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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Oddly Uplifting Despite The Dystopic Scenario, February 26, 2010
This review is from: In a Perfect World: A Novel (Paperback)
While some dystopian books take place in an imagined future where things are very different from our own world (like The Hunger Games series), In A Perfect World takes place right in our here and now. There are no fantasy elements to this book at all--everything seems utterly believable and possible, which made it a more effective and scarier book for me.
Our glimpse into a world that encompasses nothing less than a complete breakdown of our society is Jiselle, a flight attendant who has "landed" the handsome and charismatic pilot Mark Dorn. In her 30s and tired of always being the bridesmaid and never the bride, Jiselle is ready to settle down and imagines a perfect little world with her ready-made family. (Mark has three children whose mother died a few years before.) Jiselle leaves her job and moves into the idyllic little town where Mark has a picture-perfect home. Anxious and excited to be the stepmother, Jiselle is eager to meet her new family. What she finds is three children who are less than thrilled--with the exception of the young boy (gotta love those boys!)--with their new stepmother. With Mark away for a good portion of time, Jiselle struggles to make the transition into her new life.
In the background of Jiselle's life, there are rumblings of another kind--a mysterious Phoenix Flu is causing troubles through the country. Even celebrities seems to be getting it and dying. (OK...a little editorial note here: I just loved that Kasischke killed off Britney Spears with the flu! Take that, Ms. I'm A Terrible Singer Yet Have Achieved Huge Success!)
As the story progresses, Mark is away more and more often, and Jiselle finds out some disturbing information about her new husband. And as the Phoenix Flu begins to become more and more of a problem, Jiselle's focus begins to shift from getting adjusted to family life to surviving--a skill she finds herself to be more adept at than she ever imagined.
As conditions worsen and society begins to fall apart, Jiselle is thrust into a nightmarish world where isolation, survival, sickness and death become a part of everyday life. Yet the worse things get, the more Jiselle's world actually becomes "a perfect world." With an ending that will leave readers who need things tied up at loose ends, this book surprised me in how it shifted and turned and twisted and changed into something that I can't quite describe. Consider it an uplifting story about the end of society as we know it.
Reading this right after The Hunger Games, I think this book came out on top for me. Where The Hunger Games is flashy and showy with its tantalizing premise, this book is more subtle and slow and deep. Written in an almost distant, chilly type of prose, Kasischke has created a dystopian book that truly scared and disturbed me yet also made me feel good about the world at the same time. As I said, this isn't a book that ties things up in a nice little package for you, but I thought it suited the story well. If you're looking for an adult book on the opposite side of the dystopian spectrum, then this book is for you.
The Bottom Line: I'm giving the book 4 stars. I was drawn into Jiselle's world in an almost hypnotic way. Each page brought me closer to horror but also to goodness. This is a book that I could envision happening in our lifetime, and I think Kasischke did a wonderful job of keeping it from falling into a run-of-the-mill "Oh No...There's An Epidemic" type thriller. This book has a vibrant beating heart if you take the time to look for it.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but not perfect, February 10, 2010
This review is from: In a Perfect World: A Novel (Paperback)
I fully admit that I started off on the wrong foot with Laura Kasischke's new novel, In a Perfect World.
After twenty years spent in the commercial aviation industry, I was initially intrigued when we read the novel's synopsis on the back cover. Here's a portion:
"It was a fairy tale come true when Mark Dorn - handsome pilot, widower,
tragic father of three - chose Jiselle to be his wife. The other flight
attendants were jealous: She could quit now, leaving behind the million
daily irritations of the job. She could move into Mark Dorn's precious log
cabin and help him raise his three beautiful children.
But fairy tales aren't like marriage."
So when I dove into this novel, I wasn't too happy to see the jobs of airline pilots and flight attendants so grossly misrepresented. (No, flight attendants and pilots do not, for the record, ever sit around in a bar drinking in uniform. EVER.) It made me grumpy.
