The Block Party by Jamie Day
The Block Party, a sterling debut from newcomer Jamie Day, features a high concept that lives up to its promise every step of the way.
Our setting is affluent suburbia, a town not unlike the one John Cheever famously portrayed in his classic short story The Swimmer. Friends and neighbors out enjoying a summer block party with family in a safe, bucolic setting. Or, maybe, not so safe, since the reverie is interrupted by sirens, and suddenly the attention of the people of Meadowbrook turns from the barbecue to a murder. What follows is a complete and clever skewering of the norms and mores of contemporary suburban culture that never fails to satisfy.
In sociological terms, Block Party compares best to the equally effective Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe and the Nelson DeMille classic The Gold Coast. I might also mention the seminal Twilight Zone episode The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, but that might be a stretch. What isn’t a stretch is calling Day’s debut a riveting exercise in entertaining fiction.