In 'Weather', Jenny Offill weaves a captivating tale through the eyes of Lizzie, a librarian turned weather expert, who navigates the complexities of modern life amidst climate anxiety. Juxtaposing small, intimate moments with global crises, the narrative reflects on personal resilience and the search for meaning. Lizzie's interactions with family, friends, and a quirky cast of characters reveal the delicate balance between everyday existence and existential dread. Through witty prose and sharp observations, Offill crafts a story that resonates deeply with contemporary fears. Readers are left questioning how to confront the uncertainties of the future while still finding joy in the present.
By Jenny Offill
Published: 2020
""The world is full of things we can’t afford to ignore, but we can also choose to marvel at them, to live in the tension of wonder and dread.""
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER From the beloved author of the nationwide best seller Dept. of Speculation—one of the New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of the Year—a “darkly funny and urgent” (NPR) tour de force about a family, and a nation, in crisis Lizzie Benson slid into her job as a librarian without a traditional degree. But this gives her a vantage point from which to practice her other calling: she is a fake shrink. For years she has tended to her God-haunted mother and her recovering addict brother. They have both stabilized for the moment, but Lizzie has little chance to spend her new free time with husband and son before her old mentor, Sylvia Liller, makes a proposal. Sylvia has become famous for her prescient podcast, Hell and High Water, and wants to hire Lizzie to answer the mail she receives: from left-wingers worried about climate change and right-wingers worried about the decline of western civilization. As Lizzie dives into this polarized world, she begins to wonder what it means to keep tending your own garden once you've seen the flames beyond its walls. When her brother becomes a father and Sylvia a recluse, Lizzie is forced to address the limits of her own experience—but still she tries to save everyone, using everything she's learned about empathy and despair, conscience and collusion, from her years of wandering the library stacks . . . And all the while the voices of the city keep floating in—funny, disturbing, and increasingly mad. “Offill’s fragmentary structure evokes an unbearable emotional intensity: something at the core of the story that cannot be narrated directly, by straight chronology, because to do so would be like looking at the sun…” —The New York Times
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“"The world is full of things we can’t afford to ignore, but we can also choose to marvel at them, to live in the tension of wonder and dread."”
Weather
By Jenny Offill
Discover a world of knowledge through our extensive collection of book summaries.
Jenny Offill is a critically acclaimed American author known for her innovative narrative style and sharp, insightful prose. She gained widespread recognition for her novel 'Dept. of Speculation', which explores the complexities of marriage, motherhood, and the intricacies of human relationships through a fragmented narrative structure. Offill's other notable works include 'Weather', a timely exploration of anxiety and existential dread in the face of climate change, and 'Last Things', which addresses themes of loss and memory. Her writing often blends humor with poignant observations, employing a distinctive voice that is both intimate and cerebral.
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