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Ascensión
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Fiction (2011)¿Qué pasaría si tu mujer, tu marido o tu hijo desaparecieran delante de ti? Bajo el prisma de una sola familia, Perrotta muestra cómo un fenómeno sin precedentes sacude a la ciudad de Mapleton. Una inexplicable desaparición en masa. "Ascensión" es un libro que te emocionará, acerca de gente corriente que lucha por seguir creyendo en el futuro.
448 pages, Paperback
First published August 11, 2011
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36700 people want to read
About the author
Tom Perrotta
30 books2,844 followersTom Perrotta is the bestselling author of nine works of fiction, including Election and Little Children, both of which were made into Oscar-nominated films, and The Leftovers, which was adapted into a critically acclaimed, Peabody Award-winning HBO series. His work has been translated into a multitude of languages. Perrotta grew up in New Jersey and lives outside of Boston.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 6,430 reviews
August 12, 2024
APOCALISSE E DINTORNI AI CONFINI DELLA REALTÀ
Ho letto Intrigo scolastico, adattato mediocremente per il grande schermo da Alexander Payne nel 1999 col titolo Election (candidato all’Oscar come miglior adattamento cinematografico); poi ho letto L’insegnante di educazione sessuale, che Jonathan Dayton e Valerie Faris stanno riscrivendo per fare un film; infine, ho letto Little Children e visto il film del 2007 con lo stesso titolo, la regia di Todd Field e la sceneggiatura dello stesso Perrotta (candidato all’Oscar, sempre come miglior sceneggiatura non originale).
E adesso questo Leftovers che sta passando con lo stesso titolo su Sky Atlantic come serie tv, dove Perrotta è sceneggiatore e produttore esecutivo.
Tom Perrotta scrive libri amati dal cinema. E ritengo che Perrotta ami scrivere libri adatti al cinema.
Finora la sua opera è stata “compressa” nella durata filmica: adesso approda alla serie tv e probabilmente alla possibilità di tagliare meno e aggiungere profondità, respiro, dettaglio.
Da quello che ho visto nelle prime due puntate (in lingua originale con sottotitoli, grazie a un benedetto sciopero degli italici doppiatori), come sempre, qualcosa si perde e qualcosa si guadagna.
Come potrebbe essere altrimenti? Sono due media diversi, molto diversi.
In questo romanzo, ha lasciato da parte la satira e la scuola, ma non l’ironia, per immergersi in un mondo di angoscia.
Altro argomento che ha mantenuto è quello della religione nella cultura americana contemporanea, anche se qui l’approccio è meno realistico che in The Abstinence Teacher.
Un giorno, qualcosa o qualcuno si porta via milioni di persone: in tutto il mondo, milioni di persone spariscono in un battere d’occhio, senza motivo, senza perché, senza spiegazione, senza preavviso, senza una logica.
Senza guerra, catastrofi, epidemie, tsunami.
Senza trombe e neppure tamburi.
Se ne vanno buoni e cattivi, santi e peccatori, belli e brutti, giovani e vecchi, cristiani, cattolici, ebrei, musulmani, fanatici di qualsiasi tipo, e anche non.
Per esempio, spariscono Putin, il papa, Jennifer Lopez e Adam Sandler, e fin qui triplo hurrah: ma se ne vanno anche mio figlio, il moroso della mia migliore amica, mio fratello, tuo cugino amatissimo e via andare.
Chi resta si trova a dover affrontare la perdita, l’assenza di chi fino a un attimo prima è stato marito, figlio, amante, amico, a dover capire se si è trattato di un premio o di una punizione.
Il romanzo si svolge tre anni dopo il cosiddetto “rapimento”: la perdita, il lutto non è ancora pienamente elaborato.
Non da tutti, almeno.
E per molti, l’elaborazione sembra impossibile, oppure è faticoso lavoro quotidiano.
Una storia di sopravvissuti, anche se i rimasti sono più numerosi dei “rapiti”.
Contano più gli avanzi umani rimasti (leftovers) che la gente sparita.
Atmosfera crepuscolare, niente colpi di scena, niente furori millenaristici, l’apocalisse è nell’aria ma, l’aria rimane leggera.
La storia è nel percorso, nel viaggio: non esiste soluzione, il finale conta poco, avrebbe potuto essere questo o un altro, senza inficiare il racconto.
Racconto che focalizza su come reagisce la gente a un evento simile.
Chi si aggrappa a quello che aveva prima, e si rifugia nella “normalità” – chi, invece, sente che non si può tornare indietro e occorra inventarsi un nuovo modo di vivere.
O, semplicemente, di sopravvivere.
La sensazione è che niente sarà come prima, ma tutto andrà avanti come è sempre andato.
Esattamente come l’intendeva il gattopardesco principe di Salina?
Essenzialmente, in grande solitudine.
Impossibile non pensare a quell’undici settembre in cui due grattacieli gemelli vennero giù come torri di mattoncini lego e insieme a loro circa tremila persone abbandonarono questa vita.
[Parlo del 2001, non del primo undici settembre che ho imparato a ricordare, e tacitamente commemorare, quello del 1973].
PS
Ho trovato la serie insopportabile, lenta, noiosa, monotona, deprimente. Punitiva. E, quindi, ho pensato di occupare meglio il mio tempo e non ho finito di vederla. Alleluja.
Ho letto Intrigo scolastico, adattato mediocremente per il grande schermo da Alexander Payne nel 1999 col titolo Election (candidato all’Oscar come miglior adattamento cinematografico); poi ho letto L’insegnante di educazione sessuale, che Jonathan Dayton e Valerie Faris stanno riscrivendo per fare un film; infine, ho letto Little Children e visto il film del 2007 con lo stesso titolo, la regia di Todd Field e la sceneggiatura dello stesso Perrotta (candidato all’Oscar, sempre come miglior sceneggiatura non originale).
E adesso questo Leftovers che sta passando con lo stesso titolo su Sky Atlantic come serie tv, dove Perrotta è sceneggiatore e produttore esecutivo.
Tom Perrotta scrive libri amati dal cinema. E ritengo che Perrotta ami scrivere libri adatti al cinema.
Finora la sua opera è stata “compressa” nella durata filmica: adesso approda alla serie tv e probabilmente alla possibilità di tagliare meno e aggiungere profondità, respiro, dettaglio.
Da quello che ho visto nelle prime due puntate (in lingua originale con sottotitoli, grazie a un benedetto sciopero degli italici doppiatori), come sempre, qualcosa si perde e qualcosa si guadagna.
Come potrebbe essere altrimenti? Sono due media diversi, molto diversi.
In questo romanzo, ha lasciato da parte la satira e la scuola, ma non l’ironia, per immergersi in un mondo di angoscia.
Altro argomento che ha mantenuto è quello della religione nella cultura americana contemporanea, anche se qui l’approccio è meno realistico che in The Abstinence Teacher.
Un giorno, qualcosa o qualcuno si porta via milioni di persone: in tutto il mondo, milioni di persone spariscono in un battere d’occhio, senza motivo, senza perché, senza spiegazione, senza preavviso, senza una logica.
Senza guerra, catastrofi, epidemie, tsunami.
Senza trombe e neppure tamburi.
Se ne vanno buoni e cattivi, santi e peccatori, belli e brutti, giovani e vecchi, cristiani, cattolici, ebrei, musulmani, fanatici di qualsiasi tipo, e anche non.
Per esempio, spariscono Putin, il papa, Jennifer Lopez e Adam Sandler, e fin qui triplo hurrah: ma se ne vanno anche mio figlio, il moroso della mia migliore amica, mio fratello, tuo cugino amatissimo e via andare.
Chi resta si trova a dover affrontare la perdita, l’assenza di chi fino a un attimo prima è stato marito, figlio, amante, amico, a dover capire se si è trattato di un premio o di una punizione.
Il romanzo si svolge tre anni dopo il cosiddetto “rapimento”: la perdita, il lutto non è ancora pienamente elaborato.
Non da tutti, almeno.
E per molti, l’elaborazione sembra impossibile, oppure è faticoso lavoro quotidiano.
Una storia di sopravvissuti, anche se i rimasti sono più numerosi dei “rapiti”.
Contano più gli avanzi umani rimasti (leftovers) che la gente sparita.
Atmosfera crepuscolare, niente colpi di scena, niente furori millenaristici, l’apocalisse è nell’aria ma, l’aria rimane leggera.
La storia è nel percorso, nel viaggio: non esiste soluzione, il finale conta poco, avrebbe potuto essere questo o un altro, senza inficiare il racconto.
Racconto che focalizza su come reagisce la gente a un evento simile.
Chi si aggrappa a quello che aveva prima, e si rifugia nella “normalità” – chi, invece, sente che non si può tornare indietro e occorra inventarsi un nuovo modo di vivere.
O, semplicemente, di sopravvivere.
La sensazione è che niente sarà come prima, ma tutto andrà avanti come è sempre andato.
Esattamente come l’intendeva il gattopardesco principe di Salina?
Essenzialmente, in grande solitudine.
Impossibile non pensare a quell’undici settembre in cui due grattacieli gemelli vennero giù come torri di mattoncini lego e insieme a loro circa tremila persone abbandonarono questa vita.
[Parlo del 2001, non del primo undici settembre che ho imparato a ricordare, e tacitamente commemorare, quello del 1973].
PS
Ho trovato la serie insopportabile, lenta, noiosa, monotona, deprimente. Punitiva. E, quindi, ho pensato di occupare meglio il mio tempo e non ho finito di vederla. Alleluja.
January 4, 2021
Tom Perrotta, I don't know. Your characters always start out so intriguing at the beginning of your books, but then you throw too much weird superfluous stuff into the mix. Couldn't you have focused a little more adroitly on two or three things, instead of the five or six lives you thought worthy of documentation? Couldn't we have done away with the seemingly tacked-on Christine/Tom/baby/Holy Wayne business and maybe had a little more about with the cult members killing each other, since one plotline was pretty spooky and the other kind of boring? It's an interesting concept to look at the people left behind after a supposed rapture has taken place, but true to form, everyone runs out of steam by the end of the book and I run out of interest. And Nora - my god, I went from being so sympathetic to Nora and wanting to give her a big hug to wanting to absolutely strangle her.
October 8, 2014
Millions of people vanish in the blink of an eye leaving everyone left on Earth feeling like God just told them, “It’s not you, it’s me….”
