Just finished Jonathan Raban's Surveillance, and I'm kind of looking over my shoulder. The novel is about American-style fear and paranoia post 9/11, about a group of people living in a Seattle where anti-terrorism drills are the order of the day. Two of the characters function as mouthpieces for various right wing/left wing schools of thought, but the others - namely a freelance writer and her preteen daughter - are just like the rest of us: confused, anxious, sometimes positive their civil liberties are taking a beating and other times thinking that's not such a bad thing.
Everybody's watching everybody, and how much good it's doing us is anybody's guess.
Raban also refuses to spoonfeed us answers; Surveillance is the sort of book that forces you to think. For that, Mr. Raban: Thank you!
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