Redhook Books, April 4, 2017.
Four Stars
Charlie has recently taken a new job – as the
harbinger of Death. He is the one who comes before Death, sometimes as a
courtesy (to honour those who are dying and make a record of their story), and
sometimes as a warning (a last chance to change one’s ways and potentially
avoid death). While the premise of this novel at first seemed silly and absurd,
it is actually quite dark and filled with deep philosophical musings, although
it took a while before it all came together for me.
At a job interview after college, Charlie was chosen
as the harbinger, partly for his love of music and his lust for life. He is often
surprised by the mundane travel methods of a harbinger, such as economy class
airplane tickets, organized by the bureaucratic office in Milton Keynes. At
first, Charlie is amazed by his new experiences as he travels the world, but it
is not long before the responsibilities of a harbinger wear him down. The
ordinariness of Charlie’s work life is often humorous, especially in contrast
to the dark realities that he sees on his journeys – from the rapidly melting
ice of Greenland, to war in Syria, and the lingering racism of the southern
United States.
Charlie’s job is to warn people that death is coming,
but another important aspect of his work is to bear witness – not only for
dying people, but also for whole ways of life that are slowly becoming extinct.
He sees the darkest aspects of humanity, such as racism, homophobia and war,
and yet he also sees the potential for hope and joy that can come out of our most
terrible moments, as people change and adapt. Meanwhile, the other three
horsemen of the apocalypse are running wild, creating all kinds of havoc in the
human world.
I can’t say much about the plot because there is
really not that much to it – this is an unconventional novel that focuses on
the human condition rather than specific characters. Each chapter opens with
seemingly random pieces of dialogue that seem like nonsense, but in fact these
are the voices of humanity, and when woven together they create an intriguing
picture of Charlie’s world. Most of all, this is a novel of ideas – Charlie is
in fact the harbinger for all of us and our way of life, in which change is
always inevitable: “We all die. We don’t have to live our lives fearing it.”
(Loc. 3555)
Like North’s other novels, the concepts here are
clever and unexpected. Charlie is such a relatable character, which makes this implausible
story feel completely believable. In his world, the apocalypse is not sudden
but incremental – humanity is destroying itself piece by piece, through
prejudice and ignorance. Charlie feels empathy for all kinds of people, even
those that are ruled by anger and hate, but he doesn’t let it bring him down.
Instead, he believes that he is witnessing “not the death of a world, not the
old falling off, but the new being born.” (Loc. 5862) It is only by recognizing
the past that we can create a better future for all of us.
I received this book from Redhook Books and NetGalley
in exchange for an honest review.
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