Weather by Jenny Offill

This is a fantastic book. It says so much and it says it with such elegance. It focuses on what it means to be faced with an impending disaster of glacial pace and proportions. On how the minutiae of life continue to abound despite said disaster; and how those minutiae are thrown into ridiculous relief, while also becoming what ground us, keep us somewhat sane. Unfortunately, they also mollify us, keeping us distracted and inactive enough to do nothing while we stare said disaster in the face and await its inevitable impact. If we think about it carefully though, given the state of affairs in early 2020, we must multiply the disaster, cube it. Give it the bedrock of lunatics and delusional thinking, utter denial. That is what we contend with. This book is not warm and fuzzy, it will not give you hope for the future but, it will make you think seriously about your life and the collective life that inhabits this planet. What does it mean to be part of that? What do we owe each other and those that come after us?