Published by Scribner on January 21, 2014
What We've Lost Is Nothing is marketed as a suspense novel. Since the story fails to generate suspense, if I were evaluating it as a suspense novel, I would call it a failure. But marketing aside, What We've Lost Is Nothing tells a good story that features interesting and (for the most part) credible characters, and it has something worthy to say about contemporary urban issues. If you ignore the marketing claims, it is a novel that merits attention.
Mary Elizabeth McPherson, having skipped school to do Ecstasy with her friend, doesn't notice that her house is being burglarized. The house of Sophea's Cambodian parents has also been burglarized, as have the houses of a French chef named Étienne, an elderly man named Arthur who is losing his vision, a newlywed of questionable mental soundness named Alicia, and other homeowners on the block. The houses are on Ilios Lane in Oak Park, Illinois, and the community's history of encouraging diversity among homeowners (perhaps coupled with gentrification of a troubled neighborhood) plays a conspicuous role in the novel.
What have the residents of Ilios Lane lost? Mary's dad, Michael, happy that his daughter was unharmed, tells the press they've lost nothing, while secretly believing he's lost something (his manhood?) that he can't quite define. His comment is refuted by a blogger who suggests that neighborhood residents have lost their sense of security. The Cambodians lost the sense that they were safe in America from the wrathful spirits of their homeland. Arthur lost notebooks that contained years of work and might be in danger of losing his independence. Alicia and her husband were on vacation but what they lost might be their marriage. Étienne lost his carefully cultivated illusions, including the façade that he has built for himself. By the end of the novel, the reader wonders whether Michael and some other characters have lost their minds.
The novel's best moments are found in the contrasting perspectives and lifestyles of the neighborhood residents. The Cambodians (invited for the first time into a neighbor's house) are puzzled by the lack of formality in the family pictures. When Mary reads to Arthur, the books that remind him of his past seem like ancient history to her. Nobody likes Étienne, who seems overly French for his neighbors' taste. Nearly all of them fear young people from outside the neighborhood, who are unfairly regarded as thugs and criminals.
The occasional appearance of overwrought posts by a semi-literate Oak Park blogger and entries in the Oak Park Moms Listserv add a nice comic touch to the story. The Moms are very concerned about "outsiders" in their neighborhood, despite the absence of any evidence that outsiders burglarized the Ilios Lane homes. Many of them are openly hostile to the "diversity" that was at one point the neighborhood's proudly defining characteristic. A more intelligent blogger, capable of subtle thought (and who loses her job because of her blog posts), points out that diversity is more than a question of who lives where; it is also a question of how people live and whether they are treated equally. The perceived conflict between diversity and security is the novel's best theme.
For the most part, the characters are developed with subtlety, although there are so many of them that a few central characters seem superficial. Michael is a jerk but he's kind of a crazy jerk and his craziness is not well explained. Arthur is underdeveloped and a neighborhood resident named Paja Coen, who pops up to act as a peacemaker from time to time, isn't developed at all. The other significant characters are strong and believable.
While I was reading What We've Lost is Nothing, I kept wondering where the story was going. It eventually leads to two key events involving Michael, Mary, and Susan, both more artificial than the story that precedes them. They seem displaced, as if they belong to an entirely different novel. Still, so much of this story is compelling that I recommend it despite my disappointment with the resolution.
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