This was very good, a compulsively readable tense psychological thriller about a man running away from his past and trying to escape into anonymity. The unnamed male, white (this is significant) narrator chronicles his attempts to leave no trace, casting away anything that might identify him, and relying on a large stash of cash to pay his way. But of course no one, it seems, can exist completely outside society, however much one might try, and nor can our protagonist who find himself inexorably drawn into the world around him. I found the book insightful and thought-provoking and the narrator’s inner world and musings convincing. It’s a disturbing read, especially for anyone who has felt the draw of escaping a difficult or traumatic past, perhaps even a crime, and the narrator’s disintegration is well handled. A great read.

This novel follows the voyage of an unnamed narrator as he leaves his old life behind for a new one, seeking the freedom of anonymity and trying to live as unconnected from technology and other forms of connection as he can. He explores whether it is really possible to become a new person and the realities that his previous life had blinded him to as he creates a new life, free from the privileges, people, and purpose that defined his previous existence.

This story is insightful and unique, and it will stay with you long after you finish reading it.

Sugar Street was a strange little book. I imagine our narrator sitting in his cushy office staring at his computer screen when suddenly he pushes back and thinks, "If I stay here one more minute I'll go crazy" or maybe he already is. So, with little forethought, he steals $168,548 and takes off cross-country obsessively staying off the grid as though he is on the FBI's most wanted list. I imagine he saw no other choice but did he really think that $168, 548 was going to last him forever, no matter how frugal? Well, unless that future is foreshortened.

Social and political issues are woven throughout. without much upside. The ending is either brilliant or nonsensical. Honestly, I feel a bit heavier and perhaps a tiny bit paranoid having read it. My guess is this is what Jonathan Dee was aiming for.

I received a drc from the publisher via Netgalley.

This novel provides an excellent example of white privileged. Following a criminal act, the narrator leaves his life of wealth and privilege to start a new life under a different name. He avoids all surveillance cameras by traveling on back roads, paying cash, eating and sleeping at dilapidated restaurants and motels until he arrives at an out-of-the-way town. Having already thrown away all of his ID and disposed of his car, he rents a room in a poor section of the town. This novel is concise and well-written, worthy of discussion.

A highly original story, this book tracks the journey of an unnamed narrator as he escapes his old life for a new one, seeking the freedom of anonymity and living, to the greatest extent possible, free from technology and other modes of connection. As he builds a new life, separate from the privileges, people, and purpose that defined his previous existence, he explores whether it is really possible to become a new person, and realities that his previous life had blinded him to.

A perceptive and and original novel, this book will keep you thinking long after you put it down.

Highly recommended!

He destroys his license by driving over it, avoids interstates because of (?) cameras tracking plates, won't even eat at a Burger King or stay at a Motel 6 as he escapes eastward. That's all we really know about this narrator who systematically shreds his past and tries to forge a new life deliberately setting himself in a situation so restrictive that anything more and it would be a maximum security prison. What follows is a dissection of white privilege, a theme that Jonathan Dee has pursued in the past but which really hits its stride in this enormously entertaining, frustrating and powerful novel. His backlife is unspooled ever so slowly, and the resolution (if it can be called that) made my jaw drop. Highly recommend. Thank you, Grove Atlantic, for the chance to read this early.

Anyone who has thought about disappearing will engage with the unnamed narrator of this novel. He's abandoned everyone but the $168,000 which he's using to restart his life. But how and what sort of life should that be? He's rented a room on Sugar Street and now he's finding himself confronting himself and under the microscope. No spoilers. It's a tight short novel where you're up in his head. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction.

I really like Jonathan Dee's previous novels and while this was a departure plot wise, the writing was consistently strong. It's very suspenseful, really strong three dimensional characters and the twist at the end is great!

Jonathan Dee is the Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Privileges and he has written a fantastic, fast moving story about a man who is fleeing his former life.

An unnamed narrator answers an ad to rent a room on Sugar Street. He has destroyed all of his personal possessions and identification. He seems ultra paranoid and resolves to live off a sum of cash that he carries with him. As he begins making a life on Sugar Street we follow him as he tries to right his ship and live a better life. Unfortunately, as well know, it is impossible to run away from yourself.

Quick moving, and suspenseful, this unnamed man will live in your mind for a long, long time. If you love great literature, commentary on contemporary life, or just dream of throwing it all away, Sugar Street is for you! #GroveAtlantic #GrovePress #SugarStreet #JonathanDee

A gloriously insightful yet disturbing story of our protagonist (the man with no name) who is on the run with an envelope stuffed with cash and doing what he can to stay off the grid.

It's witty, and the observational humour is sardonic. Yet it's also filled with a sense of sad reality and foreboding.
This is a road trip with a dystopian feel that hints at ‘Into the Wild’ where the protagonist destroys all personal ID and possessions and anything connecting him to society. He eschews technology and hits back at politics, capitalism and the digitally intrusive big brother/big data society that has transformed the way we live.

“Then: I wandered lonely as a cloud. Now: iCloud”

It’s easy to feel sympathy and root for our hapless protagonist as he naively attempts various reboots of his life. The story is arguably a shot across the bows at society, asking us to re-examine how we live and who we are. It dissects the very essence of the meaning of the American Dream.

