1988

McGahan takes Generation X down under, and the results are surprising. Set against the horizon of sea and sand in the remote Cape Don, quirky nihilism seems charming, if misguided. The stage is set for a twenty-something Heart of Darkness: Gordon and Wayne flee Brisbane for the promise of work and the hedonism of isolation--a weather station in a crocodile-infested swamp on a remote spit of land. Every three hours they have to make a weather check, a sure recipe for madness. As the tension mounts, McGahan diffuses it with humor and alcohol. Gordon never faces his dark heart, but he does endure a bad hangover. A refreshing twist, 1988 is not just an anti-Generation X novel but an anti-novel, where all our expectations are funneled into the desert, where they dry up and evaporate.