“You and me, when we die, we’re going to evaporate back into the earth like we were never even here. Bodies made of air, bodies made of dirt.”
Annie is 9 months pregnant and shopping for a crib at IKEA when a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. With no way to reach her husband, she decides to walk to his workplace and then go home with him. As she makes her way across Portland and witnesses human desperation, kindness and depravity, Annie reflects on her struggling marriage, her disappointing career and her anxiety about having a baby.
“People will tell you that everything is clear in hindsight, but really it’s just rewritten.”
The events in this book all take place within a day. As Annie makes her way across Portland, she forms an unlikely friendship with a young woman who helped her at IKEA, and they walk some of the way together. Annie’s reflection about her marriage and her past was super compelling to listen to. Looking back at the stagnation of your life when it’s been upheaved is very fascinating. She performs an autopsy of her life and marriage and how she got there, as she walks to her husband. And I did not like her husband, at all. I understand how hard it is to let go of a dream, but I felt like he was selfish in not accepting that that dream was dead.
“I want something more than this. That thought is like a pebble tossed inside a lake, sinking down into darkness. It’s better to forget the things you want but don’t have. The happiest people are the ones who want what they already have. This ache, this ache inside of me, I don’t know how to get rid of it.”
This is not a thriller or a suspense. I suspect this expectation and its ending, are the reasons for the middling rating on Goodreads. The book ends at the end of the day with no resolution; nothing is wrapped up in a pretty bow. We are still in the middle of a natural disaster that has decimated hundreds of thousands, and Portland is still on fire. This book is primarily about the journey and not about the destination. I enjoyed the writing so much and I think it kept me pushing. Also, this book is less than 250 pages, so it goes by fast. I think this is a well-executed and thought-provoking novel and you should give it a try.
“While washing the dishes, only be washing the dishes—that’s what he always says. Some Buddhism shit he read on Instagram. Only a man could say something like that.”
If you like plot driven books, then this is not the book for you. Plenty happens since this is the middle of an earthquake, but nothing actually pushes the plot forward. This book is purely character driven and I completely understand why so many didn’t like this book, but I did. If you go into it after reading this review with a clear understanding of what this book is, I think you’d like it too.
Have you read this one? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Leggy
TwoNightStands 