It’s been three years since the Sudden Departure, and the mayor of Mapleton, Kevin Garvey, is trying to get the town back to a feeling of normalcy. However, Kevin’s family was profoundly impacted by the disappearances. His wife Laurie has left him to join a cult of white-clad chain smokers called the Guilty Remnant who silently stalk people while son Tom dropped out of college to follow a man called Holy Wayne who offers hugs as comfort. Kevin is left with his teenage daughter Jill and her best friend who has moved in with them to get away from the creepy stepfather she was left with when her mom went poof. The girls are blowing off class to get drunk and high at parties that seem more depressing than fun. Another key figure in Mapleton is Nora Durst whose husband and two children vanished, and she’s been made a reluctant symbol of the mass loss.
While there are no definite answers as to what exactly happened to the missing people; the implication is that most of them believe deep down that this was a religious judgment of some kind. However, while it seems to fit the template of the Christian Rapture, people of all faiths from all over the world were taken while some hard core believers were not, and those who vanished were seemingly just as flawed in their lives as those who remain. So those left behind walk around feeling like they were judged and found wanting. Even worse is that since they don’t know what the criteria was, there’s no way to know why they didn't make the cut.
The real bitch of this is because these people have realized that the biggest event in human history occurred, and they were left out of it. Now they’re supposed to…..what? Go to work? Study for a test? Join a cult? Start a softball league?
There’s an unspoken belief among them that the real story is taking place with the people who departed, and the ones left are just a minor footnote at best. That’s the creepy vibe that haunts the book and makes the idea really work. There aren’t any huge apocalyptic battles to fight or horrors to endure, just that feeling that they’ve been abandoned and not knowing how to react to it. Can any of them find a reason to go on? Is it even worth trying?
I read this after seeing the TV series on HBO which I found disturbing on a lot of levels. While the basic plot and most of the characters are the same, the show seems to be hinting that there is still something looming, that this was just the first act which makes sense since most of the book's plot was used in the first season so it needs more story to tell. That gives the show a different spin because there’s more rage and craziness while the book is more about quiet despair.
It’s been three years since the Sudden Departure, and the mayor of Mapleton, Kevin Garvey, is trying to get the town back to a feeling of normalcy. However, Kevin’s family was profoundly impacted by the disappearances. His wife Laurie has left him to join a cult of white-clad chain smokers called the Guilty Remnant who silently stalk people while son Tom dropped out of college to follow a man called Holy Wayne who offers hugs as comfort. Kevin is left with his teenage daughter Jill and her best friend who has moved in with them to get away from the creepy stepfather she was left with when her mom went poof. The girls are blowing off class to get drunk and high at parties that seem more depressing than fun. Another key figure in Mapleton is Nora Durst whose husband and two children vanished, and she’s been made a reluctant symbol of the mass loss.
While there are no definite answers as to what exactly happened to the missing people; the implication is that most of them believe deep down that this was a religious judgment of some kind. However, while it seems to fit the template of the Christian Rapture, people of all faiths from all over the world were taken while some hard core believers were not, and those who vanished were seemingly just as flawed in their lives as those who remain. So those left behind walk around feeling like they were judged and found wanting. Even worse is that since they don’t know what the criteria was, there’s no way to know why they didn't make the cut.
The real bitch of this is because these people have realized that the biggest event in human history occurred, and they were left out of it. Now they’re supposed to…..what? Go to work? Study for a test? Join a cult? Start a softball league?
There’s an unspoken belief among them that the real story is taking place with the people who departed, and the ones left are just a minor footnote at best. That’s the creepy vibe that haunts the book and makes the idea really work. There aren’t any huge apocalyptic battles to fight or horrors to endure, just that feeling that they’ve been abandoned and not knowing how to react to it. Can any of them find a reason to go on? Is it even worth trying?
I read this after seeing the TV series on HBO which I found disturbing on a lot of levels. While the basic plot and most of the characters are the same, the show seems to be hinting that there is still something looming, that this was just the first act which makes sense since most of the book's plot was used in the first season so it needs more story to tell. That gives the show a different spin because there’s more rage and craziness while the book is more about quiet despair.
June 27, 2016
I wasn't disappointed AT ALL!!!!!
After enjoying. "Commonwealth", by Ann Patchett recently, I wanted another contemporary type novel involving community- social graces/human dealings. This fit the bill: families falling apart....relationships....struggles....tragedy....emotional drama....style & tack.
I wasn't too concerned about 'context' of Tom Perrotta's novel "The Leftovers", because his 'content' was sooooo friggin-gripping-engaging. I was aware of a bigger story going on throughout this novel. Citizens in Mapleton were mystified over lost family members, friends, lovers, and neighbors. Almost half of the world's population seems to have vanished in the Rapture. There doesn't seem to be any logical reason either for who vanished - and who didn't.
As the reader', it seems to me, that I had a choice - I could spend my energy trying to figure out 'the logic'..to the plot, (maybe the end of the book would even validate my efforts with a satisfying conclusion)....or.....
enjoy the 'ride' itself. I chose to enjoy the ride.
Tom Perrotta's ride was entertaining. His storytelling was a 'kick-of-fun'.....( messy)
I haven't much in the way of anything intellectual to say about the religious believers or non believers.....( I pretty much knew how I felt on issues -so my own faith remained the same)....
I simply LOVE THE GRITTY DETAILS...the flawed characters...and the dialogue!
I loved the storytelling - of characters Kevin Garvey, - his wife Laurie, his son Tom, daughter Jill,
Aimee. ( Jill's friend), Holy Wayne, Nora Durst....etc. There are some funny ( shaking your head), scenes.
A LITTLE EXCERPT ....( background > Aimee is Jill's friend. They are both in High School. Jill's mother left to join a cult-called the "Guilty Remnant". Aimee has been staying at Jill's house - about 3 months so far. She says she can't go home. Kevin, Jill's dad...has very little parental control).
EXCERPT:
Jill and Aimee headed out right after dinner, cheerfully informing Kevin, that they didn't know where they are going, what they were doing, who they would be with, or when they might be home.
"It's a school night," Kevin reminded them, not bothering to add, as he sometimes did that it was odd going nowhere and doing nothing could take up so much time. The joke just didn't seem that funny anymore. "Why don't you try to stay sober for once? See what it's like to wake up in the morning with a clear head".
The girls nodded earnestly, assuring him that they had every intention of heeding this excellent advice.
"And be careful," he continued. There are a lot of freaks out there".
Aimee grunted knowingly, as if to say that no one needed to tell her about freaks.
She was wearing kneesocks and a short cheerleader skirt – – light blue, not the maroon and gold of Mapleton High--and deployed her usual unsuitable arsenal of
cosmetics.
"We'll be careful," she promised.
Jill roll her eyes, unimpressed by her friends good-girl act.
"You're the biggest freak of all", she told Aimee. Then to Kevin, she added, "She's the one people need to watch out for."
Aimee protested, but it was hard to take her seriously, given that she looked less like an innocent schoolgirl and a stripper halfheartedly pretending to be one. Jill gave the opposite impression – – a scrawny child playing dress-up – – in her cuffed jeans and the oversized suede coat she'd borrowed from her mother's closet. Kevin experienced the usual mixed feelings seeing them together: a vague sadness for his daughter, who was so clearly the sidekick in this duo, but also a kind of relief rooted in the thought--or at least the hope – –that her unprepossessing appearance might function as a form of protective camouflage out in the world".
I LIKE THIS NOVEL!!!
*A few historical events that REALLY happened on the day Oct. 14th
.....530: Discorus ends his reign as Catholic anti-Pope
.....1492: Columbus Leaves San Salvador; arrives in Santa Maria of Concepcion (Bahamas)
.....1884: George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film ( Kodak Company)
.....1905: NY Giants beats Phila A's 4 games to 1 in 2nd World Series
.....1926: AA Milne's book "Winnie the Pooh" released.
.....1957: Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first Canadian monarch to open the Parliament of Canada with the speech from the Throne.
.....1960: Peace Corps 1st suggested by JFK
.....1964: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , announced as winner of the Nobel peace prize.
.....1979: NBC premiere of US TV adaption of Helen Keller's life story "The Miracle Worker".
.....1986: Elie Wiesel wins Nobel Peace Prize.
After enjoying. "Commonwealth", by Ann Patchett recently, I wanted another contemporary type novel involving community- social graces/human dealings. This fit the bill: families falling apart....relationships....struggles....tragedy....emotional drama....style & tack.
I wasn't too concerned about 'context' of Tom Perrotta's novel "The Leftovers", because his 'content' was sooooo friggin-gripping-engaging. I was aware of a bigger story going on throughout this novel. Citizens in Mapleton were mystified over lost family members, friends, lovers, and neighbors. Almost half of the world's population seems to have vanished in the Rapture. There doesn't seem to be any logical reason either for who vanished - and who didn't.
As the reader', it seems to me, that I had a choice - I could spend my energy trying to figure out 'the logic'..to the plot, (maybe the end of the book would even validate my efforts with a satisfying conclusion)....or.....
enjoy the 'ride' itself. I chose to enjoy the ride.
Tom Perrotta's ride was entertaining. His storytelling was a 'kick-of-fun'.....( messy)
I haven't much in the way of anything intellectual to say about the religious believers or non believers.....( I pretty much knew how I felt on issues -so my own faith remained the same)....
I simply LOVE THE GRITTY DETAILS...the flawed characters...and the dialogue!
I loved the storytelling - of characters Kevin Garvey, - his wife Laurie, his son Tom, daughter Jill,
Aimee. ( Jill's friend), Holy Wayne, Nora Durst....etc. There are some funny ( shaking your head), scenes.
A LITTLE EXCERPT ....( background > Aimee is Jill's friend. They are both in High School. Jill's mother left to join a cult-called the "Guilty Remnant". Aimee has been staying at Jill's house - about 3 months so far. She says she can't go home. Kevin, Jill's dad...has very little parental control).
EXCERPT:
Jill and Aimee headed out right after dinner, cheerfully informing Kevin, that they didn't know where they are going, what they were doing, who they would be with, or when they might be home.
"It's a school night," Kevin reminded them, not bothering to add, as he sometimes did that it was odd going nowhere and doing nothing could take up so much time. The joke just didn't seem that funny anymore. "Why don't you try to stay sober for once? See what it's like to wake up in the morning with a clear head".
The girls nodded earnestly, assuring him that they had every intention of heeding this excellent advice.
"And be careful," he continued. There are a lot of freaks out there".
Aimee grunted knowingly, as if to say that no one needed to tell her about freaks.
She was wearing kneesocks and a short cheerleader skirt – – light blue, not the maroon and gold of Mapleton High--and deployed her usual unsuitable arsenal of
cosmetics.
"We'll be careful," she promised.
Jill roll her eyes, unimpressed by her friends good-girl act.
