Thy Neighbor

Publishers Weekly

In Vincent’s disappointing fiction debut, narrator Nick, equally misanthropic and self-hating, drinks all night and feels sorry for himself all day (“Depressed? Destroyed? Crushed beneath the boot heel of fate? Why, yes. I suppose so”)—not without cause, perhaps, considering the horrific family crime that derailed his comfortable suburban existence more than a decade ago. He continues to reside in the home in which the crime happened, and to distract himself from his misery, he enlists a cable TV installer to plant hidden recording equipment in his ill-behaved neighbors’ bedrooms, bathrooms, and anywhere else that might provide a chance for Nick to see something awful (which, of course, he does). When Nick, desperate to get out of his own head, befriends his one decent neighbor, Mrs. Bloom, a widow with no family who suffered a tragedy years ago, he discovers the heartbreaking event that links her life and his. But what part in all this does the dangerously unhappy family next door play? We’ll have to wait and see. Vincent’s prose is choppy and overwrought, the characters for the most part unpleasant. This is a disappointing foray into psychological fiction from a journalist known for the high-concept nonfiction books Self-Made Man and Voluntary Madness. (Aug.)

Library Journal

This first novel by the author of nonfiction works Self-Made Man and Voluntary Madness is an absorbing psychological mystery about Nick Walsh, a thirtysomething resident of a Midwestern suburb who lost both his parents in a mysterious murder-suicide more than a decade ago. He is still wallowing in self-pity and inertia, drinking himself daily into oblivion, hanging out at a singles bar with his rich and seedy friend Dave, and carrying on an affair with a woman named Monica, about whom he knows nothing. Out of boredom, Nick begins to spy on his neighbors, planting electronic devices in their houses and viewing them on a computer in his basement, witnessing, among other things, disintegrating marriages and nightmarish parental discipline. Mysterious notes begin appearing in his house, followed up by an anonymous contact on Facebook from someone who wants to talk about his past. Nick begins to piece together clues provided by his nameless correspondent and discovers that his aloof lawyer father and his mother, a bored housewife with a Ph.D. in English literature, were hiding more than just their disdain for suburban Midwestern life. VERDICT The author has constructed an involving if occasionally overwrought story. The depiction of depraved excesses, along with some of the neighbors' more bizarre behavior, provides a vivid and warped background as the novel delves into the characters' motivations and emotions with empathy and acuity. [See Prepub Alert, 2/5/12.]—Jim Coan, SUNY Coll. at Oneonta