Lots of
bloggers participate in Novellas for November, which is basically just
an annual campaign to read more novellas this month. It's a worthy cause
because so many novellas are overlooked simply because they aren't
considered serious enough with their shorter page count (why do we
consider books that are super long 'serious'?) I'd like to say I was
organized and consciously planned my reading of novella The Annual
Migration of Clouds by Alberta author Premee Mohamed for this month, but
it was Naomi's review over at Consumed by Ink that pushed me to give
this one a go now, as it had been languishing on my shelf for a few
months. I don't often say this n my reviews, but I truly wish this book
was longer because I would have loved to follow these characters for
hundreds of more pages.
Reviewed byAnne Logan
Plot Summary
Set
in the future in Edmonton, Alberta once the foretold climate disaster
has done all the terrible things scientists said it would, Reid and her
mother are living their daily, exhausting but somewhat stable lives.
Society has come together as best as possible to keep going; there are
doctors, there is enough food but just barely, and everyone basically
works day and night to keep the food supply going by growing their own
plants, weaving fibers from recycled plastic, and hunting skinny wild
rabbits when in need of extra meat, which is scarce. There is no more
electricity, internet, or technology of any kind. The story opens with a
jolt of exciting news in Reid's life; against extremely unlikely odds,
she has been accepted into the 'domes', which is essentially a
university one must apply to with an essay submission. Not much is known
about life there, but it's rumoured to be one of the last few places on
earth that life resembles the 'before' times, which is the life of
abundance we currently enjoy. But Reid is torn over whether she should
go because she doesn't want to abandon her mother, who is sick with
"CAD", an illness that has ravaged humankind as a parasite that slowly
and painfully kills its human host.
My Thoughts
Climate
fiction is popping up more and more these days, and why wouldn't it? We
are constantly getting reports of how dire life is going to be for our
future generations if we don't cut our emissions, so this is a ripe area
for dystopian stories to bloom. Much of what's coming from this genre
is simply about survival, trying to live one's life in this new,
unhospitable world. Not surprisingly, this can cause quite a bit of
anxiety when reading, and I definitely feel that, especially when it
takes place in the very province you currently live in (see my review of
Watershed for more on that). And although I felt that same anxiety
reading this novella, I was thankfully distracted by the very compelling
problem that Reid faces, torn between the love of her mother and the
hope that life may hold something more for her. Because of its short
length, we leave Reid before she leaves the community, but I am dying to
know how things work out for her, and how the author would create this
exciting new world that hints of astonishing technological advances.
The
disdain these characters hold for the us in the 'before' times, (i.e.
you and me) is something I think of when the affects of climate change
are mentioned. The careless way many of us are living now is something
that will have an end date, and future generations will no doubt resent
our wasteful lifestyles. These characters remark on how much plastic is
left in landfills, and the fact that they can't make anymore, but
luckily we disposed of so much of if its the one thing they don't
believe they will run out of anytime soon. It's the only thing that
survived. This is also the first dystopian novel I've come across that
specifically references what Indigenous peoples did once civilization
started to break down:
"The Indigenous people here under centuries of
colonizers, till we broke the world and they quietly, nearly overnight,
packed up and left the cities together, to live better on the land that
their invaders were too busy dying and fighting to lay claim to any
longer" (p. 91 of ARC).
Considering many Indigenous people still
have a strong connection to the land and it is a cornerstone of their
culture, I'm not surprised Mohamed is predicting they will ride this out
much better than us settlers - seems like a safe bet!
The fact that
the CAD illness plays a role in society's downfall doesn't seem like the
major issue I thought it may be when I first started reading - if
anything, it seems to handicap some, but they deal with it, sort of how
we slowly move along with our Covid issues - things are no longer at a
standstill, they are just…complicated. So are books like this meant as a
warning, do they change our behavior after reading them? I'm not sure
this book will change my behavior per se, I already try to do quite a
bit to reduce mine and my family's environmental impact, but it
definitely makes me grateful for the easy way we live our life now. Let
me know in the comments how these types of books affect your behavior,
if at all - I'd love to hear from you!
Courtesy: I'VE READ THIS