"You're the biggest freak of all", she told Aimee. Then to Kevin, she added, "She's the one people need to watch out for."
Aimee protested, but it was hard to take her seriously, given that she looked less like an innocent schoolgirl and a stripper halfheartedly pretending to be one. Jill gave the opposite impression – – a scrawny child playing dress-up – – in her cuffed jeans and the oversized suede coat she'd borrowed from her mother's closet. Kevin experienced the usual mixed feelings seeing them together: a vague sadness for his daughter, who was so clearly the sidekick in this duo, but also a kind of relief rooted in the thought--or at least the hope – –that her unprepossessing appearance might function as a form of protective camouflage out in the world".
I LIKE THIS NOVEL!!!
*A few historical events that REALLY happened on the day Oct. 14th
.....530: Discorus ends his reign as Catholic anti-Pope
.....1492: Columbus Leaves San Salvador; arrives in Santa Maria of Concepcion (Bahamas)
.....1884: George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film ( Kodak Company)
.....1905: NY Giants beats Phila A's 4 games to 1 in 2nd World Series
.....1926: AA Milne's book "Winnie the Pooh" released.
.....1957: Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first Canadian monarch to open the Parliament of Canada with the speech from the Throne.
.....1960: Peace Corps 1st suggested by JFK
.....1964: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , announced as winner of the Nobel peace prize.
.....1979: NBC premiere of US TV adaption of Helen Keller's life story "The Miracle Worker".
.....1986: Elie Wiesel wins Nobel Peace Prize.
September 10, 2020
This is about the cult of cults, a very fascinating topic. Its something that baffles me, and thinking about joining a collective of weirdos (which is the reason I naturally avoid malls and Wal-Mart) gives me the willies. Anyway, the thing about Perrotta is that his work, as terrific or as pedestrian as it is, is insanely readable and "getting into it" is easy and fun. His books are given the usual three stars by me, but it really means something that some of his novels have made terrific films ("Election," "Little Children"). (I only need time to read everything of his, minus "L. C." &, my favorite, "Joe College".)
Another genuine Perrottatism is the ambiguous ("sloppy" or "moralizing"? I need to KNOW!) endings--they require, at times, ample time for digestion. This one, sorry for the SPOILER, is no exception.
It is askew, ambitious. But then, it kinda does have a hard time being about national themes of global catastrophe (such as The Rapture, The Apocalypse) and the personal minutiae in which they are somehow played out. Perrotta's scale is incredibly, claustrophobically small. But then again: this is why he was named by a critic as a "Steinbeck of suburbia." This one disappoints in that the cataclysm is a catalyst which affords the opportunity for the vanilla-ish characters to think of extraordinary and ordinary thinks alike, and everybody makes uber rotten decisions (which is nothing different than being married or having a death in the family). No, there is something rather paint-it-by-numbers here. But still, I must reiterate that I must read everything else. At least the guy sure knows how to entertain!
Another genuine Perrottatism is the ambiguous ("sloppy" or "moralizing"? I need to KNOW!) endings--they require, at times, ample time for digestion. This one, sorry for the SPOILER, is no exception.
It is askew, ambitious. But then, it kinda does have a hard time being about national themes of global catastrophe (such as The Rapture, The Apocalypse) and the personal minutiae in which they are somehow played out. Perrotta's scale is incredibly, claustrophobically small. But then again: this is why he was named by a critic as a "Steinbeck of suburbia." This one disappoints in that the cataclysm is a catalyst which affords the opportunity for the vanilla-ish characters to think of extraordinary and ordinary thinks alike, and everybody makes uber rotten decisions (which is nothing different than being married or having a death in the family). No, there is something rather paint-it-by-numbers here. But still, I must reiterate that I must read everything else. At least the guy sure knows how to entertain!
March 29, 2013
SHORT REVIEW: What Conan the Barbarian was to High Fantasy, The Leftovers is to Mid-Life Crisis Fantasy. No, that's too kind.
SHORT REVIEW #2: A book so OK it hurts.
ANOTHER SHORTY: I liked this better the first time, when it was called American Beauty.
LONG REVIEW: Reading this book was like heading down a playground slide made of glass. It starts off fun, but soon the smooth, featureless texture is burning your skin and all you can see is the cold, rocky ground waiting for you at the end. And then you hit the rocky ground and it is worse than you imagined.
Speaking of bad comparisons, The Rapture, the author claims, is a metaphor for dealing with grief and loss. Yet, no one in this book deals with grief or loss in any positive fashion. If this was meant to be a strictly humorous book, the multiple negative endings might have wrapped up as punch lines to their various character arcs. However, as the book runs out of irony somewhere at the half way point, the conclusion to the novel is about as downbeat as they come.
The real irony is that this well told tale of mediocrity in the face of extraordinary change never becomes more than a mediocre reflection of itself.
SHORT REVIEW #2: A book so OK it hurts.
ANOTHER SHORTY: I liked this better the first time, when it was called American Beauty.
LONG REVIEW: Reading this book was like heading down a playground slide made of glass. It starts off fun, but soon the smooth, featureless texture is burning your skin and all you can see is the cold, rocky ground waiting for you at the end. And then you hit the rocky ground and it is worse than you imagined.
Speaking of bad comparisons, The Rapture, the author claims, is a metaphor for dealing with grief and loss. Yet, no one in this book deals with grief or loss in any positive fashion. If this was meant to be a strictly humorous book, the multiple negative endings might have wrapped up as punch lines to their various character arcs. However, as the book runs out of irony somewhere at the half way point, the conclusion to the novel is about as downbeat as they come.
The real irony is that this well told tale of mediocrity in the face of extraordinary change never becomes more than a mediocre reflection of itself.
June 21, 2012
Have you ever read one of those books where it feels like the middle part of a trilogy, like all the action happened just before the first page and then kicks into gear right on the last page?
I guess it doesn't matter if you've read one like that or not. That little description makes sense enough, right?
Okay, how about this:
When I get a pizza, the first slice is awesome. Because I was so hungry and anticipating it. And then you get into a cycle of diminishing returns about three slices in. Then it just becomes another food, what you're eating for that meal and nothing more. But THEN, you have the LEFTOVERS (haha!) the next day, and they are awesome again. The bookends of pizza are awesome, but the middle is kind of lame. Nothing really happens, and it's just an unnecessary way of getting you from the beginning of the pizza to the end.
A smarter man would eat a few slices on day one, and then a second set the next day, after which the pizza could go out.
A smarter man would have also read the setup in this book, then skipped to the end to see what all happened without slogging through a lot of...I don't know what.
What's so weird about this book is that other than the setup, a large portion of the population mysteriously disappearing all at the same time, there's almost nothing really remarkable about what happens. It's all kind of mundane. Which I get. It's realistic. Well, except for the rising up of a cult of people who don't talk (except when they do) and smoke all the time (except when they don't) and are pretty much harmless (except when they aren't).
Plus, nobody mentions the benefits.
-Shorter lines everywhere.
-Less traffic.
-Free day at the zoo becomes tolerable again.
Anyway, if you're considering this book, I'd say reconsider. It's fine overall, but you can find what you're looking for somewhere else that'll be preferable, whether it's suburban drama, attempting to put a shape to loss, or a miracle baby.
I guess it doesn't matter if you've read one like that or not. That little description makes sense enough, right?
Okay, how about this:
When I get a pizza, the first slice is awesome. Because I was so hungry and anticipating it. And then you get into a cycle of diminishing returns about three slices in. Then it just becomes another food, what you're eating for that meal and nothing more. But THEN, you have the LEFTOVERS (haha!) the next day, and they are awesome again. The bookends of pizza are awesome, but the middle is kind of lame. Nothing really happens, and it's just an unnecessary way of getting you from the beginning of the pizza to the end.
A smarter man would eat a few slices on day one, and then a second set the next day, after which the pizza could go out.
A smarter man would have also read the setup in this book, then skipped to the end to see what all happened without slogging through a lot of...I don't know what.
What's so weird about this book is that other than the setup, a large portion of the population mysteriously disappearing all at the same time, there's almost nothing really remarkable about what happens. It's all kind of mundane. Which I get. It's realistic. Well, except for the rising up of a cult of people who don't talk (except when they do) and smoke all the time (except when they don't) and are pretty much harmless (except when they aren't).
Plus, nobody mentions the benefits.
-Shorter lines everywhere.
-Less traffic.
-Free day at the zoo becomes tolerable again.
Anyway, if you're considering this book, I'd say reconsider. It's fine overall, but you can find what you're looking for somewhere else that'll be preferable, whether it's suburban drama, attempting to put a shape to loss, or a miracle baby.
August 26, 2014
Never, have I ever wanted an author to pull a George RR Martin the way I wanted it to happen in The Leftovers.
WHO WANTS TO BE A MARTYR? the caption asked.
Yeah...there was not as much of this as I'd hoped.
Up until the last few pages, I was somewhat enjoying the book, happy sunshine (oh wow, I accidentally typed happy sunshit and had to correct that. I might have just coined a new term.) and all. Okay, so there wasn't actually a whole lot of happy or sunshine going on, but compared to the show, this book was very light on the drama.
Why I picked up The Leftovers : I was on a "need to know" basis regarding all of the information that the show is leaving out for now. DEAR LORD, THEY GIVE NOTHING AWAY ON THE SHOW. Season 1 is almost over and I was still struggling to figure out what the entire purpose of the Guilty Remnant cult was about. Within a few minutes of picking up the book, I had that AH HAH! moment! Why the show felt the need to have to withold info that the book gave away up front, I don't know. I guess it lends to the aura of darkness and mystery that the show has, which the book DOES NOT HAVE. AT ALL. Okay, so there was one scene toward the end which was a bit of a trip, but that's the only crumb we got.
Book vs. Show : Even with all of the frustration and lack of info, the show wins because the show actually seems to have a backbone.
Laurie on the show is kind of a bitch. I like that. Nora on the show is kind of a bitch. I also like that. Both of these characters in the book are weak and boring (and in the case of Nora, downright disposable).
But again, the book itself wasn't all that bad of a read. It just wasn't very developed either, past the point of showing people surviving their day to day existence after their loved ones vanished into thin air without explanation. At least the show has more depth to it (so far).
This is where the problem comes in : when the entire premise of a book revolves around PEOPLE DISAPPEARING INTO THIN AIR, the reader might decide at some point that they care more about the disappearance than the people who were left around to cope. Oh sure, at first it's this big psychological draw, watching people in their struggle to figure out how to be normal again...until it's not.
"The world went back to sleep," she said. "It's our duty to wake it up."
I waited. And waited. And waited. Surely, the ending was going to give up the goods. I just had to know what had caused the disappearance, and if the missing would ever come back.
