Nathaniel Stein, writer for the New Yorker, dishes up an inventively absurdist dark comedy in The Threat, the story of an unassuming middle-aged man whose life goes farcically off the rails.
Melvin Levin is a single, conscientious, rule-following 41-year-old with a bad back. He lives alone, and his social circle consists largely of an elderly neighbor, upon whom he bestows good deeds. 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 is 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 have 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 clever first novel will charm readers; its simple premise snowballs into a side-splitting, thought-provoking meditation on how one man's seemingly inconsequential life finally overflows with grandiose meaning when faced with the prospect of death. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines