Small World
Jonathan Evison
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Small World
Jonathan Evison
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Evison's Small World features some of the standard elements of a disaster plot.
Evison’s characters are distinctive and the plot is well paced. Depictions of the sibling ache between the separated twins Nora and Finn Bergen (Walter’s ancestors), the survivor’s guilt of Wu and the longing Jenny has for a connection to her parents are deeply felt.
Its short chapters and sheer eventfulness keep the story chugging along, while its (somewhat mechanistic) plotting creates enough suspense to hold the attention. It’s broad-brush, well-intentioned stuff, with an ethnically diverse cast of characters offering, through close third-person narration, wry, sometimes caustic commentary on the nature of American opportunity.
The train trip is a splendid device to link them, and as the snow gathers and the train steams north, each flashback chapter further endears the characters to our hearts. Don’t worry, the chapters are headed by the year and the character’s name, so it’s easy to keep track of them all. Jonathan Evison displays a great talent for bringing a character to life with only a few words...From the frenzy of the California gold rush to the grand Chicago homes of the railroad investors, the places in this book come to life.
Evison has published a string of superb novels...so it is thrilling to see the talent, ambition, and execution coalesce in this masterpiece.
Epic.
Ambitious.
Ambitious if overlong.