A review by notenoughbooks
Surrender, New York by Caleb Carr

1.0

I don't usually write reviews for fiction, since what people find appealing varies so much that my opinion probably isn't all that meaningful to anyone but me. But this time I needed the catharsis. I wrote out a scathing review detailing my problems with Surrender, New York. And then for no particular reason, just before posting, I indulged in a google's worth of curiosity about Caleb Carr. I had known nothing about him except that he wrote The Alienist and its sequel, which is why I picked this book up with optimism and slogged all the way through it despite steadily-waning enthusiasm. His lengthy Wikipedia entry describes his upbringing in sufficient detail to tell me that the ludicrous plot, poorly-realized characterizations, and nonsensical motivations in Surrender, New York make much more sense as an angry attempt by the author to lash out against his abusive past. The unrealistic dialogue, the racism, and the misrepresentation of psychological "facts" and processes are not clarified so easily, but I can feel slightly less offended by them if I understand that none of that was the author's priority.

"Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about." Unless they wrote about it on their Wikipedia page, in which case you do know a bit about it after all.

As a reader, I was deeply disappointed in Surrender, New York and regret the time I spent on it. As a human being, I sincerely hope that Carr found some solace and/or answers in what seems to have been a deeply personal exercise that inexplicably made it past editors and publishers and into the wider world.