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"The rip in the ground that the downpour created is what most alarms Jarvi Poelk…" Thus begins this brilliant novel about a man whose "own ambitions have been etched away by the emptiness of regret." Jarvi is a mid-level manager at a New England industrial lighting concern in the path of an approaching hurricane. He is a problem solver, too often frustrated in his job by an incompetent heir/owner, a self-promoting supervisor, and Stewart, a lazy, passive-aggressive engineer. But this begins to change when he strikes up a conversation with Scotty, the HVAC technician sent to repair his home's air conditioning unit.
Scotty, a college dropout with exceptional intelligence, shares his theories about corporate control of the weather and reveals that he is part of an organized online resistance. The two seemingly mismatched men strike up an uneasy friendship, predicated on Jarvi's desire to sustain his company's power supply during and after the coming storm, and Scotty's efforts to prove his theories and recruit a new believer.
Author Ausable is patient in developing these characters, the reader learning more and more about Jarvi and Scotty as layers are peeled away. Moreover, Ausable is a gifted writer, with wisdom and humorous observations that salt the clouds of his consistently elegant prose. He entertains enough cynicism to keep the reader guessing about both his main characters, yet the anxiety they and their community feel as the storm nears is palpable. The author's portrayal of the environmental, structural, and human damage wrought is effective and compassionate. There is a lot packed into nearly every sentence in this book, and the reader must pay attention. But as with all things worthwhile, if one focuses, it will pay off.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review