When most people take a vacation, they endeavor to relax, escape, take it easy. And if they toss a book into their suitcase, it's probably a quick page-turner. Something easy to digest by the pool or on a long flight.
When packing for my recent Caribbean cruise, I loaded my Kindle with exactly that. Thrillers. Bestsellers. The kinds of books I figured would pair perfectly with a week at sea.
But when it came time to sit on my balcony and take in the ocean air, I didn't reach for any of them. No. I went in a completely different direction.
I first encountered Emily St. John Mandel's writing through her novel Sea of Tranquility, a book that defied easy classification. It spanned time and space, somehow weaving its disparate pieces together while still grounding everything in characters who felt completely real, even when their reality was very different from our own. In short, I was mesmerized.
And so, amid all the other options at my disposal during my tropical vacation, I decided to pick up Mandel's latest novel, Exit Party. Maybe it wasn't the obvious choice for a Caribbean cruise. But maybe the perfect vacation read could be the one I never planned on reading.
"It's an exhausting moment to be alive, don't you think?"
It's 2031, and civil war has broken out across what was formerly the United States. States have seceded, and Ari is trying to find her place in whatever comes next. Freshly released from prison, she arrives in Los Angeles as the newly formed Republic of California begins to celebrate a fresh start.
It's at one of those celebrations that things get strange.
There are people at the party who shouldn't be there. One of them calls Ari by a name she's never shared. Then the host suddenly disappears. Something happened that night, though exactly what isn't entirely clear.
And then we're somewhere else.
There's another Ari. Another version of the world. Things are different here, but somehow, that same night matters in this reality, too. What happened at that party? How can it exist in two very different versions of the world? And what does any of it mean?
I'm being intentionally vague with my description of Exit Party, both because the mystery of things is part of the appeal of this novel and because I'm still not sure I fully understand it. Discombobulation seems to be part of Mandel's purpose here, and I certainly felt the confusion as I started the novel. But unlike her previous work, the clarity never really arrived for me.
I felt detached from Ari as a main character. As one character describes her, "...the only important point is that she doesn't trust anyone, and I don't think she cares very much about anyone but herself. She does whatever she wants." With such a confounding plot and an unsympathetic protagonist at the center of it, I never felt as compelled by Exit Party as I wanted to be.
And while I pretty much understood what happened at the party in question, I was never fully satisfied by the how or why of it all. In fact, the deeper I got into the novel, the more frustrated I became. Eventually, I was finishing it more because I wanted to see it through than because I was particularly invested in where it was going.
By the time the ending came together to deliver what I'm sure was meant to be the emotional crescendo, I didn't really care. It felt both inevitable and somehow too late.
And so, I ended my vacation more annoyed by Exit Party than anything else. Maybe that's what makes this one such a disappointment. I know how completely Mandel's writing can pull me in. I just wish I'd connected with this one more than I did.
For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.
(2026, 81)
Being annoyed by a book is never good. Especially when you're on vacation! Which islands did you get to visit on your cruise?
ReplyDeleteWe went to the Bahamas and Cozumel. It was a lovely time!
DeleteUgh. I love the cover and was intrigued at the beginning of your review but it's a firm nope. I am sorry this one frustrated you.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I can't in good conscience recommend this one. Sea of Tranquility is much better.
DeleteI hate when you get to the end of a book and wonder what the point was, and realize you just wasted your time on a dud. I hope your next book is fantastic, and that you had a lovely vacation.
ReplyDeleteSame here! There were a couple times when I felt like maybe I should just DNF, but I was already so far into it that it felt silly to stop.
DeleteVacation was fantastic! I'm already looking forward to my next one!
Well dang, that's not good. If I'm out anywhere doing anything else, I cannot read. I tried reading a book a couple of years ago when I went to the ER for a sprained foot and there was too much going on around me to concentrate.
ReplyDelete