Retro Review: The Leftovers
/When I started this blog, I had been posting reviews on Goodreads for about 6 months. In the interest of having all of my book writing in one place, I will post one of these old reviews every Friday. They weren't written with a blog in mind, so please forgive the lack of summary and off-the-cuff tone.
4 stars. I'm glad that I knew to expect a quiet book before I picked this up. I'm a huge fan of the television show - one of the gutsiest ever written - and had high expectations, for sure, but I knew going in that I likely wouldn't feel ... satisfied. Well, I guess I was satisfied, but not in a comparable way.
The plot is similar: following what appears to be some sort of rapture-like event, several residents of Mapleton, New Jersey attempt to navigate a traumatized world and learn to live without answers.
I think one of the most important things I ever learned, or accepted, is that there is no right or wrong way to grieve. Recovery is not black and white, and everyone reacts to trauma differently. You should not expect a grieving individual to react the same way you would - nor should you expect them to feel comfort from things that offer you comfort. One size simply does not fit all.
This is my preferred way to interpret this book. It's my favorite thing to draw from the story. Simply written, and almost painfully human, The Leftovers examines connected individuals of all ages, shapes and sizes, and how they react to the incredibly traumatic Departure. This book tells their stories without reluctance and without judgement - detailing messy pain and exploring how human connection helps and hurts, sometimes simultaneously.
It doesn't always feel good. It's hard to see people struggle, to witness them spiral into depression, or denial, or anger, or fanaticism. But it happens, and The Leftovers depicts this quietly, subtly. Maybe it's a warning, maybe it's a statement of the inevitable. Maybe it's a combination of both - humans are fragile and also resilient. Some things get back to normal, some things are ruined forever. Again, my favorite lesson: one size does not fit all when it comes to recovery.
The book’s version of The Leftovers is a different, less wacky interpretation of an idea. A little footnote to the grand themes illustrated by the show. It's fascinating but maybe a little less compelling. I really enjoyed it, though.