So hey! I really liked this. There probably isn’t much more to be said as this has been reviewed here many times by much more articulate people. That being said (as they say):
First, something in Lollygagger’s review struck me: “What I think is interesting is that, for me, I didn’t get absorbed into the world. I was always aware of the fact that I was reading a book…” I felt that way, too, and have felt similarly about books in the past, but then, the feeling was negative. Here, it made me laugh! It made me cry! Psych. I did neither; really, I thought about how this might look not just in our current global set-up (which is the book’s, more or less, pre-“fall”), but also in my specific location and life situation.
My favorite parts were about the ad hoc community in the airport. Actually, it’s not just a community since it has in effect become their entire world. It was fascinating, how long it took its inhabitants to realize no one was coming to help and to act accordingly — the guy throwing his American Express card on the counter to cover the food they broke down and “stole” is almost heartbreaking in hindsight. Conversely, one of the main characters, Clark, mentions how quickly living out of a carry-on at an airport departure gate became the new “normal” for him. It’s easy, I guess, to adapt to the everyday-style changes like brushing your teeth in a public restroom, but much less so to accept the idea that the National Guard hasn’t arrived because there is no more National Guard.
There’s a traveling symphony/theater company in the book whose specialty is Shakespeare. At one point someone says something about Shakespeare, too, having lived in a plague-ridden society without the benefits of electronic communication. But he didn’t remember once having the option of texting someone downstairs in the same house because you didn’t feel like getting up. Can you imagine?
It’s really good, y’all.
