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Everyone thinks of Hailey as a ray of sunshine. She’s married to Jonah, a writer, and they have a little daughter, Maya. But Hailey’s stuck in upstate New York where Jonah teaches, missing her mother in Florida. The two are very close—too close, it turns out. The marriage isn’t happy, Jonah decamps, then custody battles rage. Hailey’s family is well fixed and keeps throwing money at the problem so Hailey can finally move “home.” The solution is shocking—no happy ending here. Family dysfunction always gets me, and this shows what can go very wrong with ties that bind too tight.
When her twins were born, Sara got a neurasthenic prosthetic called the Dreamsaver implanted so she could get some sleep. Then the government got access to data on these devices to detect possible future crimes. She was detained at the airport because the Risk Assessment Administration saw potential violence in her dreams, and she was “assigned” (no, they insist it’s not a prison) to an undetermined stretch in a facility where she has to gain points for a reduced stay. Sara tries to keep her head down, but she can’t stop challenging the absurd and punitive rules. I found this novel incredibly apropos and it’s still haunting me.
In 2019, the author’s journalist husband, Tony Horowitz, dropped dead at 61. He was far away on a book tour, and she was at home on a small island off the coast of Massachusetts. There were many challenges and screwups before she could claim his body, and then the exigencies of everyday life took over. Semi-functional and heartbroken, she finally realized she needed to retreat to mourn him fully, so she took herself to a very small island in Tasmania and this book is the result. It toggles between the days surrounding his death to her time of silence, reflection, and grieving. We get to know a lot about Tony as well as Geraldine’s interior journey. Why Tasmania? She grew up in Australia and divides her time between here and Sydney.
The fictional town of Uz, Nebraska, is a miserable place in 1935, assailed by unending dust storms. There, a prairie witch who calls herself the Antidote “banks” citizens’ bad memories to give them relief. She goes into a trance, and they whisper secrets into her huge ear trumpet. Other characters in this gritty, fantastical tale include 12-year-old Asphodel who plays basketball, her Uncle Harp, a farmer, and a mystical Scarecrow. We learn parts of the intense, convoluted story from each of them. The plight of local Indian tribes also plays in. A Black photographer hired by the New Deal captures much on film, but her camera has time-traveling properties. Leave it to Russell to weave historical and concocted happenings into a sweeping saga of survival and pain.
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