This is the first book that I’ve read that addresses the COVID pandemic directly. In fact, it does a nice job of using a story to sort of document the early and middle stages of the pandemic in New York City. To me it almost felt too early to go back and look at it, but then again it also felt like so long ago.
I was attracted to this book because it is also about travel, and tells about a trip to the Galápagos Islands. There is also some romance in here, some family drama, LGBT issues, and a hard look at the what we may have previously taken for granted. In short there is a lot going on here, but the author pulls it off well.
Without giving anything away, there is a dramatic shift midway through the book that caught me by surprise, and thanks to this the book became a lot more interesting to me.
I think the best part of the book is the way it documented the pandemic, and showed it from various points of view. There are also some subtle barbs from the writer about the leadership of the country at the time, which was a nice touch. The very end of the epilogue was a little cheesy for me – but I could forgive – the story is really just a vehicle to tell a bigger story about the effects of the pandemic.
With a million Americans dead from COVID (by far the most of any country) there will be more time in the future to look at what happened and consider all the pain and recovery necessary to move on – this is an early attempt at looking at things and I think a successful one at that.
Next I’m reading The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd.