Yep. Here comes the spoiler -
The Guilty Remnant weren't exactly the reliable source, after all.
I don't count my read as wasted time, but if the only reason you want to pick this book up is to get some answers, just read this :
Sorry for the weird review. If you don't watch the show, this review probably makes no sense. If you don't watch the show, I wouldn't bother with the book anyway. So there we go. ;)
May 5, 2017
What the shit did I just read?
Truly, I’m at a loss for words. [Brain just mush; mush-begets-mush]
I don’t think this will be a review in the typical sense, more of a purging. Exorcism. Cleansing. Absolution.
[Backstory: my Better Half reallyreallyreally loves the show The Leftovers. I refuse to watch on the simple grounds that I don’t watch television. I read, why would I watch TV? No matter. She wants to talk to me about the show and I don’t know a thing about it. She says, ‘it was a book—I’ll buy you the book and then you’ll know what I’m talking about.’ Since I love her to the end of this world and the next, I agree. INTERRUPTION: lest you think my wife a troglodyte, don’t. She hasn’t read this abomination. She was simply trying to find a common-ground for us to share. That she had to go to such extreme lengths to get me to participate in something outside my hermitage is actually a reflection on my deficits and certainly not hers. END INTERRUPTION AND BACKSTORY]
Is this what people read? I don’t mean you, you hard-reading bastards; you’re all serious readers. I mean ‘people.’ Y’know, like people people? The one’s who buy books at the supermarket, or buy a book randomly because it ‘looks interesting’ (translation: nifty cover art)? ‘Cause if so, holy shit, my friends—we have a crisis of epidemical proportion on our hands. This is THE lowest-common denominator, the dregs. I wanted this book to mimic its subject matter: disappear; gone—poof!—vanished from my sight forever. It was that pitiable, and I’m not being dramatic. I don’t hate-read, and to each-their-own, but this is just a waste of trees. Pure, lovely, good, oxygenating trees died for this to come into being.
[I have to admit that I was intrigued when I discovered that Perotta also wrote Little Children. Now I’ve not read that (of course), but I thought the movie was exceptional. I think that Todd Field is in the van of the few truly innovative filmmakers America has left, so it raised my hopes a bit. I digress. These same hopes were quickly bashed against the wall, melon-head exploding in slo-mo.)
Let’s just get this over with so we can all go back to the good stuff. This is artless, meritless, useless drivel. The writing (grades 3-5) is so fundamentally juvenile that it just leaves me embarrassed for Perrotta. Lines like, “(S)he was a real hottie, with the nicest tits at the university” not only read like a sophomore pituitary cases’ attempts at wank-Fiction, they actually offend my too-too precious sensibilities. Why? Well, the only reasonable answer is that I’m an elitist snob who looks down his button-nose on all he surveys. Hey, if the pince-nez fits.
PLEASE JUST READ THIS PART: if you like this book/books like this/Perrotta/etc., pay me no mind. My opinion is my own and is not worth taking seriously in any way. Just think of me as Early Man at Lascaux; drawing on my cave’s walls and trying to make sense out of a universe I can’t begin to comprehend. IN FACT, if you like this/read this stuff/etc., I say, ‘bully!’ ‘Huzzah!’ You know why? Because at least you’re reading something—you’re not staring at your imagination on a 90” flat screen or scrolling through it with your thumbs on your iSOUL. If I sound like a pedant, I’m honestly not trying to. It has nothing to do with you. Or Harry Potter or Goldfinches or the many, many shades that grey apparently comes in. You’re good, I’m good, we’re all good. Live and let live. Let’s agree to disagree, shake hands, and go back to our respective sections of the communal library and crack some spines. But if I may be so bold: I’ve now willingly swam your mainstream waters, your Nile’s and Amazon’s. Would you be interested in experiencing mine, just once? It would be my honor to offer my panga.
(Last point: as for the story, it’s a transparent and fundamentally bankrupt commentary on religion and suburbia—the easiest of all ‘urbias’ to shit on. Medoubts Perrotta lives in a double-wide on the Res' with that fat HBO check and all his feature film credits, but his glass house is apparently constructed out of mirrors facing-inward only)
Truly, I’m at a loss for words. [Brain just mush; mush-begets-mush]
I don’t think this will be a review in the typical sense, more of a purging. Exorcism. Cleansing. Absolution.
[Backstory: my Better Half reallyreallyreally loves the show The Leftovers. I refuse to watch on the simple grounds that I don’t watch television. I read, why would I watch TV? No matter. She wants to talk to me about the show and I don’t know a thing about it. She says, ‘it was a book—I’ll buy you the book and then you’ll know what I’m talking about.’ Since I love her to the end of this world and the next, I agree. INTERRUPTION: lest you think my wife a troglodyte, don’t. She hasn’t read this abomination. She was simply trying to find a common-ground for us to share. That she had to go to such extreme lengths to get me to participate in something outside my hermitage is actually a reflection on my deficits and certainly not hers. END INTERRUPTION AND BACKSTORY]
Is this what people read? I don’t mean you, you hard-reading bastards; you’re all serious readers. I mean ‘people.’ Y’know, like people people? The one’s who buy books at the supermarket, or buy a book randomly because it ‘looks interesting’ (translation: nifty cover art)? ‘Cause if so, holy shit, my friends—we have a crisis of epidemical proportion on our hands. This is THE lowest-common denominator, the dregs. I wanted this book to mimic its subject matter: disappear; gone—poof!—vanished from my sight forever. It was that pitiable, and I’m not being dramatic. I don’t hate-read, and to each-their-own, but this is just a waste of trees. Pure, lovely, good, oxygenating trees died for this to come into being.
[I have to admit that I was intrigued when I discovered that Perotta also wrote Little Children. Now I’ve not read that (of course), but I thought the movie was exceptional. I think that Todd Field is in the van of the few truly innovative filmmakers America has left, so it raised my hopes a bit. I digress. These same hopes were quickly bashed against the wall, melon-head exploding in slo-mo.)
Let’s just get this over with so we can all go back to the good stuff. This is artless, meritless, useless drivel. The writing (grades 3-5) is so fundamentally juvenile that it just leaves me embarrassed for Perrotta. Lines like, “(S)he was a real hottie, with the nicest tits at the university” not only read like a sophomore pituitary cases’ attempts at wank-Fiction, they actually offend my too-too precious sensibilities. Why? Well, the only reasonable answer is that I’m an elitist snob who looks down his button-nose on all he surveys. Hey, if the pince-nez fits.
PLEASE JUST READ THIS PART: if you like this book/books like this/Perrotta/etc., pay me no mind. My opinion is my own and is not worth taking seriously in any way. Just think of me as Early Man at Lascaux; drawing on my cave’s walls and trying to make sense out of a universe I can’t begin to comprehend. IN FACT, if you like this/read this stuff/etc., I say, ‘bully!’ ‘Huzzah!’ You know why? Because at least you’re reading something—you’re not staring at your imagination on a 90” flat screen or scrolling through it with your thumbs on your iSOUL. If I sound like a pedant, I’m honestly not trying to. It has nothing to do with you. Or Harry Potter or Goldfinches or the many, many shades that grey apparently comes in. You’re good, I’m good, we’re all good. Live and let live. Let’s agree to disagree, shake hands, and go back to our respective sections of the communal library and crack some spines. But if I may be so bold: I’ve now willingly swam your mainstream waters, your Nile’s and Amazon’s. Would you be interested in experiencing mine, just once? It would be my honor to offer my panga.
(Last point: as for the story, it’s a transparent and fundamentally bankrupt commentary on religion and suburbia—the easiest of all ‘urbias’ to shit on. Medoubts Perrotta lives in a double-wide on the Res' with that fat HBO check and all his feature film credits, but his glass house is apparently constructed out of mirrors facing-inward only)
June 28, 2011
This is quite the literary year for ordinary families becoming enmeshed in extraordinary, indeed, catastrophic, situations. Erik Larson, in The Garden of the Beast, portrays an all-American family at the cusp of the horrendous Hitler years. And now Tom Perrotta one-ups him by introducing the Garveys…a suburban family who was left behind in the aftermath of a Rapture-like event.
To his credit, Tom Perrotta drinks no Kool-aid. Before the event occurs, one character says this about the Rapture: “It felt like religious kitsch, as tacky as a black velvet painting, the kind of fantasy that appealed to people who ate too much fried food, spanked their kids, and had no problem with the theory that their loving God invented AIDS to punish the gays.” Yet suddenly – whoosh! – millions of people simply vanish, including John Mellencamp and J.Lo, Shaq and Adam Sandler Miss Texas and Greta Van Susteren, Vladmir Putin and the Pope. There seems to rhyme or reason as to who disappears. What has happened?
No one knows and Tom Perrotta doesn’t even speculate. He wisely leaves it to the imagination of the reader. His focus is not on the “big event”, but rather how those who remain find the will to survive afterward. Some of them – Laurie Garvey, the mother, for example – join Guilty Remnant, a ragtag group that dress in white, continually smoke cancer sticks, and “stand before you as living reminders of God’s awesome power.” Others follow a self-proclaimed messiah, Holy Wayne, who promises to “take on their pain.”
And the majority just struggles by – trying to find some meaning in college classes, council meetings, community dances. They try to move forward while grieving the departed and getting by in a world where consumerism, politics, conventional religion, and mindless entertainment have lost their meaning.
Kevin Garvey – the father and also the mayor – thinks, “He’d seen this process before: It didn’t matter what happened in the world – genocidal wars, natural disasters, unspeakable crimes, mass disappearances, whatever – eventually people got tired of brooding about it. Time moved on, seasons changed, individuals withdrew into their private lives, turned their faces toward the sun. On balance, it was a good thing.”
It’s an ambitious theme that Tom Perrotta takes on – how diminished we are when something vital is being subtracted from our lives, but how we somehow put one foot in front of the other. Perhaps a little too ambitious. The grandness of the apocalyptic event is always lurking in the background, making the players who strut and fret their last hours on stage seem rather ordinary. It seemed to me that the random mystery of a devastating event would have created a universal clamor to find out why; otherwise, how to go on? Tom Perrotta is an engaging writer but at the end of the day, I need to know more about “the end of the day.”
To his credit, Tom Perrotta drinks no Kool-aid. Before the event occurs, one character says this about the Rapture: “It felt like religious kitsch, as tacky as a black velvet painting, the kind of fantasy that appealed to people who ate too much fried food, spanked their kids, and had no problem with the theory that their loving God invented AIDS to punish the gays.” Yet suddenly – whoosh! – millions of people simply vanish, including John Mellencamp and J.Lo, Shaq and Adam Sandler Miss Texas and Greta Van Susteren, Vladmir Putin and the Pope. There seems to rhyme or reason as to who disappears. What has happened?
