Severance

Severance switches between present and various times in Candice's past, so you get one part “immigrant family aclimates to life in United States”, one part “twenty-something out on her own in New York City”, and one part “not-quite zombie apocolypse”. I'm not a big fan of the “screw linearity” thing but fine, it's trendy.

But it draaaaags. I thought I was near the end and checked how much was left. I was only halfway through! The ending is really inconclusive and unsatisfying and the not-quite zombies never get explained.

It's the zombie apocalypse but the mindless, infected hordes this time aren't craving human brains but are instead locked in an endless loop of familiar and comforting patterns. Setting the table for example, or trying on outfits, over and over and over again.

In that sense, Candace barely differs from the infected. As the city vacates around her and more and more people succumb to the fever, she is stuck in her own routine. She continues to punch a clock, and put in her time at an increasingly empty office. As a Chinese immigrant she has no family to go to, no living parents, no real connection to her co-workers, or even the city she lives in.

Even at the tail end of the apocalypse, when she decides to throw in with a tiny band of survivors headed out of New York, she's still the odd one out. Their fearless leader, an gothy IT admin, WoW player who smokes vanilla scented e-cigarettes admonishes Candace to try being a bit more participatory. See if their group is a “good fit” as if she's fielding offers from other survivor bands.

It's a wry meditation on being other and the familiar routines we often hide in. Everyone locked into their own repeating patterns, oblivious to everyone else. It's the Millennial apocalypse - full review here: https://youtu.be/oZ-LiukdoCY

such a beautiful and quiet post-apocalypse story that i find myself thinking about often. a must-read with everything that's happened in 2020.

This is an introspective novel that skillfully combines elements of dystopia, satire, and coming-of-age storytelling. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, the book follows the story of Candace Chen, a millennial corporate worker, as she navigates the aftermath of the mysterious Shen Fever pandemic.

The narrative seamlessly alternates between Candace's pre-apocalypse life in the corporate world and her present-day struggle for survival in a desolate New York City, where she joins a group of survivors led by a power-hungry individual. Against this backdrop, the novel delves into themes of consumerism, capitalism, and the soul-draining monotony of corporate culture.

Ma's writing style is both serene and compelling, capturing the ordinary and unsettling moments of Candace's journey with depth and emotional resonance.

While the story may have a slower pace at times, it compensates by exploring profound questions of identity and self-discovery. Severance offers readers a unique and thought-provoking perspective on the human experience.

What does a cog in a machine do when an apocalypse strikes?

Severance follows Candace Chen, a young professional and daughter to Chinese immigrants. Candace facilitates the mass production of Bibles, soliciting suppliers with the lowest labor costs, often based in China.

With both herself and others, Candace glosses over the exploitation necessary to make her employer the most money. She rests as easy as she can in the knowledge that she's just doing her job. And do her job she does, diligently, even as the world crumbles around her.

Ma chronicles Chen's response to a global health epidemic by weaving together the more distant past (childhood memories), the more recent past (the time between the beginnings of the outbreak and when Candace left New York), and time after being found by a small group of fellow survivors led by a man I hate, who is named Bob.

This narrative structure worked really well. Ma forms a protagonist who initially appears vacant, almost absurdly lacking in emotional depth and attachment to any other characters. But you develop a firm grasp on who Candace is, even if the why remains more elusive and metaphoric. A character like Candace blurs the line between pre- and post-apocalypse.

Ma holds no punches. She makes fevered mean many things. This might only make sense to me, but at points Severance reminded me of the movie Sorry to Bother You. In any case, I'll be thinking about this book for a while.

Wonderful. This novel is so many things at once - dystopian horror, office satire, immigration story - that you'd think don't go together, but Ling Ma does it perfectly. Another 2018 novel that intriguingly mixes quirkiness and (magical) realism into social commentary. It fits right in next to [b: My Year of Rest and Relaxation 36203391 My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1513259517s/36203391.jpg 55508660] and [b: The Pisces 32871394 The Pisces Melissa Broder https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1500926737s/32871394.jpg 53479347].

I kept thinking that this is exactly what it would be like if you were a surviving office worker in Manhattan while the rest of the world's population was being wiped out by a deadly fungus. Among other believable details, there would definitely be a Bob the IT Guy taking charge and displaying his latent survivalist tendencies.

Severance is one of those stories that is hard to nail down. It's largely post-apocalyptic, yet it has a very contemporary feel to it. It's dark and yet it's darkly comic. It's painted as a straight-forward dystopian tale, yet it may be an allegory for the way we live. It's meandering while focused. It's terrifying, it's sleep inducing. It's great and it's really not all that good.

For all the positive things I can say about this novel, I think the reason I'm also ambivalent toward it is due to the unevenness of the book. Perhaps there is some filler where there should have been more character development. I didn't really feel invested in these characters, and some of them were little more than tropes. When dealing with characters who are facing life and death, it's important for a reader to believe in what's at stake. For the most part, I didn't. The purpose of these characters was largely to move the plot forward.

Where the novel succeeds, however, is in its world building and its larger story. The parallels that are drawn between the capitalist world of Candance's past with that of her plague-infested present are brilliant. The pandemic that sweeps the world in Severance causes its victims to repeat menial tasks without thought. This continues until they finally expire. Thus an avid reader may turn the pages of her favorite book without reading a word for days. A taxi driver may drive his same route, even picking up passengers, but all without a thought or care, day and night, until his body just gives out. And that's where this story wonderfully elicits questions of how allegorical this whole story is.

My opinion of this slim novel swayed throughout. I really liked parts of it—thought it was brilliant at times. Other parts were just a bit too unsophisticated. In the end, I guess I feel so-so about it. It certainly didn't help that the final third of this novel came across as rushed and formulaic. This was the part of the story where I felt any decent author of dystopian fiction could've stepped in and done an equally commendable job. It's an ending that should satisfy readers of the genre looking for a piece of action that is familiar, but as a reader looking for something original or thought-provoking, I felt it was a let down.

Severance is an easy read and one that I would recommend to readers of dystopian fiction. Other readers could probably adopt a take-it-or-leave-it attitude toward this one and be fine.

4.5