Centering on the Garvey family, this is exactly the landscape Tom Perrotta sets out to explore in The Leftovers, a stunning (if not entirely successful) portrayal of how we cope with the inexplicable. Kevin Garvey, town mayor, wants to speed up the healing process for those who lost loved ones, while his wife turns to a newly grown cult and takes a vow of silence and cigarettes. His son has dropped out of college and fallen in with a tedious and somewhat shady "prophet" named Holy Wayne, while his daughter turns away from the straight-A student she used to be in favor of a rebellious, punkish teenager.
What is so striking about The Leftovers is the sheer normalcy of the Garveys' issues despite the extraordinary situation in which they find themselves: two married people growing in different directions, or coping with hardship in varied ways; the rebellious teenagers struggling to make names for themselves while trying to understand how to remain part of a family; the trials of teenage love and uncertainty.
Despite Perrotta's success in conveying the normalcy of the abnormal, however, and the myriad ways in which we deal with grief and loss, The Leftovers ultimately fell flat for me. Dennis Boutsikaris' narration on audio carries the plot forward with a steady, plodding momentum that makes it hard to stop listening, but the story itself proved unbelievable, at times forced, and finally disappointing. There is brilliance and insight in small parts here, but the sum of these parts didn't quite add up to anything. I kept waiting for it to happen, without ever knowing what "it" was; "it" never did.
I've read a lot of great reviews for this one, and I really wanted to love it. Maybe I'm not just a great audience for Perrotta, or maybe I read this one at a bad time. Have you read it? What did you think? Am I just missing something - or was audio perhaps a bad choice of format?
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Thoughts from other bookworms:
Fizzy Thoughts
Devourer of Books
Coffee and a Book Chick
The New Dork Review of Books
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The Leftovers | Tom Perrotta, nar. Dennis Boutsikaris | Macmillan Audio | Audio CD | August 2011 | Buy from an independent near you
Who can say whether we don't like a book or whether we're just coming to it at the wrong time? It's a tough call sometimes. I happened to like this book quite a bit, but I read it, didn't listen to it, and what I liked was that it really was all about the normalcy, or at least what passed for normalcy.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely a good question. I really struggled with this one, because while I in no way felt that it was a bad book, or poorly written or imagined, I just didn't connect with it nearly as much as I would have expected to. It had a lot of elements I was excited about, but for whatever reason they just never quite fit together for me.
DeleteI've seen this one again and again on sale at book stores and I've had my reservations. For whatever reason I just didn't think it would be that great so I'm glad I didn't get it. Definitely don't need anymore books that I don't finish.
ReplyDeleteThis was one of those books that I wasn't sure I liked or not until the end... but I know the feeling. There are too many books to read to read one that falls flat!
DeleteI actually had to go back and read my own post to refresh my memory on whether or not I liked the book. I remember the premise. But the characters? They're like the people in the Rapture...poof, just gone.
ReplyDeleteYep, the only reason I remembered character names was because I started this review months ago (I read the book in early summer). It's taken me until now to finally finish and post it... that says a lot about the book right there, now doesn't it?
DeleteI had the same feelings that you did. There were bright spots throughout it that really kept me engaged, and I did finish the book quickly, but it just wasn't a book that I really enjoyed. It was my first Perrotta book that I've read, so I'll need to pick up his other works that I've heard much more positive reviews about.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good way of putting it: "bright spots." I'd definitely try another Perrotta, as the writing was strong, but I just didn't love this one.
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