Fair
Description
Eyan, homeless and all but invisible on the streets of Los Angeles, finds solace in the friendship of “the professor,” an erudite and tragic figure who reads to him from Milton’s Paradise Lost. But as Eyan falls under the spell of the epic tale, the sinister Paul and his gang of black-garbed “eyeless boys” establish a reign of daily terror in Skid Row. Swallowed up by the inevitability of consequences, Eyan wonders: if even angels find themselves at war, what hope exists for him?
Reviews
`The book's ultimate messages are in some ways straightforward, with Eyan a symbol of all the harmless individuals who slip through the cracks of a shamefully uncaring society. But the conclusions about who, or what is to blame for this are less clear--if there are indictments, they feel personal rather than structural. Fair ultimately leaves its readers to mull over the formidable Miltonian parallels around sin, fall, and redemption, and draw their own conclusions. '
- Phoebe Walker
`[Fair] made me step into a world where there is no meaning, or purpose, where every day is just a copy of the previous day, and people are ghosts in a mental state that is neither awake nor asleep. That middle place, where Eyan lives most of his life, is a tragic remembrance of all the people who are left behind by this society of ours. Broken lives, barely lived, and people who wonder around without a place to rest, owners only of their memories of what used to be a home. ... I cried reading this novel, for Eyan, for the professor, for all who have to live out there, in the open. '
- A. B. Neilly
`Though the story plants itself in dark territory, it's not devoid of hope; Eyan's notebook is an especially potent indicator that he continually strives to understand those around him. Seaward's narrative is smoothly nonlinear, lucidly depicting flashbacks and memories. And while Eyan's perspective isn't strictly reliable (he's completely unaware of how much time passes), supporting characters are distinctive. ... Relentlessly depressing but superbly composed story of a tragically lost soul. '
- Kirkus