No one knows and Tom Perrotta doesn’t even speculate. He wisely leaves it to the imagination of the reader. His focus is not on the “big event”, but rather how those who remain find the will to survive afterward. Some of them – Laurie Garvey, the mother, for example – join Guilty Remnant, a ragtag group that dress in white, continually smoke cancer sticks, and “stand before you as living reminders of God’s awesome power.” Others follow a self-proclaimed messiah, Holy Wayne, who promises to “take on their pain.”
And the majority just struggles by – trying to find some meaning in college classes, council meetings, community dances. They try to move forward while grieving the departed and getting by in a world where consumerism, politics, conventional religion, and mindless entertainment have lost their meaning.
Kevin Garvey – the father and also the mayor – thinks, “He’d seen this process before: It didn’t matter what happened in the world – genocidal wars, natural disasters, unspeakable crimes, mass disappearances, whatever – eventually people got tired of brooding about it. Time moved on, seasons changed, individuals withdrew into their private lives, turned their faces toward the sun. On balance, it was a good thing.”
It’s an ambitious theme that Tom Perrotta takes on – how diminished we are when something vital is being subtracted from our lives, but how we somehow put one foot in front of the other. Perhaps a little too ambitious. The grandness of the apocalyptic event is always lurking in the background, making the players who strut and fret their last hours on stage seem rather ordinary. It seemed to me that the random mystery of a devastating event would have created a universal clamor to find out why; otherwise, how to go on? Tom Perrotta is an engaging writer but at the end of the day, I need to know more about “the end of the day.”
May 10, 2012
What if there suddenly were a "Rapture" or something like it, where millions of people around the world disappeared in an instant, vaporized into nothingness? How would those left behind cope with such an amazing and inexplicable development?
Such is the premise of Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers, which focuses on the small town of Mapleton and on the family of the newly-elected mayor, Kevin Garvey. Everyone in town has been affected by the event and large numbers of people have been traumatized, though no one knows exactly what has happened. Some fervently believe that this was, in fact, the Rapture for which some Christians have long awaited, though some of the "leftover" Christians cannot understand why some Muslims, Jews and others were carried away while they were left behind. Many non-believers refuse to accept this explanation and attribute the disappearance to some strange phenomenon that no one can understand.
Over time, the event becomes known as the "Sudden Departure," and people react in a variety of ways. Some join religious cults, expecting that the End Days are near. Others attempt to return to a "normal" life, as if nothing had happened. Large numbers of people are, understandably, traumatized and cannot get over the loss of the family members and friends who so abruptly left their lives.
As is clear from his previous book,The Abstinence Teacher, Perrotta has a keen insight into modern suburban life. In this book, he has created a memorable cast of characters and he examines their lives with sympathy, wit and wisdom. This is a very enjoyable and compelling book that will leave readers thinking about its premise and about its characters for a very long time.
Such is the premise of Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers, which focuses on the small town of Mapleton and on the family of the newly-elected mayor, Kevin Garvey. Everyone in town has been affected by the event and large numbers of people have been traumatized, though no one knows exactly what has happened. Some fervently believe that this was, in fact, the Rapture for which some Christians have long awaited, though some of the "leftover" Christians cannot understand why some Muslims, Jews and others were carried away while they were left behind. Many non-believers refuse to accept this explanation and attribute the disappearance to some strange phenomenon that no one can understand.
Over time, the event becomes known as the "Sudden Departure," and people react in a variety of ways. Some join religious cults, expecting that the End Days are near. Others attempt to return to a "normal" life, as if nothing had happened. Large numbers of people are, understandably, traumatized and cannot get over the loss of the family members and friends who so abruptly left their lives.
As is clear from his previous book,The Abstinence Teacher, Perrotta has a keen insight into modern suburban life. In this book, he has created a memorable cast of characters and he examines their lives with sympathy, wit and wisdom. This is a very enjoyable and compelling book that will leave readers thinking about its premise and about its characters for a very long time.
February 16, 2025
Започвам това ревю с признание, че съм голям почитател на телевизионната адаптация на книгата.
"Останалите" се оказа чудесно написана история, която е пресъздадена и доразвита отлично в трите сезона на едноименния телевизионен сериал.
Става въпрос основно за психическите травми, които голяма част от съвременните хора не могат да понесат, явно сме се поизнежили и ментално, не само физически.
През един обикновен октомврийски ден се случва нещо необяснимо и напълно неочаквано - милиони хора по света просто изчезват, по напълно произволен принцип, без възможност да се разбере, защо някой е изчезнал, а друг не. И оставят оцелелите, да се опитат някак да закърпят живота си и да продължат напред.
Реакциите в книгата са на обикновенните американци, и как те се справят с тази ситуация.
В страна, където по принцип има доста религиозни и прочее откачалки, "Възнесението" както е наречено изчезването, отприщва водопад от нови култове, секти и религии, настава хаос и мнозина се чувстват унизени, предадени и изгубени. Луди, нестабилни ментално и бесни фанатици бродят из САЩ, в търсенена отговори и изкупление.
Семейството на Кевин Гарви, понастоящем кмет на Мейпълтаун не е в по-различно положение - разпада се на части, всяка една от които не може или не желае да функционира с останалите както преди.
Книгата си струва да се прочете, историята върви плавно и интересно.
Кари Кун, в ролята на Нора е блестяща:
Цитат:
"Приличаше на религиозен кич, безвкусен като рисунка върху черно кадифе; беше видът фантазия, привличаща хората, които ядат твърде много пържено, пердашат децата си и нямат проблем с теорията, че любящият им Бог е изобретил СПИН, за да накаже гейовете."
"Останалите" се оказа чудесно написана история, която е пресъздадена и доразвита отлично в трите сезона на едноименния телевизионен сериал.
Става въпрос основно за психическите травми, които голяма част от съвременните хора не могат да понесат, явно сме се поизнежили и ментално, не само физически.
През един обикновен октомврийски ден се случва нещо необяснимо и напълно неочаквано - милиони хора по света просто изчезват, по напълно произволен принцип, без възможност да се разбере, защо някой е изчезнал, а друг не. И оставят оцелелите, да се опитат някак да закърпят живота си и да продължат напред.
Реакциите в книгата са на обикновенните американци, и как те се справят с тази ситуация.
В страна, където по принцип има доста религиозни и прочее откачалки, "Възнесението" както е наречено изчезването, отприщва водопад от нови култове, секти и религии, настава хаос и мнозина се чувстват унизени, предадени и изгубени. Луди, нестабилни ментално и бесни фанатици бродят из САЩ, в търсенена отговори и изкупление.
Семейството на Кевин Гарви, понастоящем кмет на Мейпълтаун не е в по-различно положение - разпада се на части, всяка една от които не може или не желае да функционира с останалите както преди.
Книгата си струва да се прочете, историята върви плавно и интересно.
Кари Кун, в ролята на Нора е блестяща:
Цитат:
"Приличаше на религиозен кич, безвкусен като рисунка върху черно кадифе; беше видът фантазия, привличаща хората, които ядат твърде много пържено, пердашат децата си и нямат проблем с теорията, че любящият им Бог е изобретил СПИН, за да накаже гейовете."
July 27, 2021
This book was simply incredibly boring. It had no real plot or purpose, just a random meandering through life of too many characters. Very disappointed.
April 19, 2012
Tom Perotta’s newest book would not be a typical choice for me. I saw the movie "Little Children" starring Kate Winslet, so I was curious when this book came out. The fact that life after The Rapture was central to the story made me that much more curious. I was not disappointed.
In The Leftovers, Tom Perotta explores what would happen if The Rapture actually took place. The book opens just a short time after millions of people have just disappeared from the earth. Perotta’s characters show a variety of emotions, including indifference, avoidance, and depression. Two of the main characters even join strange cults that spring up after The Rapture.
Perotta’s novel is ordinary in the sense that Justin Cronin’s novel "The Passage" is extraordinary. Both follow apocalyptic events, yet the way life goes on after the events in the two novels could not be more different. Perotta leaves the reader feeling that even after an apocalyptic event, life would go on in a strangely normal fashion. That left me pondering the story long after it was over.
In The Leftovers, Tom Perotta explores what would happen if The Rapture actually took place. The book opens just a short time after millions of people have just disappeared from the earth. Perotta’s characters show a variety of emotions, including indifference, avoidance, and depression. Two of the main characters even join strange cults that spring up after The Rapture.
Perotta’s novel is ordinary in the sense that Justin Cronin’s novel "The Passage" is extraordinary. Both follow apocalyptic events, yet the way life goes on after the events in the two novels could not be more different. Perotta leaves the reader feeling that even after an apocalyptic event, life would go on in a strangely normal fashion. That left me pondering the story long after it was over.
April 23, 2013
I laughed! I cried! I dreamed dreams and saw visions!
Oh wait, no I didn't.
I enjoyed it briefly. Then I got to halfway and started wondering if it were going to go anyplace. Then I got farther and started wondering if it were ever, ever going to go anyplace. Then I wondered if it were going to end. Then I saw it was going to end, and I wondered if it were going to have a climax. Then, like a dull night at home, it didn’t.
If this book were food, it would be carob. Carob chip cookies. Great sell, great build-up, I chose it, and it turned to crud in my mouth. The plot jumps around from one character to another, as is the fashion lately. As the pagination continues, the plot jumps more and more quickly, each character getting less and less time. Each mini-cliffhanger comes more and more quickly. And there are hordes of characters, each main character having his or her own attachments, and I had a hell of a time telling them apart, they were so much alike.
It’s nothing, a bunch of Barbies and Kens who do the same damn thing for 355 pages, never changing, never revealing who they are, what makes them tick. Oh, what makes them tick is grief, loneliness, wanting to go back to before the disappearances of their Loved Ones, and wanting to sleep with something. They all want to sleep with something. That’s the chief end of man, to sleep with something. That shouldn’t be so hard; they are all relatively hot; but hardly anybody gets in bed; it’s so much more interesting for a novel to be full of this unfulfilled longing. I guess.
At least the thing is vivid, and not completely depressing. I guess that’s the “humor” that the professional reviewers kept mentioning. I chuckled exactly twice, over the smoking and Holy Wayne. If Perrotta weren’t trying to be funny, it’d be so depressing I’d probably have stabbed it with a steak knife.
Oh wait, no I didn't.
