The Sundial

I predict that, when I think back on all of my reading of 2019, the Sundial is going to stand out as one of the greatest books I read all year (and, maybe ever). That's not to say I didn't lose patience with it at some points, I did, but the WOW is worth the WTF.

“I wonder what nonsense we would be engaged in if we were not doing this.”
I wonder indeed.
We have a family so wealthy the literally do nothing all day, a governess, a gigolo, and some hangers-on waiting around for the world as they know it to end. They have been guaranteed that they shall survive “The End” and that no one else will. The elephant in the room, of course, is WHY would people who have everything desire the world to end? Because, despite being at the top of the food chain, they are very unhappy people. One of them is a murderer (not a spoiler).
Parts of the novel are laugh out loud funny. Some of it is terrifying. Jackson is the queen of writing dialogue in which two characters are talking “at” each other, but having two totally conversations (I have since seen this again in her short fiction and it's incredible). I'm sure there is some literary term for it, I just don't know it. It's a hell of a thing to read and experience.
I was already convinced of Jackson's magic before picking this up, but this just knocked my respect up a few more levels. Incredible.