What was this book about? I’m still trying to figure that out. Okay, so it is based in a society where everyone is waiting for and preparing for the impending apocalypse. I would imagine that to be quite scary. But the characters in this book, except for maybe Henry the brother, give nothing away.

The style of writing is a stream of consciousness narrative, with Lizzie as the narrator. However, her thoughts are fragmented and jump around so much that we don’t get any real sense of her. There’s no plot, no deep character studies, no real humour. I would, perhaps, describe it as literary fiction, but even that usually has some kind of story. This is more like a few weeks in one woman’s head.

Not for me, I’m afraid. I’ve read many positive reviews about this book, so I guess it’s just not my bag.

People who enjoy literary fiction. Maybe. People who don't care about plot or characters.

Pretty much the whole thing. It's pretentious. And, much as I hate to disparage another writer's work, I don't see the point of it.

Read something exciting.

Angry. Irritated. Disappointed.

Jenny Offill. A lot of people rave about her writing. But not me.

I just can't recommend something that made me want to scream (and not in a good way!)

This is what Amazon has as the book summary: "Lizzie works in the library of a university where she was once a promising graduate student. Her side hustle is answering the letters that come in to Hell and High Water, the doom-laden podcast hosted by her former mentor. At first it suits her, this chance to practice her other calling as an unofficial shrink—she has always played this role to her divorced mother and brother recovering from addiction—but soon Lizzie finds herself struggling to strike the obligatory note of hope in her responses. The reassuring rhythms of her life as a wife and mother begin to falter as her obsession with disaster psychology and people preparing for the end of the world grows. A marvelous feat of compression, a mix of great feeling and wry humor, Weather is an electrifying encounter with one of the most gifted writers at work today."

However, this is not the same book that I read.

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Created Feb 24, 2025 at 5:54am • Submit your own review...