I enjoyed it briefly. Then I got to halfway and started wondering if it were going to go anyplace. Then I got farther and started wondering if it were ever, ever going to go anyplace. Then I wondered if it were going to end. Then I saw it was going to end, and I wondered if it were going to have a climax. Then, like a dull night at home, it didn’t.
If this book were food, it would be carob. Carob chip cookies. Great sell, great build-up, I chose it, and it turned to crud in my mouth. The plot jumps around from one character to another, as is the fashion lately. As the pagination continues, the plot jumps more and more quickly, each character getting less and less time. Each mini-cliffhanger comes more and more quickly. And there are hordes of characters, each main character having his or her own attachments, and I had a hell of a time telling them apart, they were so much alike.
It’s nothing, a bunch of Barbies and Kens who do the same damn thing for 355 pages, never changing, never revealing who they are, what makes them tick. Oh, what makes them tick is grief, loneliness, wanting to go back to before the disappearances of their Loved Ones, and wanting to sleep with something. They all want to sleep with something. That’s the chief end of man, to sleep with something. That shouldn’t be so hard; they are all relatively hot; but hardly anybody gets in bed; it’s so much more interesting for a novel to be full of this unfulfilled longing. I guess.
At least the thing is vivid, and not completely depressing. I guess that’s the “humor” that the professional reviewers kept mentioning. I chuckled exactly twice, over the smoking and Holy Wayne. If Perrotta weren’t trying to be funny, it’d be so depressing I’d probably have stabbed it with a steak knife.
September 22, 2011
Most of Tom Perrotta's novels have been wry examinations of society and its foibles. Election, Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher each did a terrific job in chronicling the positives and negatives of human behavior. His characters aren't always sympathetic, their motivations aren't always understandable, but his books always make you think.
With his newest novel, The Leftovers, Perrotta ponders an interesting question: what if the Rapture happened, but not all of the religiously devout were taken, but instead, a random, unexplainable group of people disappeared? How would the rest of the world cope? How would a person deal with the disappearance of a spouse, children, or parents? These are the issues that the citizens of Mapleton, a small midwestern town, are confronted with when an event called the "Sudden Departure" affects the world. No one—not even religious leaders—can explain who was chosen and why, and no one can help those left behind to try and get on with their lives. Kevin Garvey, the mayor of Mapleton, lost none of his family to the Sudden Departure directly, but his family has fallen apart in the wake of the event. His wife, Laurie, joined a cult of survivors called the Guilty Remnant; his daughter, Jill, has started failing out of school and become promiscuous; and his son, Tom, dropped out of college to follow a questionable prophet named Holy Wayne. As Kevin tries to help the people of his town rebuild their lives, he embarks on a relationship with Nora Durst, whose husband and children were lost to the Departure.
I always marvel at Perrotta's storytelling ability and the way he thinks things through. He did a great job creating a post-Rapture world without actually having you experience what happened that day, so much like the characters themselves, you don't really know what happened to those who disappeared. When I finished the book, I found myself frustrated that not one character's situation was resolved, but then I realized that this must be a metaphor for how the world felt after the Sudden Departure. (It's still frustrating to me, though, that no narrative threads were wrapped up. I like some ambiguity, but this was tough.) In the end, though, this is a well-written and tremendously captivating book, and I'm so glad Perrotta is still in fine writing form.
With his newest novel, The Leftovers, Perrotta ponders an interesting question: what if the Rapture happened, but not all of the religiously devout were taken, but instead, a random, unexplainable group of people disappeared? How would the rest of the world cope? How would a person deal with the disappearance of a spouse, children, or parents? These are the issues that the citizens of Mapleton, a small midwestern town, are confronted with when an event called the "Sudden Departure" affects the world. No one—not even religious leaders—can explain who was chosen and why, and no one can help those left behind to try and get on with their lives. Kevin Garvey, the mayor of Mapleton, lost none of his family to the Sudden Departure directly, but his family has fallen apart in the wake of the event. His wife, Laurie, joined a cult of survivors called the Guilty Remnant; his daughter, Jill, has started failing out of school and become promiscuous; and his son, Tom, dropped out of college to follow a questionable prophet named Holy Wayne. As Kevin tries to help the people of his town rebuild their lives, he embarks on a relationship with Nora Durst, whose husband and children were lost to the Departure.
I always marvel at Perrotta's storytelling ability and the way he thinks things through. He did a great job creating a post-Rapture world without actually having you experience what happened that day, so much like the characters themselves, you don't really know what happened to those who disappeared. When I finished the book, I found myself frustrated that not one character's situation was resolved, but then I realized that this must be a metaphor for how the world felt after the Sudden Departure. (It's still frustrating to me, though, that no narrative threads were wrapped up. I like some ambiguity, but this was tough.) In the end, though, this is a well-written and tremendously captivating book, and I'm so glad Perrotta is still in fine writing form.
August 9, 2018
The idea 🌟🌟🌟🌟
I mean, half the people just vanished... and no Avengers here to save 'em in the sequel..
The Message (Moral) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Dealing with the loss, the grief, religion zealous, feeling lost..
The Characters 🌟🌟🌟
Most of them needed more developments..may be it's the plot..
The Story (Plot) 🌟🌟
May be if it were just a novella would have been much better..
More in a review to come -in Arabic though,
Mohmmed Arabey
From 2 Aug. 2018
To 8 Aug. 2018
I mean, half the people just vanished... and no Avengers here to save 'em in the sequel..
The Message (Moral) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Dealing with the loss, the grief, religion zealous, feeling lost..
The Characters 🌟🌟🌟
Most of them needed more developments..may be it's the plot..
The Story (Plot) 🌟🌟
May be if it were just a novella would have been much better..
More in a review to come -in Arabic though,
Mohmmed Arabey
From 2 Aug. 2018
To 8 Aug. 2018
June 22, 2016
I thought this audio would be decent laundry-folding entertainment, but I seriously underestimated Mr. Tom Perrotta and his awesome ability to tell a rad story!!!! This book was killer!!!!! The premise is this: A rapture-like event occurs and 2% of the population is vaporized. And it appears to have been a totally random sampling: people of all (or no) religious beliefs are taken, nice people as well as some real a$$h*les. The people who are left really can't make sense of it. Some folks get their acts together and carry on, and others really take a flying leap into full-on insanity. I loved it. I didn't want it to end. I wish this was the first book of a twenty book series! Five stars!!!
March 4, 2021
This book takes on some weighty issues but leavened with comic twists. The author plays with issues I've dealt with as I get older; my life is increasingly influenced by absences, by who and what I have lost; the people who have disappeared from my life or roads not taken. Yet I also mistrust my memories of events; what was real and what were simply stories that I told myself? These are my 2 am musings.
The novel also explores how people deal with losses and what things they tell themselves to get through it. It has funny little twists, like mandatory smoking for cult members who have a nihilistic view of the world. It was entertaining and thoughtful and I wouldn't be surprised to see it made into a movie or TV series (update: I have now seen the TV series).
The novel also explores how people deal with losses and what things they tell themselves to get through it. It has funny little twists, like mandatory smoking for cult members who have a nihilistic view of the world. It was entertaining and thoughtful and I wouldn't be surprised to see it made into a movie or TV series (update: I have now seen the TV series).
April 23, 2020
2.7 stars
This isn't a book for impatient readers. And even patient ones might be hard put to it.
This also isn't the book companion to the HBO series made from it. I didn't watch it myself but compared notes with a colleague after I'd finished reading. And it turns out they took the basic premise and some elements, and then mixed, edited, rewrote and added to the rest to make a decent TV show from it. They seem to be good that way (see also ASoIaF vs. "A Game of Thrones").
This book basically is a lengthy story of different people dealing with different kinds of (unexpected) loss in a smallish town in somewhere, USA. Some turn to "shallow enjoyments" to numb their pain, others to fanatism of the "sectish"/religious kind, some to complete seclusion. And they do that lengthily and expansively to quench any feeling of sympathy you might have had for the protagonists.
Still, I trudged on because I had the feeling that at some point after this long build up there had to be an amazing plot coming. And after merely 390 pages, there it was. Kind of. Sort of.
The book ends with a homicide mission to pretend there was a serial killer that becomes a suicide, a cult-leader's baby from a teenage mum getting dropped at someone's front porch to be adopted by a grieving mother in dire need of therapy and her ex-boyfriend who was dumped by his wife for a sect of smoking mutes, and the teenage daughter of said ex-boyfriend hanging out with the local pothead twins instead of joining her mum's sect. Which makes this almost a happy ending in a very screwed-up way for some characters - I guess.
What started it all in the first place, the disappearance of a huge part of the population, isn't really a point for anyone anymore, it seems.
What is the author's core message here? I've no idea; and I'm not sure he had either.
So why did it still get 2.7 stars?
I liked the premise and the general idea about showing what a random bunch of people disappearing in the blink of an eye does to individuals and a society. Some parts were quite amusing and some observations about humans and society were rather clever. And the last 50 or so pages were one quick, though weird run.
This isn't a book for impatient readers. And even patient ones might be hard put to it.
This also isn't the book companion to the HBO series made from it. I didn't watch it myself but compared notes with a colleague after I'd finished reading. And it turns out they took the basic premise and some elements, and then mixed, edited, rewrote and added to the rest to make a decent TV show from it. They seem to be good that way (see also ASoIaF vs. "A Game of Thrones").
This book basically is a lengthy story of different people dealing with different kinds of (unexpected) loss in a smallish town in somewhere, USA. Some turn to "shallow enjoyments" to numb their pain, others to fanatism of the "sectish"/religious kind, some to complete seclusion. And they do that lengthily and expansively to quench any feeling of sympathy you might have had for the protagonists.
Still, I trudged on because I had the feeling that at some point after this long build up there had to be an amazing plot coming. And after merely 390 pages, there it was. Kind of. Sort of.
The book ends with a homicide mission to pretend there was a serial killer that becomes a suicide, a cult-leader's baby from a teenage mum getting dropped at someone's front porch to be adopted by a grieving mother in dire need of therapy and her ex-boyfriend who was dumped by his wife for a sect of smoking mutes, and the teenage daughter of said ex-boyfriend hanging out with the local pothead twins instead of joining her mum's sect. Which makes this almost a happy ending in a very screwed-up way for some characters - I guess.
What started it all in the first place, the disappearance of a huge part of the population, isn't really a point for anyone anymore, it seems.
What is the author's core message here? I've no idea; and I'm not sure he had either.
So why did it still get 2.7 stars?
