This novel-length prose work is by turns philosophical, dark, comedic, and lyrical in approach as it attempts to imagine a multitude of possible futures. It is comprised of three parts and approaches the subject from three different angles, as follows:
1. Annotations About an Absence
2. Woman Records Brief Notes Regarding Absence
3. Other Prose Surrounding Absence
Part 1 is written as a series of numbered annotations (1-115) about the day-long conversation/meditations between a couple who are living in a gated community and who are attempting to create an imaginary novel in which they express their fears about the future:
Annotation #5:
We concoct a make-believe novel and a set of annotations in which...
We attempt to express the universal confusion of mind that is the main feature of contemporary life.
Which is?
We are afraid.
Part 2 is written as notes to the above annotations revealing (in the spirit of transparency) the author’s sources/ideas/questions and provides a running and somewhat satiric narrative on the subject. For example:
Note #4.
Images found in works by Cormac McCarthy, JG Ballard, HG Wells, PD James; Matrix and Mad Max films; PBS Nature segment on rise of poisonous jelly fish in world’s oceans; and content of wet Jehovah Witness pamphlet left on woman’s doorstep take hold in woman’s mind.
Each “note” is written as if it were a description of a late-night TV movie; definite articles have been removed as much as possible.
Part 3 is comprised of twenty-one prose pieces which are complimentary to Parts 1 & 2 and range in length from one page to twenty pages. Among other things, they take aim at the individual’s existence in a globalized world wherein human existence is bludgeoned by the threat of “end times” – climate change, species extinction, pandemics, and really bad politics – insofar as we are able to retain our status as “individuals”.
This book is an attempt by this writer - along with other writers, thinkers, and observers - to prick the bubble of Western complacency in the face of the “awful atrocity” which is the current world. I would hope that the book, while unique in style and approach, is, nonetheless, readable, engaging, enigmatic, worthy of discourse, and could even be considered, in parts, delightful.
