Girl meets boy. Well, woman potentially committing corporate espionage is spotted by a company man.
Company man whisks her away to a life of luxury. Well, they get hastily married after knowing each other for three months. His parents suggest a suicide pact.
I felt sad. His awkward hands reminded me of the flames around Joan of Arc at the stake.
Honeymooners leave America for Europe. Well, man takes a shady position at the shady company and wife is along for the ride. Man hits a bird, the titular wallcreeper, with his car.
The story starts with a car ride, and to say that the ride is bumpy is, well, and understatement. Things fall apart quickly, but not their marriage. The world that they create for themselves only becomes stranger: obsessive birding, potential drug problems, eco-terrorism, drum and bass clubs, plain-as-day affairs. No matter how strange their world becomes, they remain constant to each other.
I do not want to tell you much about this novel; I came in knowing next to nothing and was captivated by the terse strangeness of it all immediately. The cities of Berne and Berlin, the banks of the Rhine and the Elbe, the mountains of Albania, the trailer parks of Washington- they’re all cloaked in the blackest of black humor as our heroine, Tiff, digs herself into a chasm-sized hole. She’s no damsel in distress; she may seem aimless, but she is ruthless.
If I have one talent in the world, that’s probably it. Looking innocent enough to make whatever it is I’m doing appear legal.
Lack of talent fails to stop anyone in this story. Lack of morals makes for a delightfully destructive read. There is nothing sentimental about this story. I don’t think anyone truly learns anything along the way.
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