Stephen Amidon on writing The New City
“Amidon’s book is an honest and searching look at the human relationships that are at the root of abstract categories like race and class and at the centre of often equally abstract communities, whether urban or suburban, real or imagined. It reminds us that while environments can be rigorously planned for maximum uplift, there is no accounting for human behaviour.”Tom Vanderbilt LA Times
“Stephen Amidon’s extraordinary fourth novel…The most obvious comparison is with Tom Wolfe, although the novel is closer in texture to Dreiser’s An American Tragedy. Like his naturalist predecessor, Amidon explores the ways in which our motives are never quite our own; the sense that the random is constantly undermining whatever scripts we have tried to write for ourselves.”Graham Caveney The Independent
“a powerful page-turner…. it will be worth waiting to see how many more home runs he hits.”Alan Mahar New Statesman
“Riviting…In its energetic exploration of prejudice and in its sheer dramatic power, “The New City” is a potent, resonant novel.”
Sherri Hallgren Pitsburg Post Gazette
Interview in The Times
BOOK OF THE YEAR: Colin Harrison, Hartford Courant; Ottakars Bookshops.
BOOKS OF THE YEAR include: Los Angeles Times, Sunday Times, Washington Post, Independent, Glasgow Herald.
July 9, 2009 at 8:51 am
Stephen
I have just completed reading the fifty great American modern novels (my list) which included THE NEW CITY. I profoundly enjoyed your book. It was a towering achievement. An incredibly moorish and enjoyable read. It made my top five alongside Slaughterhouse five, Bonfire of the Vanities, Lonesome Dove and In Cold Blood. Now I am free from the list I will check out the rest of your novels.
Very best
Mark Grant