Raban’s clever new novel ultimately fails to convince

Towards the end of Jonathan Raban’s clever, if not terribly successful, new novel Surveillance, journalist and main character Lucy Bengstrom discusses how inadequate sweeping conclusions are in writing.

‘‘It’s odd,’’ she tells her writer friend Augie Vanags. ‘‘I find profiles harder and harder as I get older. It’s that conclusive tone they have, like the journalist has gotten to the bottom of the subject’s soul in a one-hour interview, and the piece is ...