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laurieb755 's review for:
Fourteen Days
by Douglas Preston, Margaret Atwood
DID NOT FINISH: 42%
The idea behind this book intrigued me – 36 authors contributed to a story edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston, both of whom were also contributors. Published in 2024, this is a story of the residents in a building in lower Manhattan during the lock-down of Covid, that first year when people hunkered down indoors, sequestering themselves away from the possibility of catching the virus.
The tales are as varied as the residents, and slowly different residents feel courageous enough to share a story. In varying numbers the residence gather each night on the rooftop of their somewhat worn apartment building, being sure to leave the 6 foot distance between themselves and the next person. They begin to leave graffiti images and writings on the stairwell wall to the roof.
The super, a young woman, surreptitiously records each story and then transcribes it into the "Bible" – a book left by the prior superintendent. The Bible already had numerous entries, making it a little easier for this young woman to identify some of the residents.
The stories are mixed but, as of page 154 (out of 353) they have mostly been stark. Even though some stories contained interesting messages it mostly felt to me that the rooftop gathering was wallowing in sadness, despite the efforts of Eurovision (each of the tenants had been given nicknames – unbeknownst to them – by the previous super) to act as an encouraging and positive M.C.
The collaboration of the 36 authors has relayed the fear, sadness, anger and confusion of those early days of the Covid pandemic. However, it is now 2025, five years out of that worst of times, and I have a different memory because I experienced Covid while living in the suburbs. But that isn't why I stopped reading the book. I stopped reading the book because the same man who was president during Covid is now president again and the damage he is wrecking on the country and the world surpasses that of Covid. This book touched a nerve, not about the actual virus but about the handling of the virus by the powers that be who were in Washington D.C. at the time and are back there again…
PS The spoiler is the actual moment that I decided not to finish the book.I was scanning the back of the book to see how many pages it contained and wound up reading the very last entry. That caused me to read the last paragraph on the page prior – the last entry by the female superintendent. I learned the truth about all of the residents, and knowing their paths it made the stories that much more eerie, sad and depressing. I don't need more of that; the government is providing enough in real time.
The tales are as varied as the residents, and slowly different residents feel courageous enough to share a story. In varying numbers the residence gather each night on the rooftop of their somewhat worn apartment building, being sure to leave the 6 foot distance between themselves and the next person. They begin to leave graffiti images and writings on the stairwell wall to the roof.
The super, a young woman, surreptitiously records each story and then transcribes it into the "Bible" – a book left by the prior superintendent. The Bible already had numerous entries, making it a little easier for this young woman to identify some of the residents.
The stories are mixed but, as of page 154 (out of 353) they have mostly been stark. Even though some stories contained interesting messages it mostly felt to me that the rooftop gathering was wallowing in sadness, despite the efforts of Eurovision (each of the tenants had been given nicknames – unbeknownst to them – by the previous super) to act as an encouraging and positive M.C.
The collaboration of the 36 authors has relayed the fear, sadness, anger and confusion of those early days of the Covid pandemic. However, it is now 2025, five years out of that worst of times, and I have a different memory because I experienced Covid while living in the suburbs. But that isn't why I stopped reading the book. I stopped reading the book because the same man who was president during Covid is now president again and the damage he is wrecking on the country and the world surpasses that of Covid. This book touched a nerve, not about the actual virus but about the handling of the virus by the powers that be who were in Washington D.C. at the time and are back there again…
PS The spoiler is the actual moment that I decided not to finish the book.