Haven’t seen the HBO series, but the novel, by the author of the much-feted LITTLE CHILDREN and the underappreciated THE WISHBONES, is a unique tale of middle-class angst and beauty. Perrotta finds the extraordinary in the ordinary—the small glories in the numb predictability of suburbia. When something extreme happens in this particular suburbia (random groups of people literally disappear into thin air), the ones who are left have no choice but to try to make sense of their world.
This leads to a variety of portraits of human strength and weakness. The story’s emotional lessons aren’t writ large. The book is confidently nuanced, and there are none of the usual tropes of the apocalypse. The story suggests the real horror of life might reside not in this new era of what looks like rapture, but in the world that preceded it. Reviewed on Aug. 5, 2021