Nathaniel Stein,
writer
for the New Yorker, dishes up an
inventively absurdist, dark comedy about an unassuming middle-aged man whose
life goes farcically off the rails in The Threat.
Melvin Levin is
a single, conscientious, rule-following, 41-year-old with a bad back. He lives alone in a New York City apartment, and his social
circle consists largely of bestowing good deeds upon an elderly neighbor. One
night while Melvin is anticipating a promotion at his totally nondescript job,
the boring, dull routine of his life is suddenly overturned when he receives a
“plain little note” in the mail: “Mr. Melvin Levin, I’m going to kill you,” the
note begins. “You’ve worn out my patients for the last time and your through…”
The unelaborate note, complete with poor grammar, becomes like a “flag planted
atop the mountain of bad luck” that was Melvin’s life. The threat produces a
ferocious sense of anxiety in Melvin, who--having lived with “unerring
politeness” and an “unceasing, almost superstitious rectitude, taking great
pains to avoid rubbing people the wrong way”--struggles to decipher whom he
might’ve wronged. Despite the chilling implications of the note, Melvin ultimately
becomes empowered and excited by the idea of having an anonymous, formidable
enemy, and he undergoes a hilarious life transformation.
Stein’s smart,
clever first novel will charm readers with a simple
premise that snowballs into a side-splitting, thought-provoking meditation
about how one man’s seemingly inconsequential life finally overflows with grandiose
meaning when faced with the prospect of death.
The Threat by Nathaniel Stein
Keylight Books (Turner
Publishing), $27.99 hardcover, 9781684429691, 192 pages
Publishing Date: January 16, 2024
To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org,
link HERE
NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being
posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this
review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (February
2, 2024), link HERE