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Julie Gabrielli's avatar

Fascinating, Sam! Just moved this to the top of my tbr list. Your description of the two people talking about whether to warn everyone of the impending disaster reminded me (of course) of what’s it been like in the climate activism space for the past 30 years. I love these speculative works for jarring people awake.

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Julie Gabrielli's avatar

Well, I read the book. Your review is a much better read than the book itself, I'm sorry to report. I do agree with your points about the best strengths of the book's "what if" allegorical premise and the feel of polycrisis experienced by the characters. And how, in the end, people just learn to live with it; they adapt. Which is realistic; it's what people do.

My beef is that, as a novel, it's burdened by too many storylines and loose ends, which asks too much of the reader to hold. Worse, all the women in this book depend upon men to either tell them what to do or to fulfill their lives. One example among many is the mayor of NYC, who is portrayed as whiny and helpless and incompetent. She'd rather look at dick pics from her married boyfriend, so she just up and quits. As a character, she is a one-dimensional token.

The limitation of having at least 12 POV characters (by my count) is that no author can adequately develop them or wrap up their arcs — except for many, in facile, cursory ways. I appreciate your counting that lack of resolution as a positive, in the world of the story—and in today's messy reality. But the story as written comes off as a mile wide and an inch deep, which is a disservice to its promise.

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