The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
2011, St Martin's Press
The Leftovers is certainly one of the best books of 2011. It is the story of what happens after millions of people across the world suddenly, and inexplicably, disappear into thin air. The book doesn’t explain why this happens or why it happens to some and not others, what The Leftovers does describe is the lives of those who were left behind. Tom Perrotta centers his novel in a town called Mapleton where a random selection of people disappeared in a Rapture-like event. (In simple Christian terms, this Rapture refers to a moment when devote believers will be whisked away to Heaven. Those who are not, will be left here on Earth to await The End.) At the heart of the story is the Mayor, Kevin Garvey, and his family. The novel opens about three years after “The Rapture.” Kevin’s wife Laurie has left him to join up with the local Guilty Remnants cult. They are a rather frightening group who believe The End is near and don’t see the point in wasting breath so they take vows of silence and chain smoke. They also creep around watching people and get creepier as the book progresses. His daughter, Julie, after losing her faux best friend and watching her mother sign up with the white clad Remnants, not surprisingly goes from a straight A student to a troubled Goth girl. And his son Tom somehow manages to join one cult only to end up in the midst of another. Along the way Kevin meets Nora who is trying, through a bizarre Sponge Bob ritual, to get over the loss of her husband and two young children who dematerialized during dinner. The scene Perrotta writes of their disappearance, as well as the one of Julie’s friend, is heart rending in its honesty.
Perrotta illuminates the suburban world in all its glory, desperation, banality, and hope. His prose carries the reader along without boredom, or as happens more often, disgust or ambivalence. The characters are people, like those who live next door or share a bus seat or steal your parking spot. Perrotta has a talent for exploring the powerful emotions and motivations of ordinary people.
Perrotta seems to have found his niche with suburban angst. His other novels, The Abstinence Teacher and Little Children, are also available at Clift Rodgers and I’m guessing, worth a a read. He will also be part of the Boston Book Festival again this year on Saturday, October 27th. Last year his short story, The Smile on Happy Chang’s Face, was the BBF’s One City, One Story selection. This year he is one of the presenters.
