Remember the silly old dude, Harold Camping, who predicted the end of the world and the so-called Rapture not once but twice last year. The poor souls who followed him were not only "left behind" with egg on their faces, but in some instances bereft of life savings when the big event failed to launch.
A novel which appears on a number of Best of 2011 lists is Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers. It is about the aftermath of a rapture-like event which in which people mysteriously disappear. The twist is that they are not particularly religious in many cases, nor are the people who anticipate the event the ones who go. The leftovers call this the Sudden Departure rather than the Rapture because it doesn't fit expectations. A cultish group called the Guilty Remnant springs up, people who live communally, cease speaking, and dress in white. Even those who do not experience direct loss find that the way they think and live is changed as a result of what has happened.
Perrotta is just a good writer, and this is a thought-provoking book. As Stephen King (yes, that Stephen King) offered in a review in the New York Times, it resonates with post-911 American sensibilities.
Anyone else who has read it or heard of it? Are you ready to go, or willing to be a leftover? Why do you think people get caught up in these movements?
A novel which appears on a number of Best of 2011 lists is Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers. It is about the aftermath of a rapture-like event which in which people mysteriously disappear. The twist is that they are not particularly religious in many cases, nor are the people who anticipate the event the ones who go. The leftovers call this the Sudden Departure rather than the Rapture because it doesn't fit expectations. A cultish group called the Guilty Remnant springs up, people who live communally, cease speaking, and dress in white. Even those who do not experience direct loss find that the way they think and live is changed as a result of what has happened.
Perrotta is just a good writer, and this is a thought-provoking book. As Stephen King (yes, that Stephen King) offered in a review in the New York Times, it resonates with post-911 American sensibilities.
Anyone else who has read it or heard of it? Are you ready to go, or willing to be a leftover? Why do you think people get caught up in these movements?
4 comments:
I just put this book on hold at the library. There have been a lot of books written lately that are set in pared down worlds, and I tend to like these. Although not a fan of rapture themed books in general, any book with limited setting tends to bring to mind the image of a world ended. I just finished Room by Emma Donoghue, and another one I found hard to put down was Jose Saramago's Blindness. Both of these are set in extremely pared down worlds - one a single room and the other a large building. One involves a world populated by just two people, the other a kind of grotesque paradoy of our own society. Even the mother and child in Room attempt to form a society, by calling furniture and fixtures by given names. I read The Road a while back, but it seemed lacking in everything to me, not just in setting. When you take away setting, you really have to say something big and I don't think The Road managed that. [here I am straying off topic again- it's early, even the dog is still asleep]I haven't read Leftovers yet, so can't comment directly, but it seems our characters are either being hurled into empty worlds that we get to see, or are being hurled into emptiness we can't see. It seems we are quite interested in exploring the abyss these days. In science fiction we fill the abyss with darkness and whenever there's light in the darkness it tends to illuminate a monster or threat. In stories set in the world we know, we take everything away, and reveal ourselves as the monsters. At least Love continues to redeem us by the time we get to the last page. That's a comfort.
I haven't heard of this book, but then again, my reading tends to lean more toward history and politics than fiction. At any rate, it sounds interesting.
Harold Camping is a wiener. In between his two predictions for the end of the world, he also managed to suffer a debilitating stroke. Betcha he didn't see that one coming!
(Or did he ... ? ...)
Since the disaster movie 2012 my kids often comment that this year is the end of the world. I'm told they have even marked the calander for some time in December.
The toung in cheek nature of their comments comforts me in that they don't really believe this to be true.
I'm hoping your wehole gang sticks around for a while sjd.
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