3.75 stars out of 5
Who would have thought that a book about a pandemic would be kind of comforting during a pandemic. Some of that effect is a result of the fictional Plague being much, much worse than Covid-19. It's a virus that only affects men, almost always resulting in death. Think of all the professions that are predominantly male: pilots, police, firefighters, soldiers, politicians. To a lesser extent doctors, dentists, other healthcare professionals. Societal paralysis results.
The female doctor who discovers Patient Zero struggles to get any of the men in charge to pay attention. There's the typical line, “It's only the flu.” Where have we heard that before? The author uses so many details from our years of Covid to great effect, making this story feel familiar and more believable. She uses short, staccato chapters to convey the panic and desperation of the people living through the disaster. Indeed, if the chapters had been longer or more detailed, my poor pandemic tired brain probably would have refused to let me continue. My concentration is shot to hell. (I've been hiding in genre fiction, unable to face nonfiction or literary fiction.) A passage of the book addresses this difficulty: ”I tried to read a romance novel a few days ago, thinking it might help. I managed two paragraphs before I slammed it shut, repulsed by the cheery tone. Now, it's comforting to read about mysteries, death, terror, and the eventual resolution of justice. My brain's capacity for reading about good fortune of others, even if their happiness is fictional, is currently nonexistent."
It's a combination of two of my favourite fiction forms, the apocalyptic and the post-WWI and WW2 fiction. Rationing combined with training women to fill in all the empty jobs. I also think this novel would make a great book club selection, generating plenty of interesting discussion. Would things really turn out this way? Could we face another pandemic like this in the future? Lots to talk about!
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