Asymmetry

Starred review from December 15, 2017
Two seemingly unrelated novellas form one delicately joined whole in this observant debut.Halliday writes first, in Folly, of Alice, an editor in New York during the second Bush presidency, and her relationship with Ezra, a well-known and much older author. Alice struggles to establish her own identity at a time when Ezra's health concerns focus his attention on mortality. Through their occupations and their relationship, the lovers examine the nature of story. "Who knows if it's any good," Ezra says of his manuscript at one point. "It's a funny business, this. Making things up. Describing things." Alice's roles as both a literary gatekeeper and a much younger companion are an important, related dichotomy. Art is omnipresent; music and baseball, too, become the rhythm that runs beneath the melody of the couple's interaction. Alice wants to write about herself, but she "doesn't seem important enough." The lovers' age difference adds gravity to their relationship and the stories they each tell. The second part of the book, Madness, initially appears to be wholly unrelated to the first: Amar, an Iraqi-American economist, is detained at Heathrow on his way to visit his brother in Kurdistan in 2008. Halliday hints at her strategy, though: "Death is the dark backing a mirror needs if we are to see anything," says Amar as he's detained, quoting Bellow. Amar's story is darker, filled with grief, and alternates between flashbacks and the present day. Though nothing is obvious about the connection of Amar's story to Alice's, the author gently highlights notes from the first story, and the juxtaposition of the two tales is further complicated--and illuminated--by the addition of a third and final section that brings them together.A singularly conceived graft of one narrative upon another; what grows out of these conjoined stories is a beautiful reflection of life and art.

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Starred review from January 29, 2018
Halliday, recipient of a 2017 Whiting Award, crafts a stellar and inventive debut, a puzzle of seemingly incongruous pieces that, in the end, fit together perfectly. In the early aughts, young NYC book editor Alice embarks on an affair with Ezra, a surprisingly kind older novelist. As the American military conflict in Iraq escalates, Alice and Ezra flit into and out of each other lives, bonding over the Red Sox, Scrabble, and Ezra’s failure to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. After a health scare lands Ezra in the hospital, Alice must decide the future of their relationship. The second, decidedly different section follows Amar, an Iraqi-American of complicated provenance who has been detained at Heathrow Airport on his way to Iraq. Alternating between the customs official’s curt interrogation of Amar and flashbacks to his life in America, the sequence draws the background violence of the earlier section violently into the foreground without sacrificing any of the former’s momentum or humor. A singular collision of forms, tones, and arguments, the novel provides frequent delights and never explains too much. Any reader who values innovative fiction should treasure this. Agent: Chris Parris-Lamb, Gernert Company.

February 1, 2018

In the first of two stories making up this debut novel, a young woman named Alice becomes involved with a famous, much older, literary prize-winning author. As their relationship deepens, the questions relevant to a seasoned man of the world in later life contrast with those of his naive, inexperienced paramour. The second story concerns Iraqi American Amar, who is detained at Heathrow while traveling to see his brother in Kurdistan via London and eventually denied entry to the UK. During his 36 hours in detention, he recalls his childhood and why he chose to be American while his brother chose to be Iraqi. The story ends abruptly in disaster, and the book circles back to Ezra years after his affair with Alice, the single thread connecting the two equally well-told stories. While the first story may have readers wondering about the characters' motivations (does Ezra think he is fooling anybody by calling Alice his assistant?), the second builds a picture of life as a dual national, the eventual need to pick a side, and the consequences. VERDICT Full of choices and of opposites--young/old, seasoned/novice, American/Iraqi--this thought-provoking book is evocative of the world we live in today. Highly recommended for readers of literary fiction. [See Prepub Alert, 8/21/17.]--Joanna Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Libs., Providence

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Starred review from January 1, 2018
Halliday's beautiful debut novel is written in three distinct parts. In the first, Alice, a young editor in New York, embarks on a relationship with Ezra, a much older, multi-Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist. Though they are decades apart, the two find commonality in their love of literature, music, and baseball, and their relationship steadily grows stronger and more loving as the old millennium gives way to the new. In the novel's second part, readers meet Amar, an Iraqi American who is being detained at Heathrow Airport en route to his brother in Kurdistan. Amar's story is told mostly in flashbacks, illuminating both the joys of his family and also the tragedies of a war-torn country and its people. Amar's and Alice's stories are, at first glance, completely unrelated and can easily be enjoyed as such. Halliday moves from sparse, purposeful prose in the first to an almost brooding narration in the second, and only the lightest touches seem to link them, until one final moment. The third and final section is an interview with Ezra, and it is here that Halliday deftly and subtly intersects the two disparate stories, resulting in a deep rumination on the relation of art to life and death.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)