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juushikaTitle: Our Endless Numbered Days
Author: Claire Fuller
Published: Portland: Tin House Books, 2015
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 380
Total Page Count: 179,690
Text Number: 528
Read Because: multiple BookTube recommendations, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: As a child, Peggy is taken by her survivalist father to live in a distant cabin in the German countryside, in preparation for an end of the world which never comes. Our Endless Numbered Days relies on some transparent narrative tropes--Peggy's unreliability, her family's predictable secrets--that build suspense but have no payout. What underlies the hollow tension is a more effective, melancholy story; both in isolation and in society, Peggy's survival is convincingly detailed, sympathetic, harrowing without growing exploitive. I'm less pleased with Reuben's identity--after being ignored, lied to, and denied agency, Peggy's testimony should be given credence, not twisted for the sake of a narrative cliché. Our Endless Numbered Days leaves me ambivalent: it's always readable, often an interesting commentary on dystopias, and possesses a compelling haunted tone; but the flaws are undeniable, and leave me unsatisfied. I don't particularly recommend it.
Author: Claire Fuller
Published: Portland: Tin House Books, 2015
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 380
Total Page Count: 179,690
Text Number: 528
Read Because: multiple BookTube recommendations, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: As a child, Peggy is taken by her survivalist father to live in a distant cabin in the German countryside, in preparation for an end of the world which never comes. Our Endless Numbered Days relies on some transparent narrative tropes--Peggy's unreliability, her family's predictable secrets--that build suspense but have no payout. What underlies the hollow tension is a more effective, melancholy story; both in isolation and in society, Peggy's survival is convincingly detailed, sympathetic, harrowing without growing exploitive. I'm less pleased with Reuben's identity--after being ignored, lied to, and denied agency, Peggy's testimony should be given credence, not twisted for the sake of a narrative cliché. Our Endless Numbered Days leaves me ambivalent: it's always readable, often an interesting commentary on dystopias, and possesses a compelling haunted tone; but the flaws are undeniable, and leave me unsatisfied. I don't particularly recommend it.
