Human Pages

The mysterious Chance Company offers customers the ability to assume new identities and plunge into a fantasy world with real-life consequences, in Elliott%E2%80%99s third novel. Ostensibly founded on the ideals of the 1960s, twenty years later the Company seems viciously competitive and corrupt. Just as the internal struggle for power seems to be reaching its peak, client Agnes Darshel, disguised as %E2%80%9CEmily Brown,%E2%80%9D appears, hoping to find her estranged father. Meanwhile, Agnes%E2%80%99s supervisor, Sonny Ayza, an exile with a troubled family history, struggles to come to terms with his past, present, and future, as well as with the Chance Company. Elliott (Dying to Read) is interested in Big Ideas%E2%80%94identity, reality, the secrets that make us who we are, and the secrets that hold us back%E2%80%94but this novel feels somewhat dated and overstuffed with characters, disguises, mysteries, and revelations. Holding out the promise of an adventure propelled by philosophical inquiry, Elliott%E2%80%99s novel ultimately proves exhausting. (Oct.)