Jenny Offill’s newest book is a tiny book, really. Not as small as her last book, Dept. of Speculation, but small by regular standards. I chose to embark on this one as an audiobook, having had some trouble connecting with her last time. I enjoyed the narration, and I definitely had an easier time feeling my way into this book than I did the last.
It’s been a while since I finished this book, and I have to admit that some of the details have not stuck with me. It’s the story of Lizzie, a mom and librarian nearing middle age who still isn’t quite sure if her life is where she was supposed to end up. She has a son and a husband, as well as a job that really shouldn’t have been hers because she lacks the degree required of her fellow librarians – but she was lucky enough to know someone who recommended her for the job. She likes her work well enough, but it doesn’t pay much, and she’s frequently bored.
I remember feeling the uncertainty of the main character – whatever setting she finds herself in, she doesn’t quite fit. At work she feels resented by colleagues who spent much more time and money than she did to end up in the same job. At home she worries about her brother’s sobriety and life choices and is not quite in tune with her partner. When dropping her child off for school she feels like an outsider when faced with cliques of other moms. She is questioning… well, everything. Then her old professor shows up and offers her a job, one that she takes.
I don’t really remember where the story went after that – I remember it feeling like it meandered a bit. We accompany her through her day-to-day life as she gets a handle on her new job and meets a man who makes her question if life is going exactly where she wants it to go.
I liked that this book captures the uncertainty of modern life. We have so many more choices, but for people like me, this has made choosing a path so overwhelming that I’ve just never really picked one. I connected to the sense that she ended up where she is less by design, more by random chance. And it’s not that where she ended up isn’t good – it’s more that not having consciously chosen it leads to doubts. Doubts about self-worth, direction, relationships. I know that feeling. I live in it. Offill captured it perfectly. But that’s about all I took away from this book. Worth reading for that, but the characters didn’t really stick with me, nor did much of the storyline. I must admit I’ve forgotten all the characters’ names already.
Is it worth reading this? If you’re a fan of Offill’s work, definitely. If you’re feeling alienated within your life, you’ll probably connect to Lizzie. If you enjoy quiet books that critically present modern life and look at how our lives often lack a sense of accomplishment or direction, again, this will be a book you can relate to. It’s not a big book – either in size or content – but if you enjoy books that are more about representing the emotional landscape of the characters than building a plot, this will definitely be your cup of tea.
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. She’s 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. – Goodreads
Book Title: Weather
Author: Jenny Offill
Series: No
Edition: Hardback/Audiobook
Published By: Knopf Publishing Group
Released: February 11, 2020
Genre: Fiction, Daily Life, Family, Introspection
Pages: 207
Date Read: March 1-13, 2021
Rating: 6/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.62/5 (23,324 ratings)