American Subversive is a book about belief turned inside-out. It's an intelligent and literary thriller, a thought-provoking peek into America's dark soul, and a veritable page turner. It's also the debut book for David Goodwillie, an author who is up to the task of unearthing the country's seductive roots.

The dual protagonists/narrators are Aidan Cole, a member of the chattering class, who blogs for Roorback, ("a roorback is a defamatory falsehood published for political effect") and Paige Roderick, an attractive idealist who is involved in an act of domestic terrorism at the midtown Manhattan location of Barney's. One late night, at a glitterati party following this act, Aidan checks his email to view an image of a woman crossing Madison Avenue (the site of the bombing) with the words, "This is Paige Roderick. She's the one responsible."

But Goodwillie is too good to settle for a "who-done-it" thriller. He delves deeply into his characters to reveal two alienated and unmoored thirty-somethings who are dealing with a profound disillusionment based on divorce, death, a country that lost its way, and friendships that easily turn into betrayals.

Paige turns to domestic radicalism after the wasteful death of her brother Bobby in Iraq. She says,"Do you really want to know my worldview? Because it's pretty bleak these days. Everything I once saw as a problem with others -- the numbness, the detachment, the disillusionment that came with being American -- everything I once sought to fix...I'm coming now to feel myself." And Aidan? His transformation is less organic. He reflects, "A decade had passed in the back of countless cabs, at fancy dinners and midnight pizzerias; the drug dipping and surprisingly functional alcoholism that consumed our days and destroyed our mornings; nothing stimulating nothing surprising, our thirties spread out before us like our twenties, but with lessons unlearned."

There is a sadness in these characters, a lack of connection that makes them ripe for subversion. Aidan's emptiness and ennui primes him for a connection with Paige, who is intense and filled with purpose -- everything he is not, although interestingly, they are more intriguing characters alone and not together. Neither fall into stock stereotypes; rather, they are two-dimensional with distinct voices and a great deal of vulnerability. Only in the last 50 or so pages does the authorial voice intercede, momentarily reminding the reader that Goodwillie is creating these characters and pulling the strings.

I read this book right after NYC dodged a bullet with a Times Square car bombing, and gasped at how unwittingly prophetic this book really is. It's a spot-on view of not only domestic terrorism, but a jaded Manhattan at the bulls-eye of today's digital age. (4.5)