I liked the premise and the general idea about showing what a random bunch of people disappearing in the blink of an eye does to individuals and a society. Some parts were quite amusing and some observations about humans and society were rather clever. And the last 50 or so pages were one quick, though weird run.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 25, 2012
Though promoted as a novel about The Rapture or a Rapture-like event, fifty pages in you realize The Leftovers isn’t. Tom Perrotta’s novel is about human reactions to tragedy. We don’t know why millions of people disappeared, can’t recognize a methodology or pattern to the mass disappearances, and spend none of the book pursuing answers. Perrotta tells us multiple times that no one can figure it out. Sorry, world: you just lose, and now your citizens deal with it.
We go to inspirational speeches, grief counseling and A.A. We hit the bottle, seek out any company we can get, and watch obscene amounts of talk-TV. We get a mother walking fugally through her empty house and writing a journal to the son who no longer exists. Marriages break up and cities tremble.
We follow a handful of people trying to make sense of their own lives in the wake of civilization’s shake-up. It’s not quite an apocalypse (The Rapture wouldn’t be, right?), but things can’t quite go back to being the same. Faithful priests left behind seek to comfort others while questioning what they did wrong; parents grieve for children whose bodies aren’t even left to bury; characters hit the road, or form sexually-liberated support groups, or simply linger. This book doesn’t push the plot forward with every page. It shouldn’t, and it exposes how shortsighted that rule is, for a book about not knowing what to do must necessarily revel in stalling out.
The analogs to real life are refreshingly distinct. When the event is largely called “October 14th,” it’s hard not to think “9/11.” Perrotta eventually tackles the parallels in exposition, yet the lack of a single image or video to capture what happened, and the lack of villains to blame, turn October 14th and its “Sudden Departure” into something ultimately far more frustrating. It’s equal parts existential crisis and tragedy.
The religious horror spawns an analog of the Westboro Baptist Church, the “Guilty Remnant,” a cult of people who swear vows of silence and mill around public areas to remind everyone what happened. Where it could be generic anti-Westboro fiction, Perrotta instead depicts them as some of the saddest people, and introduces the group through the lens of a husband whose wife is in that hushed crowd, having seemingly shed her gross depression for this zeal. That she’s lost so much weight, has resumed smoking and has the vigor from earlier in her life presents a more dynamic portrait of a human being than any fiction that directly tackles Westboro-like groups, and frankly, presents more dimensionality than the Westboro protestors themselves.
Religion gets its stage time, as it ought to in a book using a Rapture-gimmick. Yet we use an interesting lens to see inside the fundamentalist cult: a mother who’s lost her children joins as much out of malaise as the persistence of the priest. When she becomes a Watcher, designated to essentially stalk people of suspected high-sinfulness, she pursues it for gossipy entertainment, is often bored or uneasy, and has mundane thoughts like craving chocolate or to avoid the smoking the cult insists upon. We get the typical application of religion-as-coping-mechanism, but also see it as more nuanced, in just how an individual could cope through ritual and dogma, and how in some ways it simply fails. We also see how it makes our regular world seem strange; there’s a particular double-edged humor to her shock that a Safeway has four shelves devoted to barbecue sauce.
The Leftovers features an increasingly popular form of loose narrative. You’re seldom brought into the moment; chapters open with a recap of recent events, and tend to progress by recapping what happened next, and next, and so-on, focusing in on a few conversations or particular events for a page or less. This makes the bulk of the book expository. I like the style; it worked in ancient myths, in formative histories, and still works when we tell each other about our days. Perrotta makes it work by keeping most of his exposition novel, glossing over the details we can guess. The beginning is particularly strong, as recapping the October 14th tragedy feels not just valid, but a little like newscasting reportage. Yet for a book that follows specific characters over long journeys of self-discovery, there are readers who will want it to be more focused on what they actually did, and to be brought into the moment page after page.
Only after the fact did I learn this was labeled the “comic novel.” I’m still uneasy with this label, and don’t wholly comprehend what it’s supposed to mean. The Leftovers, like virtually all “comic novels” I’ve read, isn’t particularly funny and never made me laugh, but I don’t know if that’s what critics intend by the label. It has its brightness, and there are some questionable things, but is a cult smoking because they acknowledge their lives are finite really comical? It could be played that way. Perrotta doesn’t seem to play it up for humor. Perhaps that’s the difference between the old literary establishment and the new one; comedy, and Twain, and Swift, and the art of actually being funny may be unfashionable. I hold none of this against Perrotta, who delivered a consummate job on his novel. In interviews he’s even conceded that this was originally a more humorous project than it became as he wrote it. Rather than a slight against the author, it’s simply a curiosity with publishers and critics.
We go to inspirational speeches, grief counseling and A.A. We hit the bottle, seek out any company we can get, and watch obscene amounts of talk-TV. We get a mother walking fugally through her empty house and writing a journal to the son who no longer exists. Marriages break up and cities tremble.
We follow a handful of people trying to make sense of their own lives in the wake of civilization’s shake-up. It’s not quite an apocalypse (The Rapture wouldn’t be, right?), but things can’t quite go back to being the same. Faithful priests left behind seek to comfort others while questioning what they did wrong; parents grieve for children whose bodies aren’t even left to bury; characters hit the road, or form sexually-liberated support groups, or simply linger. This book doesn’t push the plot forward with every page. It shouldn’t, and it exposes how shortsighted that rule is, for a book about not knowing what to do must necessarily revel in stalling out.
The analogs to real life are refreshingly distinct. When the event is largely called “October 14th,” it’s hard not to think “9/11.” Perrotta eventually tackles the parallels in exposition, yet the lack of a single image or video to capture what happened, and the lack of villains to blame, turn October 14th and its “Sudden Departure” into something ultimately far more frustrating. It’s equal parts existential crisis and tragedy.
The religious horror spawns an analog of the Westboro Baptist Church, the “Guilty Remnant,” a cult of people who swear vows of silence and mill around public areas to remind everyone what happened. Where it could be generic anti-Westboro fiction, Perrotta instead depicts them as some of the saddest people, and introduces the group through the lens of a husband whose wife is in that hushed crowd, having seemingly shed her gross depression for this zeal. That she’s lost so much weight, has resumed smoking and has the vigor from earlier in her life presents a more dynamic portrait of a human being than any fiction that directly tackles Westboro-like groups, and frankly, presents more dimensionality than the Westboro protestors themselves.
Religion gets its stage time, as it ought to in a book using a Rapture-gimmick. Yet we use an interesting lens to see inside the fundamentalist cult: a mother who’s lost her children joins as much out of malaise as the persistence of the priest. When she becomes a Watcher, designated to essentially stalk people of suspected high-sinfulness, she pursues it for gossipy entertainment, is often bored or uneasy, and has mundane thoughts like craving chocolate or to avoid the smoking the cult insists upon. We get the typical application of religion-as-coping-mechanism, but also see it as more nuanced, in just how an individual could cope through ritual and dogma, and how in some ways it simply fails. We also see how it makes our regular world seem strange; there’s a particular double-edged humor to her shock that a Safeway has four shelves devoted to barbecue sauce.
The Leftovers features an increasingly popular form of loose narrative. You’re seldom brought into the moment; chapters open with a recap of recent events, and tend to progress by recapping what happened next, and next, and so-on, focusing in on a few conversations or particular events for a page or less. This makes the bulk of the book expository. I like the style; it worked in ancient myths, in formative histories, and still works when we tell each other about our days. Perrotta makes it work by keeping most of his exposition novel, glossing over the details we can guess. The beginning is particularly strong, as recapping the October 14th tragedy feels not just valid, but a little like newscasting reportage. Yet for a book that follows specific characters over long journeys of self-discovery, there are readers who will want it to be more focused on what they actually did, and to be brought into the moment page after page.
Only after the fact did I learn this was labeled the “comic novel.” I’m still uneasy with this label, and don’t wholly comprehend what it’s supposed to mean. The Leftovers, like virtually all “comic novels” I’ve read, isn’t particularly funny and never made me laugh, but I don’t know if that’s what critics intend by the label. It has its brightness, and there are some questionable things, but is a cult smoking because they acknowledge their lives are finite really comical? It could be played that way. Perrotta doesn’t seem to play it up for humor. Perhaps that’s the difference between the old literary establishment and the new one; comedy, and Twain, and Swift, and the art of actually being funny may be unfashionable. I hold none of this against Perrotta, who delivered a consummate job on his novel. In interviews he’s even conceded that this was originally a more humorous project than it became as he wrote it. Rather than a slight against the author, it’s simply a curiosity with publishers and critics.
October 25, 2011
Tom Perrotta’s The Leftovers is a book that I really want to like. It has all of the elements of a book I enjoy, a large cast of characters, an interesting plot, and yet this book for me is a complete fail.
The story is basically as follows: the post rapture - only more secularized. We’re not sure why or if the rapture actually occurred. Though, to be fair it doesn’t really matter, what matters is that people were here one moment and then gone the next. Some people are able to cope and move on, some are not. The book is eerily timed this season with the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 (not sure if this was intentional or not). Either way I couldn’t help but wonder whether or not if this is what it was like for those who experienced the terror of losing a loved one.
Leftovers has the trappings of a much more interesting novel, it just falls short. After about 50 pages I found myself wondering: “Why do I care about this mother who willingly leaves her family in order to join a cult? Why do I care that her estranged daughter is struggling with fitting in high-school?” The answer. I don’t. I wouldn’t recommend this book. I was excited because the premise is so full of promise. What would you do if someone you loved just up and vanished? What if that happened to millions of people around the world, at the very same time: regardless of religion, colour, sexual orientation, etc. The only thing that vanished that I wish I could get back, the time I spent reading this book the past week.
The story is basically as follows: the post rapture - only more secularized. We’re not sure why or if the rapture actually occurred. Though, to be fair it doesn’t really matter, what matters is that people were here one moment and then gone the next. Some people are able to cope and move on, some are not. The book is eerily timed this season with the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 (not sure if this was intentional or not). Either way I couldn’t help but wonder whether or not if this is what it was like for those who experienced the terror of losing a loved one.
Leftovers has the trappings of a much more interesting novel, it just falls short. After about 50 pages I found myself wondering: “Why do I care about this mother who willingly leaves her family in order to join a cult? Why do I care that her estranged daughter is struggling with fitting in high-school?” The answer. I don’t. I wouldn’t recommend this book. I was excited because the premise is so full of promise. What would you do if someone you loved just up and vanished? What if that happened to millions of people around the world, at the very same time: regardless of religion, colour, sexual orientation, etc. The only thing that vanished that I wish I could get back, the time I spent reading this book the past week.
May 8, 2014
Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
3.5 Stars
A strange phenomenon has swept the globe. People, seemingly chosen at random, simply vanished.
