![]() ![]() “hey could pantomime ownership for a week.” ![]() They’ve rented a house for a week, the online description of which calls it a place to “leave the world behind.” The vacation affords them, along with the perks of relaxation and togetherness, the opportunity to pretend this luxurious life in this expensive house is their own. The story begins with Amanda and Clay, “middle-class people,” along with their two children Archie and Rose, driving from Brooklyn to the Hamptons for a summer getaway. “Business as usual, the business of being alive.” And even when a calamity unfolds, there are things that still must be attended to, like eating, sleeping, scratching an itch. If we have learned anything in this calamitous, unrelenting year, it is that catastrophe can be slow to unravel and unexpected when it does. Leave the World Behind feels right in sync with 2020. Others, like Clay, Rose’s father, are forced to confront unpleasant truths: “He couldn’t bear admitting what sort of man he was when tested.” ![]() Some, like Rose, a 13-year-old girl on vacation with her family, find themselves unexpectedly and innately prepared for hardship they are resilient, even brave. The novel’s six principal characters, all stuck together in a house due to an unknown national crisis, handle these questions in their own ways. What kind of prejudices do you, liberal you, hold quietly in your heart? And 3. THE CHARACTERS IN Rumaan Alam’s ominous new novel, Leave the World Behind, directly grapple with a series of important existential questions: 1. ![]()
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