He was not free of the necessary falseness of reality, not free of the stage, but wished to be") that it becomes challenging to invest in the characters. Amdahl's command of language is powerful, but the emotional payoff isn't commensurate with the intellectual investment required to appreciate this ambitious novel. So immersed is Amdahl in the politics of the era and the philosophical questions at the novel's core that he too often sacrifices clarity for concept.

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