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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“And then it is another day and another and another but I will not go on about this because no doubt you too have experienced time."
There is the overbearing weight of the end of the world, and there are the equally pressing yet prosaic concerns of domestic life.
There is the overbearing weight of the end of the world, and there are the equally pressing yet prosaic concerns of domestic life.
Narrated through vignettes, Weather follows the interior life of Lizzie Benson, a middle-aged college librarian navigating the dual absurdity and anxiety of everyday living amidst bubbling political and environmental crises.
Jenny Offill’s writing captures this strange cacophony of contemporary life and somehow makes it feel like an inside joke between you and her. I liked this book!
I enjoyed this, but I was hoping to love it, like I loved Department of Speculation. I love how Offill writes: wittily, lucidly, sounding like a real human being - not a writer pretending to be a real human being writing stuff down. And I like the sentiment of the novel - the terror that we all sometimes feel (don't we?) that the earth is heading to hell in a bucket (is that a phrase?). In Weather this is because of global warming, because of scary governments and presidents, because of what is being taken from women, because of what won't be there for our children. I like how the narrator, Lizzie becomes increasingly preoccupied with prepping (I love a bit of survivalism) and where she and her family are going to go when the world ends. But there is a lot of stuff in this short book: work and library visitors, the job Lizzie takes on answering emails for an environmentalist, the relationships with her husband, son, brother, colleagues; the almost affair; the questions she has to answer; jokes and quotes. Stop! Too much! Perhaps that's the point. It's all too much for Lizzie, but it was also too much for me. The other problem I had was the structure - little snippets that Offill made me work at. I didn't mind the work: Where are we? What is happening? But after a while it felt a little repetitive, many of the snippets reading like something someone would post online saying, Look at my cute son! How funny is he? and many of them ended in what could almost be a ta-boom! moment. I will however, read anything else ever, that Jenny Offill publishes.
LOVED this book. Great descriptions of the minutia of life from the perspective of a middle age librarian, caught in the anxiety of current times.
Offbeat, quirky and well-written, but it wasn’t quite my cup of tea.
I really enjoyed this book. I received it as an ARC from Knopf. Thank you! To me, maybe this sounds off, but the writing style reminded me of Shirley Jackson and Flannery O’Connor. The story had that a bit off and unusual quality to it. A slow and thoughtful read. I highly recommend!
I listened to the audio version, which works, since the novel reads like little vignettes. But I may have also missed something, since at times my mind wandered.
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Hated it