After what is dubbed the “Sudden Departure,” those remaining are left to deal with the aftermath. The Leftovers focuses on the residents of a small town called Mapleton. Some, like Kevin, have decided to move on with life – and are maybe doing a little better or feeling a little more needed than they were before the Sudden Departure.
Kevin’s son, Tom, decided to follow a different path and was led to a charismatic new prophet who turns out to be not such a holy man after all, but rather is one of the creepiest of creeps
leading Tom to yet another new-formed group known as the Barefoot People.
Kevin’s wife, Laurie, chose yet another route – joining a cult known as the Guilty Remnant.
Others, like Kevin’s daughter Jill and his new love interest Nora, are spiraling just trying to figure out their place in this new world. This is the story of how these ordinary people move on in the face of extraordinary circumstances.
Before reading The Leftovers, I had only read one Tom Perrotta book - Nine Inches. I’m not really a fan of the short story to begin with, so while that book had me intrigued by Perrotta’s style, it also left me wanting alittle lot more. Months passed and someone recommended this book to me. I have confirmed my suspicions – Perrotta can choose any topic from a hat and roll with it to create something pretty fabulous. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a real life-changer, but the story flows and the characters are plentiful and interesting. Just don’t go in thinking you’ll get an answer to the “why” when it comes to people disappearing – it never happens (personally, I prefer it that way). One final thing I was reminded of while reading this book is that I should probably watch “Election” again and I definitely need to get off my duff and read the book.
3.5 Stars
A strange phenomenon has swept the globe. People, seemingly chosen at random, simply vanished.
After what is dubbed the “Sudden Departure,” those remaining are left to deal with the aftermath. The Leftovers focuses on the residents of a small town called Mapleton. Some, like Kevin, have decided to move on with life – and are maybe doing a little better or feeling a little more needed than they were before the Sudden Departure.
Kevin’s son, Tom, decided to follow a different path and was led to a charismatic new prophet who turns out to be not such a holy man after all, but rather is one of the creepiest of creeps
leading Tom to yet another new-formed group known as the Barefoot People.
Kevin’s wife, Laurie, chose yet another route – joining a cult known as the Guilty Remnant.
Others, like Kevin’s daughter Jill and his new love interest Nora, are spiraling just trying to figure out their place in this new world. This is the story of how these ordinary people move on in the face of extraordinary circumstances.
Before reading The Leftovers, I had only read one Tom Perrotta book - Nine Inches. I’m not really a fan of the short story to begin with, so while that book had me intrigued by Perrotta’s style, it also left me wanting a
October 17, 2011
What a massive premise to try and pull off. A rapture like event, where millions of people all over the planet simply evaporate. It can't be the rapture though, at least not the skewed Christian version of it, because a lot of Christians are left behind - devastated that their version of God has forsaken them, and a lot of people from varying faiths, including atheists and a few random celebrities have gone. There are some good character ideas in this book. I really liked how the minister loses the plot and starts dirt files on all the locals who departed, trying to ascertain in his own mind why has he sacrificed his life to serve a God that has left him behind? That was great, but there wasn't enough of it.
One story line just left me furious at the end, and that was the story of Laurie. Laurie is a mum, married to Kevin and they have two children. No-one from her immediate family departs, only the daughter of her best friend does. So sort of in sympathy to her friend, whom she has helped grieve (maybe wallow is a better word) in the loss of her daughter they join the local cult. Lots and lots of cults have popped up all over the planet, I can realistically see something like that happening. I mean there would be a lot of questions floating around after an event like that. So her friend joins the cult and then without any explanation at all, not even a sentence devoted to it, Laurie does the same thing too. It is like the author leaves the big question unanswered (where did all these people go?), so he has a licence to leave a whole raft of other important questions and developments unanswered. It just strikes me as wrong, most people actually would not do what Laurie (a caring mum) does.
There are some positive elements in the book. I really enjoyed reading about Nora, her reactions and actions, did strike me as real, as did most of the things Tom and Jill do (Lauries children). Meh, seems as good a word as any to describe how I feel about it.
One story line just left me furious at the end, and that was the story of Laurie. Laurie is a mum, married to Kevin and they have two children. No-one from her immediate family departs, only the daughter of her best friend does. So sort of in sympathy to her friend, whom she has helped grieve (maybe wallow is a better word) in the loss of her daughter they join the local cult. Lots and lots of cults have popped up all over the planet, I can realistically see something like that happening. I mean there would be a lot of questions floating around after an event like that. So her friend joins the cult and then without any explanation at all, not even a sentence devoted to it, Laurie does the same thing too. It is like the author leaves the big question unanswered (where did all these people go?), so he has a licence to leave a whole raft of other important questions and developments unanswered. It just strikes me as wrong, most people actually would not do what Laurie (a caring mum) does.
There are some positive elements in the book. I really enjoyed reading about Nora, her reactions and actions, did strike me as real, as did most of the things Tom and Jill do (Lauries children). Meh, seems as good a word as any to describe how I feel about it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 21, 2016
Okay so this book veered away from the show around the 75% mark and didn't come close to any of the wicked cool bizarre shit that happens in it. I love that show hard, but this book is its own entity and while I was a little disappointed at first, I got over it and was able to appreciate it for what it is. And that's only fair anyway.
The Leftovers follows five characters through the aftermath of a vast, unexplained Sudden Departure in which 4% of the earth's entire population has vanished without a trace. In the wake of this event, strange cults and movements grow, and those left behind try to put the pieces of their shattered lives back together.
But this book is not angsty or particularly dramatic. The way this tragedy impinges on each characters' life is subtlety drawn; poignant rather than sensational. It is a quiet book; tragic and sad but also ultimately uplifting. I love stories about hope everlasting,and this one--especially the end--was no exception.
I highly recommend the HBO show this book has spawned as it takes the premise and expands on it, so that the weird twists and turns society has made as a result of the Sudden Departure are even more wonderfully unique and imaginative.
And I recommend the book that doesn't break out of its quiet narrative like the show does, but keeps it simple (maybe too simple as some critics have said) and intensely personal. But the final message of hope and human resiliency is worth the journey.
The Leftovers follows five characters through the aftermath of a vast, unexplained Sudden Departure in which 4% of the earth's entire population has vanished without a trace. In the wake of this event, strange cults and movements grow, and those left behind try to put the pieces of their shattered lives back together.
But this book is not angsty or particularly dramatic. The way this tragedy impinges on each characters' life is subtlety drawn; poignant rather than sensational. It is a quiet book; tragic and sad but also ultimately uplifting. I love stories about hope everlasting,and this one--especially the end--was no exception.
I highly recommend the HBO show this book has spawned as it takes the premise and expands on it, so that the weird twists and turns society has made as a result of the Sudden Departure are even more wonderfully unique and imaginative.
And I recommend the book that doesn't break out of its quiet narrative like the show does, but keeps it simple (maybe too simple as some critics have said) and intensely personal. But the final message of hope and human resiliency is worth the journey.
September 22, 2011
This one comes from the author of Election and Little Children. Yeah, those movies you sort of forgot about. After listening to an NPR interview with Perrotta, I ran out and bought the book despite it being hardcover. He came off so intelligent and likeable on the radio, and his ideas were so provoking, I couldn't help being drawn to the book. While sometimes I found his writing a bit colloquial, I really enjoyed this novel and hated to see it end. The book takes place after a Rapture-like event, but it isn't about the rapture at all. Sorry. It's much more focused on what happens after these huge events - who is left behind and how do they deal? The characters in The Leftovers go about searching for meaning in their lives. Really intriguing.
Apparently this is up for development as an HBO series, so I'm hopeful I get to see more of this.
The Book Bench just posted an interview with Perrotta. It's worth a read. Check it out here: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs...
Apparently this is up for development as an HBO series, so I'm hopeful I get to see more of this.
The Book Bench just posted an interview with Perrotta. It's worth a read. Check it out here: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs...
July 31, 2013
Really enjoyed this crazy thought experiment, where everyone is struggling to make sense of the sudden departure, grieving their lost loved ones, and trying to find meaning in their lives, when the usual structures and measures are disrupted or destroyed. Perrotta's take on the role of family and connection are what is most interesting and hopeful in the book.
November 27, 2018
ერთ დღეს - თუნდაც, 23 აპრილს - წიგნთა ნაწილი რომ მოულოდნელად გაქრეს ლიტერატურის ისტორიიდან, ამ წიგნზე გული მაინცდამაინც არ დამწყდება.
November 11, 2011
First off I won this on a First Reads Giveaway as an Advanced Reader's issue. I really wanted to like this book. The premise sounded interesting: a Rapture-like occurrence and how the people left behind cope. I've never read anything of Mr. Perrotta's before, and chances are good that I will not be reading anything else of his if they are all like this one. Actually two stars may be generous, but I liked the concept, just not the book.
It was not what I was expecting, which in itself is not a bad thing. With the exception of a very few bright moments, I found it singularly depressing. Granted, this type of event would leave survivors awash in pain and suffering, for a time. Eventually people being what they are, some will be able to overcome and find some measure of joy in life. Except for the very end, which was dissatisfying, there was nothing but hopelessness. Despair, even.
I was compelled to finish the book (I always finish even if it's horrible) but it left a bad taste in my mouth afterwards. Thankfully, I don't suffer from depression, but this book seriously put me in a gloomy frame of mind.
It was not what I was expecting, which in itself is not a bad thing. With the exception of a very few bright moments, I found it singularly depressing. Granted, this type of event would leave survivors awash in pain and suffering, for a time. Eventually people being what they are, some will be able to overcome and find some measure of joy in life. Except for the very end, which was dissatisfying, there was nothing but hopelessness. Despair, even.
I was compelled to finish the book (I always finish even if it's horrible) but it left a bad taste in my mouth afterwards. Thankfully, I don't suffer from depression, but this book seriously put me in a gloomy frame of mind.
November 23, 2016
3 stars - It was good.
Liked it, but didn’t love it. My GR friend Carmen summed it up perfectly and succinctly, “ The characters are very three-dimensional and fleshed out. It was very well written, but not especially compelling or meaningful.” You can read her review here.
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Favorite Quote: There's not some finite amount of pain inside us. Our bodies and minds just keep manufacturing more of it.
First Sentence: Laurie Garvey hadn’t been raised to believe in the Rapture.
Liked it, but didn’t love it. My GR friend Carmen summed it up perfectly and succinctly, “ The characters are very three-dimensional and fleshed out. It was very well written, but not especially compelling or meaningful.” You can read her review here.
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Favorite Quote: There's not some finite amount of pain inside us. Our bodies and minds just keep manufacturing more of it.
First Sentence: Laurie Garvey hadn’t been raised to believe in the Rapture.
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