American Northeast

The American Northeast serves as the main, general setting of the novel. The American Northeast is home to Stan and Charmaine, though where in that section of the country is never actually said. According to evidence presented in the novel, the American Northeast has been hardest hit by the economic downturn, which is why 40% of the region’s population is out of work – including Stan and Charmaine. The Northeast becomes host to the Positron Project and becomes headquarters for the management of the Positron Project by way of the revamped town of Consilience.

Consilience

Consilience is a revamped American town in the regional Northeast. Though its precise location is never given, references to “upstate” are made. (Arguably, this could be any state, but the state most commonly referred to with such terminology is New York.) By all appearances, Consilience was an economically-devastated town that the Positron Project...