First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

In the first of decades of the twenty-first century, the world is convulsing, its governments mired in gridlock while a patient but unrelenting ecological crisis looms. America is in upheaval, battered by violent weather and extreme politics. In California in 2013, Tony Pietrus, a scientist studying deposits of undersea methane, receives a death threat. His fate will become bound to a stunning cast of characters – a broken drug addict, a star advertising strategist, a neurodivergent mathematician, a cunning eco-terrorist, an actor turned religious zealot, and a brazen young activist named Kate Morris, who, in the mountains of Wyoming, begins a project that will alter the course of the decades to come. From the Gulf Coast to Los Angeles, the Midwest to Washington, DC, their intertwined odysseys unfold against a stark backdrop of accelerating chaos, and as their stories hurtle toward a spectacular climax, each faces a reckoning: What will they sacrifice to salvage humanity’s last chance at a future?

Happy start of the workweek everyone! I know, everyone is still feeling a little sluggish. Even I can feel that sluggishness despite coming from a holiday. I just returned from Taiwan early this morning and I can still feel the aftereffects. It was a memorable vacation as I was able to finish hiking the highest peak in Taiwan, Yushan or Mt. Jade. It was an exhilarating experience as it was my first major hike since 2019 and my first during winter. It was cold but I couldn’t be prouder of myself and my companions as we overcame and brave the unrelenting winds and the biting cold. So, yay to us! To everyone who was able to achieve something over the week, may it be small or big, or may it be just simply making it through the week, congratulations.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great start to the week. This was supposed to be a First Impression Friday update but it turned into a First Impression Monday. This is because the sleepless night during my vacation did not allow me to find time to write this weekly update. Nevertheless, here I am, catching up on what I missed last week. So far, my 2024 reading journey has been quite a blast. I have been catching up on books published in the past three years which I have been meaning to read and those that have piqued my interest. In this latter category belongs my current read, Stephen Markley’s The Deluge. Before 2023, I had never heard of the American writer but his latest novel has been receiving positive feedback from literary pundits and readers alike.

Actually, it was during a random trip to the bookstore that I picked up the book. I saw it and then I remembered that the book was tagged by literary publications as one of the best books of 2023. This immediately piqued my interest and without further ado, I took the book and made it part of my opening salvo to my 2024 reading journey. There was something about the book that reeled me in; if my memory serves me right, it even received praise from renowned writer Stephen King. So is that a precursor to what the book has in store for me? Anyway, I brought the book along with me when I went to Taiwan; this is even though the book was rather bulky. Thankfully, I was able to start reading the book during my vacation.

The book is rather strange, at least where its structure is concerned. However, this is not stopping me from immersing myself in the story. Because of its length, the novel was divided into books. I am currently reading Book 1, with the novel starting in 2013, a decade before The Deluge’s publication. Markley introduced climate scientist Tony Pietrus in a chapter titled The Phase Transitions of Methane Hydrates. Oh. This one started on an interesting note, or rather challenging note considering I am not much of a fan of a science guy. Oh well. Let’s see. It also feels like an early warning shot telling the readers that they can either back out now or they can move forward. I chose the latter of course.

So yes, it seems like science is at the core of the novel, or at least a majority of it. This became increasingly palpable as the story moved forward. As the story moved forward, the story’s time mechanism also started to oscillate between periods, between the contemporary and the future. More characters are introduced and different storytelling devices are employed by Markley, including Twitter updates, news headlines, and also a secondary storyline in a box that runs simultaneously with the main storyline. It can be discombobulating, the reason why I slowed down my pace. This is to be able to appreciate the story and its complex structure. So far, what I read made me think the story is an intersection of Ulysses and Infinite Jest, both complex novels.

Moreover, the story is polyphonic. Nevertheless, I keep marching on. Getting over the various literary devices made me appreciate the story. The different characters who populate the novel give it different textures. This being a work of contemporary American literature, it is unsurprising to read about the intricacies of American politics; I find American novels highly political. We read about the classic friction between the Republican and the Democratic political ideologies, and yes, an election was fast approaching. Prominent political figures were even mentioned to underline how recent political policies have shaped an important facet of our lives in the present: climate change. Yes, environmental politics seems to be a prevalent subject in the story which even features an eco-terrorist.

From what I have read so far, I surmise that Markley depicts a world slowly descending toward pandemonium. Governments have lost control as capitalism, greed, and corruption permeate every stratum of our current political and social systems. These are among the drivers for our current state. Early in the story, Markley already provides a premonition of how he envisions the future is going to be should things not drastically change, or at least a glimpse of how he sees the future. He mentioned Cormac McCarthy’s The Road which provided a grim portrait of the future. As the story is still building up, I have been immersed in the technicalities, from politics to science although I do realize that the story will eventually pick up.

I have still a hundred pages to go before I finish the book. I am looking forward not only to Markley’s grim portrait of the future but also to his advocacy on how we can alter this course. How can we prevent, or stymie what seems to be the inevitable? I am interested to see how Markley solves this puzzle or at least provides a viable solution. How about you fellow reader? What book or books are you taking with you for the weekend? I hope you get to enjoy them. Again, happy weekend everyone!