by Deborah Rogers –
Not all books are going to appeal to everyone, but sometimes a novel provokes such a disparity in responses that they become almost as interesting to discuss as the book itself. Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind caused a split in our group of readers, though don’t worry, we finished our animated meeting as friends!
The story starts with a family setting off for their summer vacation. Amanda and Clay have a comfortable, middle-class life in Brooklyn, with busy jobs and two teenagers. They’re ready for a change of pace and time to relax. We join them on their car journey towards the coast as Amanada answers a work call, Clay ponders the book review he’s writing for the New Yorker, and the kids clamour to stop for fast food. We see them step into the calm elegance of their vacation rental, beautifully appointed and so anonymous. The author provides lots of detail, jumping from character to character, so that we know how each of them feels about everything. The total normality – some readers felt banality – of the first day of the family’s holiday is interrupted late at night by a knock at the door.
Would you let a stranger into your home? What if it wasn’t your home, just a holiday home, and the stranger says they are the owner? Leave the World Behind takes a very simple, plausible situation, and adds increasingly strange events, pushing the reader to question over and over how they might react in a similar situation. In the event of something cataclysmic, how would we behave? Would we rise to the challenge or fall back on socially-constructed roles? Would the end of the world bring out the best or worst of humanity?
Race and class are examined as are themes of privilege and consumerism. A slow ratcheting up of tension is achieved because the characters lack any information about what exactly has happened in the “real” world outside their vacation, but the reader is given cryptic hints from a sort of omniscient narrator.
Our group of readers were really divided about whether the book is a success or not. Some read it as a dark satire of modern preoccupations and disconnect from the world. They found it gripping, suspenseful and clever. Other readers felt the characters were entirely implausible, or far too unsympathetically drawn; that the plot didn’t take them anywhere, and they felt let down by the whole experience. It’s true that there’s a lot of work for the reader in this short novel. If you don’t feel like taking a chance with it you won’t have to wait long before the Netflix series comes out.
For our November meeting – our last of 2023 – we will be discussing Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen. Join us on Tuesday, November 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the Nell Horth Room of the Sidney/North Saanich Library.
