Review: "The Leftovers" by Tom Perrotta

I do not know if it is safe to call Tom Perrotta a literary superstar, which is not to say he is better than all the rest, but simply as someone who is more famous than your average author. Two of his novels have been made into really good movies, in election and Little Children, and his books seem to be very successful financially and are meet with usually great reviews. But for a while, I always thought he was someone whose fame overshadowed his talent, like Palahniuk (although I do not bash him as much as I used to), whose sole reason for fame were two highly successful movies. I read Election last year, and it was good, but it did not bowl me over with its wit or story. Having said that, his new novel, The Leftovers, I thought was fantastic. The story is a more fantastical one than the plots of his other novels, but the searing insight into late 20th century suburbia and those who are confined to its limitations that I found in Election are not only here, but seem to create situations where way more things are at stake. The novel asks the question of what would happen if the Rapture actually happened and many people were left wondering what it exactly meant. It is not simply god-fearing Christians who disappeared all at once, but a few unsavory people as well, as we learn near the beginning of the novel. This widespread panic is narrowed down to the small town of Mapleton, a place severely affected by the Sudden Departure. The town’s mayor, Kevin Garvey, is dealing with his own problem caused by the disappearances. His family life has shattered into pieces, with his wife Laurie, joining a fringe group known as the Guilty Remnant, who take a vow of silence, smoke to speed up their deaths, go around trying to remind people that the end is coming and, later on, more nefarious goals to force their ideas on the public. His son, Tom, is dropping out of college to follow a sketchy prophet known as Holy Wayne. His daughter, Jill, who luckily stayed behind, is no longer the A student she used to be, and has fallen into a crowd right out of a Bret Easton Ellis novel. The disappearances are never explained, and we are left only with Kevin and his new life, which he is trying to share with his new girlfriend Nora, who lost here whole family to the Sudden Departure and is suffering deeply from their absence. Ultimately this is a story that uses something like the Rapture to show how the cracks in a family infrastructure can be widen by such a confusing and dark event. No one is immune to the effects of the disappearances, and sometimes it brings to light some the hostilities that already existed. In the end the story is a hopeful one in my eyes, one that shows the inner strength that exists in all of us to withstand even something that is as precious as family slipping away without warning and, no matter how rough it may be, life going on in the absences of our loved ones. So I definitely recommend this book. At best, it is a deep and humorous mediation on loss and grief, and at the least, its damn entertaining.

Rating: 5/5