The Land of Steady Habits
Ted Thompson, 2014
Little, Brown
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316186568
Summary
Anders Hill, entering his early sixties and seemingly ensconced in the "land of steady habits"—a nickname for the affluent, morally strict hamlets of Connecticut that dot his commuter rail line—abandons his career and family for a new condo and a new life. Stripped of the comforts of his previous identity, Anders turns up at a holiday party full of his ex-wife's friends and is suprised to find that the very world he rejected may be one he needs.
Thus Anders embarks on a clumsy, hilarious, and heartbreaking journey to reconcile his past with his present. Like the early work of John Updike, Ted Thompson's first novel finely observes a man in deep conflict with his community.
With compassion for its characters and fresh insight into the American tradition of the "suburban narrative," The Land of Steady Habits introduces an auspicious talent. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1981
• Raised—Westport, Connecticut, USA
• Education—M.F.A., Iow Writers' Workshop
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Ted Thompson is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, where he was awarded a Truman Capote Fellowship. His work has appeared in Tin House and Best New American Voices, among other publications. He was born in Connecticut, lives in Brooklyn with his wife, and teaches fiction at the Sackett Street Writer's Workshop. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Ted Thompson's elegiac yet bighearted take on adult disillusionment earns its comparisons to suburbans bards such as Updike and Cheever
Wall Street Journal
[M]asterful...The opening paragraph in a novel is like the first shot in a movie: a good one tells you everything. And Ted Thompson's stunning debut cranes right into the thick of it.
Town & Country
Late-life divorce is the subject of Thompson’s acutely written first novel.... [T]he author proves to be as keen an observer of this social scene as his literary forebears, Cheever and Updike. Anders, Helene, their children, lovers and friends, might not be the most likable group of characters you’ll come across, but the author humanizes them in a way that makes their problems relatable.
Publishers Weekly
As a rebellious teen, Anders Hill rejects his father's plans for his future and succeeds on his own. In doing so, he finds himself in the land of steady habits, commuting to a finance job in Manhattan from a bedroom community in Connecticut.... [A] story replete with characters searching for something other than what they have.... [A] book by a young, upcoming writer. —Joanna Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Libs., Providence
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Filled with heartache and humor, this assured, compassionate first novel channels the suburban angst of Updike and Cheever, updating the narrative of midlife dissatisfaction with a scathing dissection of America's imploding economy...with pitch-perfect prose and endearingly melancholy characters, Thompson offers up a heartbreaking vision of an ailing family and country.
Booklist
[T]he soul-crushing consequences of suburban prosperity is modernized here as a successful financier looks around his life and sees a wasteland. Southerner Anders Hill went to great lengths to avoid the upstanding conformity his father had planned for him, but at age 60, he's not sure what difference it's made.... [A] searing portrait of American wealth unraveling that is both dazzling and immeasurably sad.
Kirkus Reviews
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