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“A dazzling, remarkably original dark comedy about a young New Yorker’s failed attempts to isolate himself in a city that won’t take solitude for an answer.
For years it’s been Andy Green’s job to stump students nationwide by coming up with the wrong answers for their multiple choice tests. Recently, however, his own life has become overwhelmed by wrong choices. When a love affair is mysteriously ended by post-it note and followed up by a random street assault, Andy locks himself in his Hell’s Kitchen apartment, because it’s the only response that makes sense. In solitude, he thinks, he might be able to get a grip on his life. But when he is forced to reemerge six months after the attacks of September eleventh, the city awaiting him is more bewildering than ever and all the people in his world seem to be part of a vast conspiracy.
Equal parts noir, French farce, and homage to New York, Suspension is a surprisingly heartfelt novel about learning to live in a world where nearly everything is decided behind our backs.”
WINNER OF TWO LAMBDA LITERARY AWARDS
“Just in case anyone was worried about where the new novelists were going to come from—the ones who’d be able to bring a fresh voice and vision to the world as it is right now—here’s Robert Westfield, with a beauty of a book that delves with almost frightening acuity into culture, sexual identity, and violence on both personal and global levels, among other vitally important matters. The fact that he is able to do so while creating fully human, comic and tragic characters, and to move them through a compelling story, is little short of a miracle.”
Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize-winning Author of The Hours
"With pitch-perfect wit and the soul of an astonishing dramatist, Robert Westfield weaves for us a modern fictive dream riddled with breathtaking surprises. When I reached the final page and closed his wild ride of a book, I woke to my own beloved and crazy metropolis as if with new eyes. His is a bold literary debut."
Martin Moran, Author of The Tricky Part
"Westfield wryly paints a series of seemingly unrelated events against a post-9/11 backdrop. Rife with eccentric characters...Suspension hits upon a paradoxical truth: Our lives can seem both random yet strangely interconnected."
Entertainment Weekly
"A book that's never where you expect it to be. I don't generally stay up past midnight reading books anymore.
This had me up two nights running."
Charlie Huston, Author of Six Bad Things
"Suspension is a unique and interesting perspective on the New York City of today. And, as far as I'm concerned,
the most authentic one I've read to date."
Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Author of I Am Not Myself These Days
“Had it been set anywhere but New York City, Westfield’s raucous debut would be viewed as an absurdist tale, but in the shadow of 9/11 and bolstered by Westfield’s accessible prose, it’s a striking portrait of life in the Big Apple.”
Publisher’s Weekly
"Gay-bashing, 9/11, free-floating paranoia and fanaticism make pretty grim ingredients for a comedy, however dark, but this ambitious debut ably wrests smart laughs from terror…The story crosses whodunit…and comedy of manners, offering a hip catalogue of urban misadventure and malaise…Westfield keeps things moving with snappy dialogue and wry character descriptions…and the frantic pace feels very up-to-the-New-York-minute. A head-spinning romp."
Kirkus Reviews
"What is remarkable about this first novel is that Westfield combines so many diverse (and entertaining) elements — mystery, romance and comedy — in a book that never trivializes the most terrible event in the history of a great American city."
Joe Meyers, The Connecticut Post
"Best debut of the year, this one. This beauty of a book dares to use the backdrop of 9/11 without diluting the humor of its dark, comic edge. Farce, romance, mystery, coming of age, political commentary: it straddles the genres."
Richard Labonte, Books to Watch Out For
"One of the most creative, original and enjoyable novels I have read in a long time, "Suspension" has so many layers to enjoy ... personal diary, post-9/11 hysteria, social commentary, homage to NYC beauty and spirit, mystery, suspense, farce vs reality, mistaken identities, romance, coming of age, and lots of humor. A friend who was nearby said I actually said "Wow!" a few times while reading it. Much recommended, five big stars out of five."
Lambda Rising
"It is an impressive debut: well-written, well-edited, and hopefully, equally well-received. The prose is frugal, yet alight with the wordplay that Andy--and clearly Westfield--so much admires...Westfield doesn't take his reader for granted--he takes us for a ride instead. Spry and agile, the book is accomplished because it depends equally on plot and characterization while upending our expectations of both."
Brien Michael, The Quarterly Conversation
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