355 pages
For more than two thousand years Christians have looked
forward to the Rapture, believed to take all believers home to heaven before
God’s judgment rains onto the Earth. Most believe that in that glorious moment,
the physical bodies of the faithful will disappear in an instant, leaving even
their clothes behind. In The Leftovers,
the Rapture has happened…but it wasn’t like the Christians thought it would be.
Some were taken, but plenty weren’t. In fact, the disappearances seem almost
random—people of all ages, races, and religions—but they all happened at one
instant. And there were millions of them, all over the world. Now, after it has
become clear that the scientists can’t explain what happened, the ones left
behind—also known as the “survivors” or the “leftovers”—must figure out how to
move on. Almost everyone knows someone who disappeared, while some lost their
entire families. And everyone is dealing with the question of why this happened
and what the future holds. Some use alcohol and drugs to numb the pain and
uncertainty. Some join extreme end-of-the-world cults. Some take advantage of
the situation and grab power. This book is the story of a few ordinary people
trying to make a life in a new world, changed forever in an instant.
I usually don’t like books that leave a lot of questions
unanswered, but it didn’t bother me with this one. It’s pretty clear from the
beginning that you’re not going to figure everything out and that’s not the
point of the story. It’s sort of a character study in how people deal with
tragedy, made even more interesting by the fear and uncertainty thrown in as
well. Though I am myself a Christian, I like that this book puts quite a spin
on the traditional view of the Rapture. Without too much preaching, it makes
the point that no one can rightly judge other people because now matter how
much someone thinks they know about God, or whatever divine being they believe
in, no one can truly know what is going to happen. It’s also interesting that
science offers no plausible explanations either. I walked away from the book
with the feeling that no matter what we believe, we don’t have all the answers
and probably never will. That’s a scary thought, but it’s worth thinking about.
I found other aspects of the story pleasing as well. The characters are
multidimensional and they feel real. Their reactions to the disappearances are
fascinating and made me think about what I
would do. There’s not a lot of
action, but I got sucked in just the same. The whole thing is going to stick
with me for quite a while, for sure.
