Cyclorama by Adam Langer

​I found this author’s books ages ago in a public library and positively tore through them. Not a prolific writer, but such a good one. So naturally when I saw his latest come up on Netgalley, I was intrigued…and excited to revisit a past favorite to see how it holds up.
The result is a somewhat mixed bag marred by nostalgia and personal impressions, but then again, that’s any reviews, so then…
Cyclorama is an ambitious, sprawling, competent literary novel that’s easier to appreciate than love. For me appreciation comes from recognizing the complexity of themes, quality of writing, etc. and love comes from personal engagement with the story and its characters. So then, the latter left something to be desired. I didn’t really care for any of the novel’s characters and There. Were. Many. Enough to warrant a personae dramatis.
The basic plot follows a group of teenagers involved in their high school production of a play about Anne Frank under the auspices of a nasty pedo-leaning teacher.
Fast forward forty years to the divisive election year of 2016 and that teacher is turning 77. You, the reader, get to revisit each of the kids now as middle-aged adults to see how their early experiences had echoed and reverberated throughout their life and what sort of people they became.
Langer is a master writer, no question; and his character writing is absolutely first rate, whether you like the characters he is writing or not. The layered complexity and flawed nature of them is laid bare for your perusal and judgement. The nature and nurture collide to create personalities as individual as they are complicated. For that alone, the novel is well worth a read. Is does that thing good/real literature can do splendidly.
Does emotional intelligence on page translate into emotional engagement by the reader? That’s a different and likely highly individualized sort of thing, so user mileage may vary. But this is an undeniably strong book. Thanks Netgalley.