"Reagan and Thatcher changed everything - even fiction, which is often seen as a bastion of left-liberal thought. This insightful book examines the work of both British and American authors over the last 25 years in order to assess the state of both nations - and their novels - in the context of a triumphant market economy. By looking at writers as diverse as Thomas Pynchon and Martin Amis, Jonathan Franzen and Irvine Welsh, Iain Banks and Douglas Coupland, it scrutinizes the position of the white male protaganist who feels besieged by both sides of the 'culture wars'. Themes of defeat, decline and destruction abound, with the search for redemption hampered by the suspicion that the idea of personal liberation is now the property of consumerism, and the communitarian ethos carries too much conservative baggage. The author concludes that consensus, rather than rebellion, is what shapes the form and content of the social novel in our time."--Jacket.