Scan barcode
A review by lkedzie
The Survivalists by Kashana Cauley
5.0
My reading order is based principally on my holds list, and pairing this with Masters of Atlantis was ideal. Both are comedy, and both are good comedy, and both are American in a way that communicates something true about the United States, but do so in the vastness of their own contradictions, within, outside, and between themselves.
The Survivalists is the story of of a Black lawyer at a white shoe insurance defense firm who starts dating a Prepper-adjacent coffee roaster. On that level, it is a better as a RomCom than all the more overt attempts at a stealth take on that genre that I have read recently. But it is more than that, and the title gives it away, because it is about survival. What we do to survive, and what it means to survive, in all the different ways that us as different people encounter that.
It is imperfect. It has a lot of first novel wobbles. The characters are a bit shaky in their definition at times, and it is overlong and too internal. Its weakness is that that the author will gloss scenes that ought to get better detail, particularly in some of the where it feels like the author failed to do the research, but knows it, and so wants to get back onto surer ground. But even there, it is done with empathy, a sort of intentional disquiet not intended as mean or cynical. And its the bits that do feel mean that feel the most off about the book, because it feels like a sort of conventional moralism overrides the author's good storytelling instincts.
But the book is a delight to read. It is a much more straightforward jokes and jokieness than Masters of Atlantis was, and probably not as funny for it, but it is fun. I read a lot and I don't feel like I get to say that a lot. I'm not reading to have fun, in the sense that the scope of possible emotions that a book can provide is much broader and glorious, but this felt like a giddy pleasure. It is the sort of book that reminds you why you read. Or its funny, and shows promise for the future, both in its text and in what it means to me. I am glad for that.
The Survivalists is the story of of a Black lawyer at a white shoe insurance defense firm who starts dating a Prepper-adjacent coffee roaster. On that level, it is a better as a RomCom than all the more overt attempts at a stealth take on that genre that I have read recently. But it is more than that, and the title gives it away, because it is about survival. What we do to survive, and what it means to survive, in all the different ways that us as different people encounter that.
It is imperfect. It has a lot of first novel wobbles. The characters are a bit shaky in their definition at times, and it is overlong and too internal. Its weakness is that that the author will gloss scenes that ought to get better detail, particularly in some of the
Spoiler
gunrunning bitsBut the book is a delight to read. It is a much more straightforward jokes and jokieness than Masters of Atlantis was, and probably not as funny for it, but it is fun. I read a lot and I don't feel like I get to say that a lot. I'm not reading to have fun, in the sense that the scope of possible emotions that a book can provide is much broader and glorious, but this felt like a giddy pleasure. It is the sort of book that reminds you why you read. Or its funny, and shows promise for the future, both in its text and in what it means to me. I am glad for that.