This is my first by author Jonathan Dee, and I’ll certainly check out his other work.

My thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for granting this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Not for me. I should have known from the fact that this story features an unnamed main character that this wouldn't be my cup of tea. I need more certainty, more plot, less philosophizing and meandering.

Fascinating and tantalizing, Dee’s latest is a dystopian portrait of our world, with many of its toxic aspects and few of its redeeming features. The narrator - reliable ? - exemplifies white privilege and claims to try to a life stripped of it, but can’t escape the violence, suspicion, fear and crime of the world, even when existing as imperceptibly as possible. This is a fine speculative exercise of a book, unpredictable, not 100% satisfying, but always gripping.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

This is a short and on the face of it easy read, although it tackles some big themes, including white male privilege, the surveillance society, and refugees. The unnamed narrator through whom the entire novel is voiced is a sympathetic enough character for the reader to root for him as he seeks to make a new anonymous life. I am not sure what to make of the very ending, but the explanation towards the end of the circumstances of the narrator's old life was genius.

Why does he leave his former life? Why is he interested in his landlady? Or isn’t he? And what about her? Sugar Street leaves you with a number of open questions, also with respect to the protagonist’s character. Is he a white supremacist? Why the refugee kids? The African American reader? I could go on and on and ask lots of questions. Which might be another way of saying that the novel is kind of worthwhile reading. Although I would not compare it to a Jonathan Franzen novel.

Sugar Street
by Jonathan Dee

I did enjoy this book. It seems I did this before. Probably not. It seems so much of the present today this. The corruptness, wish I could have understood the ending.

An electrifying, fiercely original read, Jonathan Dee's SUGAR STREET sucks the reader into a paranoid rabbit hole as an unnamed White man sheds everything in his quest to become anonymous: it will have you looking at every aspect of your own life--credit cards, cameras, driver's license, passport, etc--in a new way. Dee brings his splendid literary gifts to a haunting, crackling, and occasionally funny novel which is wondrously original from first sentence to last.

Many thanks to Grove Atlantic and to Netgalley for the opportunity and the pleasure of an early read.

“Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and I sign myself to lies.
Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang!”
— a quote from Arthur Miller’s novel, The Crucible;

Another Arthur Miller quote from ‘The Crucible’…..
“I do not judge you. The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you. I never thought you but a good man, John - only somewhere bewildered”

Why the Author Miller quotes?
They spoke to me — as they might other readers too — in association with Jonathan Dee’s new novel, “Sugar Street”.

In “Sugar Street”, we meet an unlikely hero….(our ‘no-name narrator/protagonist)….
…..[Heroes in quasi-medieval hierarchies can be defined by their bravery, strength, loyalty, courage, selfless deeds and defense of the common man]……

With Jonathan Dee’s ‘Sugar Street’ hero? anti-hero? (readers can decide)….we take a very addictive short journey with a white man—whose daily needs are threadbare minimal. He has gotten rid of his cell phone. He cut up his drivers license. He is living under the radar, off the grid so to speak. He has no identification on him. He’s hit the road with a large stash of cash -either hidden under his car seat - or later under a futon in a room he rents on ‘Sugar Street’.

KUDOS—KUDOS- KUDOS ….to the person who wrote the blurb for this book — it’s perfect - telling enough readers need to know without giving away the juicy fun page turning details.
So — I’ll try to follow suit by not giving away spoiler details about the other characters: [kickass tattooed landlord, Autumn]
or the distinctive seasons….
or the school children from Wysocki middle school,
or the pint size door-to-door candy seller,
or witty dialogue intrigue,
or my personal thoughts about the psychology of intolerance, moral, social, and political divide quandaries,
or….the PLAN….of our man……
or…..our man’s former life…
or….the “DRUMBEAT ROLL UP TO A SHOCKING FINAL ACT”!!!

“Sugar Street” is an awesome entertaining contemporary novel.
…..the writing is razor sharp… stabbing, shooting, stinging —certified compelling sentences….with bouts of hilariously dark humor and inquisitive perplexities….
……stirring provocative thoughts!

Where Dee notably spurned portraits of greed in “The Privileges”…. examining the American dream…..(excessive wealth and success)….
in ‘Sugar Street’ we look at abstemiousness, frugal, self-denying, sparing purposes ….
The two books together make perfect bookends.

“Sugar Street” TOTALLY ROCKS….
Not a hesitant bone in my body to recommend this book to everyone!

Note….
I could have chosen dozen of excerpts to share ….(tempting) ….
but they were all so fun to discover myself — I’m holding back…
I leave only one tiny excerpt — (a little something to think about)…….

“There’s THINGS in me I don’t talk about, and then there’s things in me I don’t know about. We’re moving into the latter realm now. Truths will be revealed. Desperation is here. Hunger, fear, things like that, things I’ve never had to face before, not in this open-ended way”.

This literary fiction novel won’t be published until Sept.
— but being such a Jonathan Dee fan….I just couldn’t hold off reading it —
Thank you Grove Atlantic…. Netgalley ….and Jonathan Dee