Saturday, July 4, 2020

Book Review- “Weather “ by Jenny Offil

Critics of the film “The Titanic” say that its story is simple. I agree. But that’s what makes it universal - and magnificent. Each of us stands on the prow of life, with the wind blowing in our hair, while knowingly sailing into the sunset.

Life is a game you know you will lose. So how to live when you know catastrophe is coming? Each of us must decide whether to give up or weather it. It’s a second by second choice.

John Irving wrote about this largely human dilemma (human because we have the capacity for great self- awareness) in “The Hotel New Hampshire”. His characters had to  decide whether to “keep passing the open windows”.  Jenny Offil handles the same question in her novel- “Weather”.

Offil’s prose is accessibly poetic, that is, it is mysteriously beautiful yet clear. Though she is quite young, I think this will likely be her career masterpiece - because it is a masterpiece and an author typically gets only one of these.  (Shakespeare lovers  - you have to admit that not everything he wrote was brilliant - or even made sense.)

But back to this stunning novel. It features a woman who works in the hub of human knowledge - a library- and ponders how to stay alive against the odds. She is a doomsday prepper. She thinks about climate change a lot. Her brother, a recovering addict, has a narrower range of view. Though their  living situations are different, they’re presented with the same basic question, during the same seconds, all the time. The difference that decides their futures is a knife’s edge.

It seems that our engagement with this question of being is variable. Like the weather, we have sunny days and stormy days. Mild and extreme temperatures. We have wind. And indeed the author uses  climate change as another factor to calculate in our collective end of the world/ end of me angst.

So,
To be, or not to be?
Pass the open window or dive?
Whether to weather?

 Either way, “Weather “ has has my highest recommendation.

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