Saturday, January 30, 2021

Jenny Offill, Weather **** 1/2

Written in the same epigrammatic style as Dept. of Speculation, Weather tells the story of a woman who comes to appreciate the gravity of the issue of climate change but doesn't know what to do beyond being anxious about it. Shouldn't she do something about it, just like she should do something more to support her son's advancement and her own success? The election of 2016 adds another layer of unfocused anxiety.

There is a period after every disaster in which people wander around trying to figure out of it is truly a disaster. Disaster psychologists use the term "milling" to describe most people's default actions when they find themselves in a frightening new situation.

The book is filled with pithy and hilarious nuggets, and it's a quick read. It does a great job of capturing the feeling that we are supposed to be doing more -- "what it means to keep tending your own garden once you've seen the flames beyond its walls." I lost the thread a bit in the final pages.

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