In Philip Anderson's
Landing in Andonia
, Middle America is just what it seems--neon-lit strip malls, run-down apartment complexes, third-tier colleges, and streets named after notable locals. It's daily grit and grind, one worthwhile coffee shop, and taxidermied wildlife for interior décor. Or is it? For Chris (a failing medical school student) and Lily (an unemployed dance instructor), it's certainly much more, or maybe much less. Middle America is both escape and capture: fleeing the obligations and expectations of the past, Chris and Lily find themselves stuck there, haunted in the present by lost friends, unstable psyches, dwindling ambitions, and the twinned specters of damaged love and unfulfilling sex. Readers will recognize the day-to-day of Andonia, Illinois, but not quite. In Andonia, all is twisted and maybe nothing is true, especially its history. With Chris and Lily, readers will also recognize themselves, but again, not quite. What they seek, and who they hope to become, wars within these characters against a vein of vice hidden within the humdrum. Philip Anderson's
is an inventive, elusive novelette that demands to be reread before its secrets and sayings, its humor and depth, will be fully revealed.