Radio Iris

June 4, 2012
Gen-Y has an angst-ridden poster girl in Iris Finch, a 24-year-old receptionist at a nondescript American office, exhausted after days of doing nothing and dreaming of strange images: a house in the desert, a cluster of windmills. While blasting the radio to drown out her loneliness, Iris listlessly searches for the joy she once found in everyday things. But even when her boss starts behaving suspiciously, her co-workers begin to vanish, and a mysterious tenant appears in the office space next door, Iris still feels bored, and sometimes, so does the reader. Amid the mystery growing around her, Iris is keenly perceptive but nearly unnoticeable, like a radio receiverâlistening, observing, responding to the increasingly odd events with cryptic messages written on napkins and stashed in drawers. Her love of music makes for a pleasant soundtrack that speaks to Iris's longing for connection, and her fear of disappearing into an unremarkable life builds and then dissipates like dust in the desert wind. Meanwhile, her brother Neil struggles with the memory of a childhood tragedy he can't shake, and which taints his connection to Iris. Kinney's debut novel reads like an indie movie, meandering through short chapters with a staccato rhythm and interspersed with jolts of reality that wake the reader out of the novel's dream with a sad smile.