Previous
Intro
It’s New Year’s Eve, 1999, and the unnamed narrator’s Dad is rushing the family off to his in-laws’ house in the countryside. Dad is nervous about an error in computer programming (colloquially known, though never named in the novel, as the Y2K Scare); Dad fears that the error will cause a total collapse in global infrastructure right when the year changes to 2000. The narrator’s mother Cate is concerned more about her husband’s obsession, though the narrator privately sides with his father. While they are driving to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, Dad hits a car going the opposite direction. Dad refuses to stop—and instead engages in a hit-and-run, much to Cate’s horror.
That night, the narrator realizes that Dad is not in his room, so he goes looking for him in the woods, eventually finding him just as midnight strikes. Though there is no evidence that any sort of crisis has taken place, Dad continues to believe that danger is nigh.
A few years later, the narrator—recently arrested for petty theft—has been sent to live with his grandparents. Grandma has advanced dementia, and Grandpa recently lost his driver’s license after several near-accidents on the road. Life is hard for other reasons, too: the city where they all live is now cut off from the countryside by the Barricades, which also divide city people from the clean air and nutritious bounty grown in rural areas. In addition to rationing food, all city dwellers are also forbidden by the government (known as Central) from traveling; only those with rural IDs can visit the countryside.
One day, Grandma has a sudden bout of lucidity. On a whim, she insists that they all take a trip to the country; she also reveals that despite seeming to be out of it, she has been aware of all the political changes from the last several years. Grandma is able to talk their way past the security guard at the Barricades, and the three family members engage in a crime spree, stealing food and an RV. Just as Grandpa and Grandma decide that they want to escape to the country forever, Grandma slips back into incoherence. As they hold hands, the two grandparents take all of their pills at once, killing themselves.
The novel again jumps through time. Now, the narrator works for the Land Management bureau, evacuating people during a spate of giant floods. Two of the women he is evacuating, Liz and her daughter Jenna, refuse to move from the house they have started squatting in. Liz has grown increasingly dependent on alcohol (the house has a wine cellar), while Jenna is a “romantic,” hesitant to engage in any of the messy behavior necessary for survival. The narrator hopes to shoo the women away and steal their wine, but—after a brief sexual tryst with Liz—the pair sees through his plan, shooting him in the leg and stranding him in the flooding country.
More years pass, and a deadly flu is now sweeping the nation, forcing people to flee their homes and quarantine. The narrator is camping out in the desert with his longtime girlfriend Margo, whom he met when they were both stealing diamond jewelry from the same store. Margo has a habit of disappearing, sometimes to get drugs or have affairs and sometimes just to be alone. This particular morning, Margo has walked off, leaving the narrator without their gun—a scary fact, given that a sick man has just arrived at their campsite. The narrator avoids the sick man until Margo comes back, but both still fear that they have gotten the virus from afar, especially because the man has touched all of their belongings. The sick man dies, and Margo and the narrator leave their campsite.
The story skips to the narrator’s time in Brownlee, a town ravaged by fires, oil drilling, and Brazilian bugs with threatening one-inch stingers. The narrator again works in government, approving disaster victims for cash grants so they can relocate. Years ago, Margo left the narrator for a man named Shane, but now she has found the narrator in Brownlee, and she asks him to run away with her. After some hesitation, the narrator agrees, forging IDs that will allow him to escape with Margo to some new town. Though the narrator is excited for this reunion, he is deeply traumatized from his work with all the disaster victims.
Several years later, the narrator and Margo have entered into a practical union contract with each other and shacked up with Juliet, a wealthy, powerful, and sexually voracious senator. The narrator is part political aide, part sexual plaything for Juliet, but given her flighty personality (and her frequent experimentations with new drugs), he craves some guarantee of stability. With Margo, the narrator hopes to get Juliet to sign onto their next practical union contract, though Margo inadvertently ruins the plan with her lack of subtlety. In a moment of drugged ecstasy, Margo and Juliet set a forest on fire, one of Juliet’s favorite activities. The narrator realizes that Margo will never bring him peace.
More time passes, and now the narrator is living in a secluded rural community, working as a security guard. He is also in charge of a snotty boy named Jeph, a recently orphaned teenager who is the only surviving young person in the community. Secretly, Jeph has run an assay, or a series of medical tests, on the narrator, revealing that the narrator will soon suffer from several debilitating illnesses. Jeph and the narrator make a deal: if the narrator helps Jeph visit the city, Jeph will use his inheritance to pay for the narrator’s treatments. After the narrator has been cured, Jeph decides he wants to stay in the city—so the narrator abandons him.
The narrative jumps again: a new government is being formed, backed by foreign investors, and the narrator is interviewing for a job. His interviewer, Karuna, is volatile, sharing her own personal tragedies and encouraging the narrator to steal some of the diamond jewelry the government has archived. At the end of his interview, the narrator realizes it has all been a test; his willingness to keep quiet about Karuna’s behavior, rather than report it to her bosses, is what gets him the job.
Years later, the narrator works as a tour guide for wealthy people with terminal illnesses, taking them skiing or rafting or to go rock climbing. The narrator himself is struggling with cancer, and he finds himself overcome with an urge to see Dad, who is now billing himself as a shaman. Despite his clients’ complaints, the narrator changes up the itinerary, bringing everyone to his Dad’s garden home. On the way over, the narrator finds himself unable to stop coughing; when he arrives, greeted by his Dad’s familiar green eyes, he realizes how sick he’s been, slipping in and out of consciousness. With tenderness, the tour group lifts the narrator up, and Dad—who is still alive despite refusing all modern drugs—gently closes his son’s eyes.
