Book Review: Weather by Jenny Offill

This isn't the first time I've reviewed a book that's smarter than me. We can both consciously and unconsciously read a book, and Jenny Offill's Weather tickled my unconscious mind while leaving my conscious one blank.

It's a funny feeling - knowing that something is happening between the lines, something you can't put your finger on but you know is there, something that is drawing you closer the more you read.

I can't really tell what Weather is about. While there is a storyline, it is hidden in plain sight, surrounded by plenty of incidental snippets.

Do you remember tangents from math? You create a curve on a graph using multiple data points, then draw a line that deflects off the curve called a tangent. That's what the storyline is in this book - the tangent. And the book itself is comprised of the data points.

The book is a collection of diary-like nuggets from a college librarian's life. The nuggets can be anywhere from a few sentences to 1-2 pages long. They don't really connect (unless my conscious is too dense to see the thread), but somewhere along the line they bring the librarian from a place where she is fascinated by doomsday scenarios to a place where she is actively looking for her "doomstead".

This is a fascinating book that was hard to put down - I just wish I had the mental capacity to describe it better. Nine out of ten hot dogs.