I wanted to read this book before the HBO series based on
Tom Perrotta’s dystopian novel premiered, and I finished a mere two hours shy of the deadline. (If you’re watching the show, you can check out my reviews of each episode here: www.hobotrashcan.com.)
Okay, back to the book. I was intrigued by this idea of 2% of the world’s
population vanishing with no explanation. What happens to those who are left
behind? What happens to societal structure and the role of religion beneath the weight of the unknown? The story picks up three years after the "Sudden Departure" of 2% of the world's population. In the story we get to travel into different character perspectives to gain a wider scope of the impact of the Sudden Departure. Most of the characters we follow are from the Garvey family. Kevin Garvey is the Mayor of Mapleton, which serves as a microcosm for what is occurring on a world wide scale. Kevin is struggling with raising his teenage daughter Jill in the aftermath of all that has happened. Jill is trying to make sense of a world with an uncertain future, as is much of the youth in the story. All of the previous societal expectations seem absurd when you don’t know if tomorrow is guaranteed. Jill’s perspective provides a glimpse into her broken world filled with hedonism and a slow growing discovery that not even extreme explorations of pain and pleasure can fill the void.
