Idiopathy

April 15, 2013
Byers’s debut novel starts promisingly but bogs down thanks to a particularly unpleasant main character, Katherine. She, Daniel, and Nathan are three friends in London whose lives are going through a rough patch. Once a couple, Katherine and Daniel have broken up, and Nathan has emerged from a long stint in rehab. As Daniel settles into a cushy new job and a relationship with the sanctimonious Angelina, Katherine distracts herself with a series of meaningless affairs, while Nathan moves back in with his parents, to learn that his mother has become a self-help guru. Initially, Katherine is bright, sassy, and fun, but after she gets pregnant, she seems to snap, reflexively saying cruel things and behaving obnoxiously to everyone she meets. The minimal storyline, in which Nathan persuades his old friends to get together for one last evening’s carouse, hardly helps the book, while a subplot about a mysterious illness striking England’s cattle adds little. Byers can write scenes with humor and sketches some memorable supporting characters—Nathan’s parents cry out for more space—but the work never recovers from the decision to afflict the heroine with what reads like a severe personality disorder. Agent: Peter Straus, Rogers, Coleridge & White (U.K.).