2014 book 145

Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers
I've actually never read a book by Perrotta--he's one of those authors I always /mean/ to check out, but there's always something more interesting on the to-read list. Having a well-received HBO show based on this book premiering tomorrow shot it to the top, though! And I actually liked it a lot. As probably everyone knows, it's about a small town in the aftermath of a world-wide Rapture-like event, where a few million people just up and vanished all at once (but they were of all races, ages. religions, etc, so it's emphatically not really the Rapture). Anyway, yes, small town in the aftermath, told primarily from the POVs of the mayor; his college-age son, who's in a cult that's falling apart; his wife, who's joined some other kind of fringe group (this fringe group was a majorly weak link for me by the end); their teenage daughter; and a local woman whose entirely family (husband and two small children) vanished. Strong writing and I really liked the end, though at the same time, I really wanted the story to keep going. It'll be interesting to see how they adapt this to tv. A-.