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Author finds success in ‘Lost City’

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by Matt Sanders

Thursday, February 8, 2007

In Daniel Alarcón's literary world, a war-weary nation listens, ears pressed to the radio, to the static of its broken terrain, praying to find both its innumerous lost and its forgotten self. Norma, with her honey-drenched voice, hosts "Lost City Radio," the last national program where callers from the barrios to the mountains wait all week to rain in calls, hoping to be reunited with those lost in the chaos of war and its aftermath.

Only on the air do the lost become found.

Essentially, three characters tie together the paper trail of instance and memory that comes to provide the bulk of the novel. Norma provides the nation with some much-needed maternal union. Though she is never able to be a mother herself, people revere her as a queen throughout the nation's central city. Often pegged by voice alone, people cling to her as an oracle. Alarcón excellently writes of her frivolous and romantic youth, followed by the slow loss and quiet pain that proceeds.

Ten years prior to when the novel begins, Norma's husband Rey went missing and has never been heard from since. His name meaning Spanish for "king," Rey gave Norma's life a solid paternity and sovereignty. Rey, a botanist and teacher, binds the story with intrigue, and much is done to consistently veil his true name and nature. He also comes to sprinkle the story with some much-appreciated moments of fun. Norma often recalls the times he sings inspiring off-key ballads to embarrass her as well as how he could make love to her on a whim with a child watching through an open door. His proposal to her is also comical and unexpected. But Rey grows inseparable from his work, and often ventures out into the thick, verdant jungle, a terrain Norma is isolated from.

Lastly, there is Victor — the mysterious boy who comes to Norma and her show with a secret that could perhaps give new clues about Rey. Alarcón does his best writing as he explicates the turmoil of young Victor's past, citing turbulent trials and the vivid horrors of loss. "Happiness, he'd decided, was a kind of amnesia," Victor opines, himself a vestige of hope, in what comes as one of the best lines in the novel.

While other characters do make their way into the mix, rarely do they act as more than steppingstones. Even so, people such as Norma's fat and tender boss Elmer, Ray's astute uncle Trino and Victor's lonely mother Adela, give the other main characters some breathing room. Alarcón also takes pains to make minor people on the street important, noticeable and integral.

Using strained memory and flashback, Alarcón weaves together his three interesting characters with surprising poise and craft. In his nameless, faceless city — which undoubtedly comes from the Americas — these three give a binding thread of voice, union and hope to the people.

Although "Lost City Radio" shows ornate discipline and powerful characters, parts of it wane and shuffle. Daniel Alarcón is a bit of a literary prodigy. With a Bachelor of Arts at Columbia, Master of Fine Arts at Iowa Writers' Workshop, a Fulbright Scholarship and published material in The New Yorker and Harper's, he is no less than a golden boy of fiction. Despite having the best education and accolades the United States has to offer, his writing lacks greatness. He writes in the style of radio, hedging together past and present clips with quiet finesse. The chapters flow nicely and the novel rarely seems belabored. Yet the words rarely dazzle, the moments never glow with enclaves of meaning and the text fails to actualize its potential to give an illuminating thought or an enriching idea.

Heralded as in the vein of Conrad, Orwell and Huxley, Alarcón is unmet and unrealized. His pathos also rarely makes that emphatic tug at the heart, and a few flashbacks rest too long on subjects and feel like unnecessary space-fillers. Not to be too critical, a few moments of precise image, complex emotion and pause for reflection do make themselves apparent. However, the most depth finds itself in the superb plot.

While Alarcón fails to live up to the prestige of his titles, the failure holds much promise, if not solid strokes of brilliance. "Lost City Radio" comes as a quick and mostly enjoyable read. Alarcón is a writer worth giving a chance, and definitely one to watch.

Daniel Alarcón will be appearing at A Room of One's Own bookstore, located at 307 W. Johnson St., to promote his book on Feb. 16 at 6 p.m.

Grade: 3.5 out of 5

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Anonymous (February 8, 2007 @ 5:22pm):

I have read Alarcon's two books and many of hispublished stories and I respectfully disagree with your assessment. I think this novel is agood if not better than his stories. I wish him great success. I will be on the look for another treat....

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