I used to binge watch the tv show 24 with friends from college. In the beginning of the season 1 episodes, Jack Bauer would mournfully reflect on his circumstances and say, “I’m Jack Bauer, and this is the longest day of my life.”
To which one of my friends joked: “What about season 3? Is that the third longest day of his life?”
Generation Loss was published in 2007, which feels like an alternate timeline to what we’ve been through these last thirteen years. Yet Elizabeth Hand has tried to string the four books of her Cass Neary series together as if they have taken place over the course of several months.
I’m not sure it’s necessary and it definitely feels the strain here. Tromping about London high, drunk and trying to find her ex, Cass is suddenly thrust in 2020, where neo-Nazis march and the coronavirus looms over everything. She gets herself caught up in a Dan Brown-esque plot regarding the titular book and has to help one group, which also intersects with someone else of book’s past.
It could be that while I was reading this, the news of Donald Trump’s electoral defeat unfolded and provided a most pleasant distraction. But I found it tough to get into. Hand does such a great job with Cass, with the atmosphere, and other peripherals but the story never gelled for me. Too many coincidences, too predictable, too difficult to shoehorn Cass’ timeline into a contemporary era.
This may be worth another read at some point under different circumstances. If you like the Cass Neary novels, you’ll probably like this one too. It’s certainly not bad. Just didn’t rise to the heights of its predecessors.