A review by betweenbookends
Weather by Jenny Offill

If I were to plot my reading experience of this novel, it would probably be a perfect sinusoid that doesn’t quite peak but plateaus in the middle only to dip again in the end. Weather is a loosely plotted, mostly observational novel capturing the current climate (literally and figuratively) of the now, while offering anecdotal insights on where we, as humanity, are heading. The sentences are short, clipped and really quite sparse. A technique that works phenomenally well for dry comic timing, but otherwise reads quite detached.

The novel primarily follows Lizzie, a university librarian, her daily interactions, her equation with an attractive stranger, her relationship with her addict brother, while also working part-time for Sylvia, a climate change activist and host of a podcast. While these plot lines exist, they never quite come to fruition and neither are these storylines the real point of the novel. It rather concerns itself with the eventualities that are likely to occur.

It’s a quick read with some truly chuckle-worthy moments dotted through…
“A turtle was mugged by a gang of snails. The police came to take a report, but (the turtle) couldn’t help them. ‘It all happened so fast,’ he said.”