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A review by jessrock
Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen
3.0
Hello, my old friend the unreliable narrator. When used well, you are sublime (see: [b:Pale Fire|7805|Pale Fire (Penguin Modern Classics)|Vladimir Nabokov|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165644180s/7805.jpg|1222661]); when not, you are irritating in the extreme.
Fortunately, Rivka Galchen does a wonderful job of using her unreliable narrator to tell a most unusual tale. Psychiatrist Dr. Leo Liebenstein introduces his tale by explaining that one day, inexplicably, his wife was replaced with another woman who was like his Rema in nearly every way, but who was not his Rema. Furthermore, Rema has disappeared, and Leo can't figure out where she's gone or who would be behind this unthinkable substitution. He goes off on a quest to find her, joining forces along the way with his former psychiatric patient Harvey (almost certainly a nod to the film of the same name) who is under the impression that he is a secret agent for the Royal Academy of Meteorology, is able to control the weather, and is using his ability to play a part in a cosmic battle between the Academy and the destructive group of weather subversives known as the 49 Quantum Fathers.
The book does a very good job of walking the line between letting us in Leo's head and giving us the distance to see that Leo's view of reality is not a true one. The only point where I felt the scales tipped a little too far in the "distance" direction was when Galchen indulged herself in the oversmart joke of having Leo use the word "perseveration" over and over again in the space of a few paragraphs - the effect is grating, though the word's meaning - after I looked it up! - was clearly intended to underline Leo's tenuous grasp on reality (from dictionary.com: "perseveration: the pathological, persistent repetition of a word, gesture, or act, often associated with brain damage or schizophrenia").
I really enjoyed reading this book, though the ending felt unsatisfactory, like Galchen wasn't sure what to do with her protagonist after dragging him out to the end of his sanity.
And one unanswered question: Why has Galchen given her mysterious, unseen "godlike" figure Tzvi Gal-Chen her own last name? Is she really inserting herself into the story and suggesting that she IS Tzvi Gal-Chen (since the mystery of who Gal-Chen really is is never satisfactorily resolved)? Is this some joke I'm just not getting?
Fortunately, Rivka Galchen does a wonderful job of using her unreliable narrator to tell a most unusual tale. Psychiatrist Dr. Leo Liebenstein introduces his tale by explaining that one day, inexplicably, his wife was replaced with another woman who was like his Rema in nearly every way, but who was not his Rema. Furthermore, Rema has disappeared, and Leo can't figure out where she's gone or who would be behind this unthinkable substitution. He goes off on a quest to find her, joining forces along the way with his former psychiatric patient Harvey (almost certainly a nod to the film of the same name) who is under the impression that he is a secret agent for the Royal Academy of Meteorology, is able to control the weather, and is using his ability to play a part in a cosmic battle between the Academy and the destructive group of weather subversives known as the 49 Quantum Fathers.
The book does a very good job of walking the line between letting us in Leo's head and giving us the distance to see that Leo's view of reality is not a true one. The only point where I felt the scales tipped a little too far in the "distance" direction was when Galchen indulged herself in the oversmart joke of having Leo use the word "perseveration" over and over again in the space of a few paragraphs - the effect is grating, though the word's meaning - after I looked it up! - was clearly intended to underline Leo's tenuous grasp on reality (from dictionary.com: "perseveration: the pathological, persistent repetition of a word, gesture, or act, often associated with brain damage or schizophrenia").
I really enjoyed reading this book, though the ending felt unsatisfactory, like Galchen wasn't sure what to do with her protagonist after dragging him out to the end of his sanity.
And one unanswered question: Why has Galchen given her mysterious, unseen "godlike" figure Tzvi Gal-Chen her own last name? Is she really inserting herself into the story and suggesting that she IS Tzvi Gal-Chen (since the mystery of who Gal-Chen really is is never satisfactorily resolved)? Is this some joke I'm just not getting?