Leave the World Behind

En este caso me pareció más interesante y mejor lograda la película, si esperas que sea algo similar a ello dejame decirte que saldrás muy decepcionado...

Donˋt read if you have high anxiety. Show us how fragile we are. Chapter 3 I found to be a gem.

not interesting. pointless. waste of time. you can tell the author thinks that detailed descriptions and metaphors means good storytelling. gross. the book starts and ends nowhere.

Estou na metade do livro, que é estruturado em pequenos capítulos de 4 ou 5 páginas cada um. O livro não é muito grande, e a edição é primorosa: bom espaçamento, boa qualidade do papel. Apesar de ter preferido importar a versão original em inglês, ela chegou muito rápido. No que concerne ao conteúdo, a história é muito bem contada, o foco é a própria narrativa. É um livro sobre um desastre apocalíptico cujo foco não está no desastre, mas nas relações humanas, especialmente nas sociais e econômicas. A escrita do autor não é rebuscada, mas a forma como ele estrutura as frases e pitadas de humor “negro” (frequentemente deixando escapar os preconceitos dos próprios personagens) são o que fazem desse livro um primor. O livro é antes de tudo uma crítica ao American Way of Life.

Bravo!!! Finally a novel that speaks to the human condition in post modern life, and profound delusions most of us use to build our precarious sense of normal. There is no normal. Especially now, and more importantly here.We have not had a normal. Normal has eluded us for so long, we are forced to reconstruct it, using the flimsiest of materials.But more importantly, we have lost the ability to appreciate just how abnormal things are.The prototypical family of four head out of the City in the oppressive month of August, off to their pedestrian vacation in a remote Airbnb. The gradual erosion of cell service, and finally loss of all service on any device, cuts a stark relief of what any of us think is a “normal” day.Very soon, the owners of the Airbnb arrive unannounced, deeply shaken about a massive blackout in the City. But it’s far more than a “regular” blackout. Something has happened for which they don’t yet have words.Stunned by the loss of WiFi, and no way to learn what’s happened, the characters break into two camps. The first is to frantically try to maintain some sense of normalcy by cooking food and washing laundry, breaking out the alcohol, and waiting for “news” to come. But it will not come.The second camp decides to go forth, and explore what is actually happening. To simply observe, without bias, what is happening outside of the secure fortress of the Airbnb. Because, as the author so gently points out, the natural world isn’t subject to the brainwashing we perpetrate on ourselves. Animals just know. Although the movement of animals in the setting of looming tsunamis isn’t spelled out, it doesn’t need to be. The reader is shown the images of nature responding to the unimaginable.Those reading will likely fall into two groups. The first is those expecting some “conclusion” to the crisis at hand. “Some answers, dammit!! What the hell is going on here?!?!” These readers will likely be disappointed. The second group will see how meticulously the author leads us along, through a detached omniscient speaker, who points out widespread destruction in what was never a “normal” life.The reader is gifted with bursts of cold, clinical clairvoyance. Yet these glimpses are completely incomplete. The reader will not be able to grasp the golden ring of full knowledge. The merry go round is no longer relevant.The prose is lovely. The plot is both sinister and very mundane. The bursts of nature’s responses are as fantastical as any of the magical lines from the group of famous South American authors.I couldn’t put this book down. Recommend highly.