If you ever lie awake at night worrying about the day to come — and random other personal or global problems — you’ll identify with the protagonist in Martin Riker’s new novel, “The Guest Lecture.”
We meet Abby in the middle of the night, in a hotel room where she lies awake next to her sleeping husband and daughter. She’s scheduled to give a presentation the next day about the famous economist John Maynard Keynes, but despite being an accomplished economist in her own right, she is woefully underprepared. She resolves to run through her lecture using an ancient rhetorical method of assigning parts of her speech to different rooms of her house, and she’s joined by a comforting if imaginary companion — Keynes himself.
A bizarre premise, to be sure, but Riker uses the literary device to great effect. Through the course of the night, as Abby ruminates to the hum of the hotel air-conditioner, she explores mental tangents that take her through the subconscious corners of her mind. She thinks back to friendships, career milestones, and all the decisions that got her to this place and time. We discover that Abby is newly jobless, and she struggles to find hope amid her professional despair.
“The Guest Lecture” is not your usual summer fare. It’s not even your usual literary fiction. But it’s smart and interesting and thought-provoking — an excavation of one woman’s mind over the course of one frantic, sleepless night. We’ve all been there.
