Weather

I really wanted to like it — so many of my friends have — but it just didn't work for me. The writing is tight, terse yet rich and really quite enjoyable, the kind I would normally devour... but the story itself felt flat. Affectless. Is that a thing now? It reminded me of [b:lost Children Archive 40245130 Lost Children Archive Valeria Luiselli https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1547386427l/40245130.SY75.jpg 62525285]: an ever-so-detached first-person narrator moving through the world but without really being part of it. A complete lack of connection. The whole book is bleakness, resignation. Not the fog of medication or apathy — her observations are too sharp at every level — just ... I don't know. I don't get it. A kind of going-through-the-motions thing, with exquisite awareness yet no spirit.

Such a great book to start the year with! This is a complex story told through vignettes, short snippets of thoughts and observations about the minutiae of everyday life that all add up to a commentary on some much bigger themes: the climate crisis, the US healthcare system, the state of US politics, the inherent difficulties that accompany family dynamics. Jenny Offill's writing is witty and insightful, often funny, and really beautiful. I will be picking up more from her ASAP.

Weather features Lizzie, a librarian who fell into her job at her university through the recommendation of her former mentor, Sylvia. I was gratified to see that Lizzie admits she doesn't have the usual credentials to be a librarian (a Master's degree in Library/Information Science). The author, Jenny Offill, must be acquainted with some librarians to have thought it important to include this detail. One of the pleasures of this book, for me, is the many anecdotes Lizzie includes in her narrative about the library patrons she encounters at her work. People are quirky and have odd interests and obsessions which come out when they need help at the library. So, the librarian aspects of this book were an invitation to me to come in and feel at home with Lizzie (even though I did wonder how many job candidates with LIS degrees she beat out for her job, and on what basis).

Lizzie's mentor, Sylvia, hosts a climate change podcast called Hell or High Water, and she hires Lizzie to answer the correspondence the podcast generates. It is through this side job that Lizzie becomes a bit obsessed with climate change and preparing for disaster. Or, at least, that's what I've read in other people's reviews. The climate change aspect of this book didn't stand out for me enough that I would call it a major theme. I would characterize it as more of a background for some of the other crises going on in Lizzie's life: her brother's descent into a deep depression and the strain that causes in her marriage. Either way, Lizzie is witness to disorienting crisis and is distressed by her inability to do much about it.

The book is written in short, 2-3 sentence paragraphs that are separated from each other by an extra line so they sit on the page like little packages. Sometimes the paragraphs flow from one to the next with obvious connection, but sometimes they don't seem connected to each other at all. Still, each one is a pleasure to read. Jenny Offill gives Lizzie a wry humor that I really liked. The style makes this an easy book to pick up and put down again, but it also makes it a little harder to remember everything that happens in the book as part of a whole.