A few chapters later and I changed our tune a bit, thinking that no, this novel must be about step-mothers and their complicated relationship with unwilling and unhappy stepchildren.
But no. A few chapters beyond that and I was thinking this novel was really a commentary about our society's tendency to over-react to health scares (think Swine Flu hysteria).
Wrong again.
As it turns out, in the end, this novel was beautifully layered with depth and poignancy and a discovery of the human spirit and the choices we're faced with. Kasischke sucks you in and builds the tension steadily, almost imperceptibly, until you find yourself reluctant to set the book down.
Layers. This novel has some serious layers.
Kasischke won me over and although I'm pretty sure ending will leave each reader with a different impression, it will indeed leave you thinking about it long after you've turned the last page.
It's not often a novel can redeem itself as well as In a Perfect World. Recommended.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Utterly surprising!, January 15, 2011
"In a Perfect World" is not your typical woman's book. In fact, place this novel on the shelves with either apocalyptic or dystopian novels. Yet--the central, focal point is relationships: marital, parental, generational, community, national, international, medical. In fact, this may well be a new genre altogether. I was deeply pleased by all the surprising elements that author Laura Kasischke tied so skillfully into this brilliant novel.
First, the story that appeals to women: Jiselle, a long-time flight attendant, weary of her job, just wants to get married. The highly desirable Mark Dorn, handsome pilot extraordinaire, claims her and marries her. There's a hitch: he has three children, ages nine to fifteen. The two girls don't want her, the boy is amenable. She moves into Mark's house, a complete creation by the children's mother, who died tragically a few years earlier.
All of this occurs amidst the Phoenix Flu. Remember it? This is the science fiction element: Kasischke uses the real event as a jumping off place for the framework of her novel. The disease becomes a pandemic, causing hatred of all things American, including Americans. On a flight to Germany, Mark is quarantined there, a dislocation that lasts on and on, only to create a new phase of relationship.
An important minor character, also a nearby neighbor, is a history teacher who loves the Medieval Period and knows important associations of the Bubonic Plague that seem eerily to manifest during this pandemic. Strangely dumped animals. Hallucinations in the sky.
Then as the disease spreads and kills more and more, society devolves. Schools close. Libraries close. All unessential businesses close. As supplies run out, grocery stores, gas stations, bakeries close. Power intermittently goes out and mysteriously comes back on.
The more society devolves, the closer Jiselle's new family becomes, reversing the antagonistic atmosphere that initially poisons them. Jiselle takes in the elderly neighbor with Alzherimer's after her husband dies of the flu. The history teacher's son is the companion of Camilla, one of the daughters. After their wife/mother deserts them, they both become a helpful staple in and around the house. Jiselle learns survival skills. Jiselle finally fetches her mother with whom she has had a painful relationship. Now it thrives, as does her relationship with the girls.
The story within the story--the close-knit family--defies the panic and violence and chaos outside their doors and becomes a comfortable force. Then one day soldiers arrive and warn them about maruading bands of violent men. The history teacher heads out on foot to find his wife. All the while Jiselle has been reading the collected stories of Hans Christian Anderson to Sam, the son. Their story becomes a fairy tale.
In a perfect world. The last words in the novel. I was so creeped out I wanted to scream. Another reviewer was so angry with the ending she threw her book across the room. The novel is vaguely reminiscent of "The Road," Cormac McCarthy's apocalyptic novel. And that's all I will say about that.
This is a book to be read and savored for its plotting, use of lyrical, powerful language, character development, but most of all its messages. I read recently, perhaps even a statement associated with this novel, that a really good writer makes every single word contribute to the development of the story. After the reader closes the last page, s/he realizes that's just what Kasischke did. This is a highly recommended novel!
(Note: If it seems I gave a great many details of the story, actually, I didn't. I presented only enough to give a sense of what the novel is about. There's much more to it!)
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