Camera Lake by Alex Pickett
The protagonist of “Camera Lake,” the title story in this collection, believes his home is being watched at night by someone with a camera. It’s not another tale about the surveillance state but an emotionally complicated look at life in a state of surveillance—the queasy connectedness of the digital age that only leaves us feeling more alone.
The free-floating anxiety of “Camera Lake” carries over into some of Alex Pickett’s other stories. Pickett is a Wisconsin writer living in London, and his home state occasionally provides a dash of local color. However, most of his stories take place in a drab American anywhere, a backdrop for profound loneliness and for separation between people who ought to be intimate.
Most of Pickett’s characters try to care—“Petland’s” protagonist is a minimum-wage worker obsessed with rescuing a puppy mill dog—but stumble over obstacles of inadequacy and uncertainty. Pickett helps us feel their discomfort.
Pickett will discuss Camera Lake on August 6 at Boswell Book
