The World of Tomorrow

Starred review from May 15, 2017
Three Irish brothers tumble through New York during an eventful two weeks in June 1939, in Mathews’s masterful debut novel. Francis, temporarily released to attend his father’s funeral from the prison where he was being held for distributing pornographic literature, is in possession of some IRA cash he bungled into in the wake of a bomb blast. Francis has conceived an audacious plan to make it to America posing as a Scottish aristocrat, and is turning a few American heiresses’ heads in the process. With him is his brother Michael, on leave from the seminary for the same funeral, who was shell-shocked by the explosion that netted Francis his money and has struck up a friendship with the ghost of Irish poet William Butler Yeats. Their older brother, Martin, is already in New York, where he is trying to make a living as a jazz musician, to the chagrin of his politically connected in-laws. Once reunited, the brothers are pursued by Cronin, a former IRA hit man who has retired to a farm on the Hudson River, and his menacing boss Gavigan, who concocts a sinister plan involving the visit of the British royalty to the World’s Fair being held at that time in New York. Despite its length, this novel is a remarkably fast and exhilarating read, reminiscent of Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Like a juggler keeping multiple balls in the air, Mathews regularly adds new characters and their complicated stories to the volatile mix, without losing track of the original ones. With the wit of a ’30s screwball comedy and the depth of a thoroughly researched historical novel, this one grabs the reader from the beginning to its suspenseful climax. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman Literary.

Starred review from June 15, 2017
Mathews' colorful debut novel examines the legacy of Irish political violence for a family in both the old country and New York during one busy week in 1939.Francis Dempsey, who has been jailed for selling banned books and luxury items, gets a furlough from Dublin's Mountjoy Jail for his father's funeral. There, he is joined by his unhappy seminarian brother, Michael, and several old Irish Republican Army buddies of his father's, who rig an escape for the brothers that involves an IRA bomb factory. There, an accidental explosion leaves Michael shellshocked and the brothers in possession of a Republican war chest. Francis uses the money to present himself as a Scottish lord and books passage for himself and his brother to New York on the RMS Britannic. His fake title leads Francis to a wealthy Manhattan girlfriend and a dangerous role in a New York mob boss's plans. Michael's dazed state leads to a fascinating relationship with the restless ghost of the recently deceased William Butler Yeats. Meanwhile--and there's a lot of meanwhile in this busy doorstop--a third Dempsey brother, Martin, who has been in New York for 10 years, is trying to get a jazz band together for his sister-in-law's wedding reception and impress recording legend John Hammond. But the bride-to-be, who performs synchronized swimming as an AquaBelle at the World's Fair, is having second thoughts about her nuptials after a night at the Plaza Hotel with Francis. Among the many splashes of New York atmosphere, the strongest are snapshots of the city's prewar musical frenzy. Weaving through it all is an old IRA enforcer with a tragic tie to the Dempseys who found escape on an upstate New York farm until the mob boss forces him to find the war chest and Francis. Mathews' debut shows impressive control of this narrative cornucopia, although his reliance on characters' thoughts to propel the plot can be tiresome. It's not Doctorow's Ragtime, but there's a similar feel in this impressive, wide-ranging debut.

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This cheerfully overstuffed audiobook is a lot of fun if you don't expect it to do anything it's not trying to do. The plot is in the style of a Depression-era comic strip or penny dreadful, never convincing but often entertaining (though a good editor wouldn't have hurt.) The setting is the New York of the 1939 World's Fair, and the cast of characters include jazz musicians, IRA terrorists, millionaire arrivistes and imposters, a medium, and a young priest whom an explosion has rendered deaf and mute who is accompanied everywhere by the ghost of poet W.B. Yeats. Graham Halstead's enthusiastic performance is great with, say, the shifting accents of the Irish ex-con pretending to be a Scottish lord, and is game and lively throughout. B.G. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Starred review from September 1, 2017
Francis Dempsey, on furlough from prison to attend his father's funeral with his seminarian brother Michael, escapes with help from the IRA. When an accidental explosion at a safe house-and-bomb factory leaves three dead and Michael shell-shocked, Francis books passage for him and Michael, posing as Scottish royalty and aided in their ruse by a trunk full of stolen IRA money. The plan is to reunite with eldest brother Martin, who is trying to make a name for himself in the burgeoning New York jazz scene while struggling to support his wife and young children. Francis sets to courting the daughter of an industrial titan, while impaired Michael, accompanied by the ghost of William Butler Yeats, gets lost in the city and befriended by Lily Bloch, a Czech photographer hoping to delay her return to Nazi-occupied Prague. The IRA wants its money back, but the local boss sees an opportunity to use Francis and his assumed aristocratic identity in an assassination plot when English royalty visit the 1939 World's Fair, dubbed the World of Tomorrow. As everything rolls toward an adrenaline-fueled finale, Mathews brilliantly creates characters who embody the esprit de corps of immigrants and movingly explores themes of class, society, race, and family. For fans of Michael Chabon and E. L. Doctorow.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

Starred review from May 15, 2017

DEBUT Creative writing and literature professor Mathews's (Bard Coll. at Simon's Rock) first novel is all you could want in a piece of popular fiction. The tension never lets up, and the story is fast and mind-spinningly complicated. The many characters are well fleshed out; with few exceptions, you care about them. In 1939, storm clouds are gathering across the Atlantic, but the New York World's Fair promises an exciting future ("Asbestos: The Miracle Mineral," proclaims one exhibit). This massive yet charming book delivers guns and explosives, an elaborate con perpetrated on a rich New York family by a fake Scottish laird who's really a runaway Irish convict hunted by the IRA, menacings galore, and a man who threatens to kill anyone who stands in his way. There's suspense, humor, love, of both the doomed and requited varieties, and even a ghost of the poet William Butler Yeats. VERDICT This novel should prove irresistible to anyone wanting a diverting read. It's quality stuff--and fun. [See Prepub Alert, 4/1/17.]--David Keymer, Modesto, CA

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