Check out this compelling book review by Harper’s own Kate McCune, who splits her time between working as a sales rep in Michigan and assisting in Harper’s sales department. This was an internal email Kate sent to fellow Harper sales reps. It’s such a perfect description of this book and Kate gave me her blessing to share with librarians.
There isn’t a better booktalker in the business than Kate. One day, in my next life, I’d like to be like her.
-Virginia
***
This is a smart, commercial, scary and thought provoking novel.
The sense of texture and nuance Alam brings to his characters is on full display here and he’s still writing about upper middle class life, race, class and parenting—but this time he’s got a much larger, darker agenda.
To start: This is one of the scariest books I’ve ever read. Probably wasn’t a great idea to have read it on vacation last weekend but it was such a character-driven page turner that I couldn’t stop even as it scared me silly.
But for those of you who like straight-up horror or psychological suspense, it’s not scary in that spine-tingling, thrill-fest way where you close the book knowing you’re pretty sure you’re not going to run across Cujo or El Cuco in the real world. This is scary in an “Uh oh, this is remarkably plausible” kind of way. Alam’s pacing and use of dread is just masterful. It’s more Bird Box than Jordan Peele.
You know the plot: Affluent middle-class white couple on vacation with their two kids at a rented house in the Hamptons. Then communications go out. That’s all. The power’s still on, the vacation can continue. Then the owners of the house show up and they happen to be Black. But I think it’s a mistake to settle the point of this book on the racial piece. The Black couple is also rich, accomplished, thoughtful and kind. Rather than setting up racial and class strife here, Alam uses these characters to show that the white couple is suspicious and fearful of all the wrong things. There’s something much bigger to dread and they can’t see it unfolding around them.
An economist whose name I forget said that the future arrives like this: slow, slow, quick. This is a book about what the world looks like in the moment the quick arrives. I couldn’t figure out how Alam could possibly end this book and I admire how he pulls it off with a gesture of hopefulness. But in Alam’s world, it’s a dark hopefulness—and most of us probably won’t be part of it.
***
Thanks for the wonderful review, Kate!
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LibraryReads Votes Due: September 1, 2020
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