Disappearing Earth

I kept feeling as if I ought to enjoy this first highly reviewed novel more. My favorite fiction reads lately include Valeria Luiselli’s “Lost Children Archive,” Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends,” Sarah Moss’s “Ghost Wall,” Miriam Toews’ “Women Talking,” Nell Freudenberger’s “Lost and Wanted,” T.C. Boyle’s “Outside Looking In,” and “Andrew Ridker’s “The Altruists.” Phillips is a brilliant writer who examines the impact of two missing children on a larger community. I loved the premise; I love that she wanted to do this and clearly has talent. But I couldnt get out of my head that shes from Montclair, NJ, and her research in Russia consisted of a one year Fulbright opportunity. Its all fiction and while she absolutely deserves high marks for language and imagination it felt like a short story collection when I would have preferred a meatier novel. In the end I wasnt interested enough in many of the characters and finished the book because I’d bought it not a positive statement from a compulsive reader. (I did like the end at least).

Also, while some might argue I should just be wowed by Phillips’ ability to create Russian characters, issues of cultural appropriation which I allude to above bugged me. If this had been written by someone Russian, I could have at least thought that this is what people in Russia are experiencing. (Are any Russian readers sounding in?) Because it was written by a young American, I kept thinking this is what a smart Harvard grad from NJ is thinking about Russians.

Expecting a beautiful tale of life in Kamchatka during the current environmental crisis, as described by the book’s advertising–“a masterpiece,” and a “riveting page-turner”–I found the characters hardly distinguishable, and little of the action having any bearing on what promised to be the central theme of two Russian girls kidnapped in the first chapter. There was no real plot, just a number of different women, seemingly all about the same age, involved in pretty uninteresting lives, even though presumably set in an ethnically diverse and interesting part of the world.

Disappearing Earth begins with a shot of adrenaline and ends with a gut punch. In between, it is filled with a forward propulsion of female characters who are intricately affected by the opening narrative: two young sisters who are kidnapped in broad daylight from the Kamchatka Peninsula in the far east section of Russia.

To get a sense of what youre in for, imagine if Jon McGregors Reservoir 13 was intermingled with Elizabeths Strouts Olive Kitteridge. In the first book, a girl goes missing; as the seasons unfold and the search goes on, village residents go about their daily living, coming together and breaking apart. In the second book, interwoven stories eventually coerce into a fulfilling whole.

After the first chapter, the two young Golosovskaya sisters are no longer the focus; rather, other characters are introduced, each peripherally affected by the disappearance, and each suffering from her own private vulnerability and pain. We meet girls/women who have been spurned by bigots and by the judgments of small minds.

These women range from Ksyusha, who is torn between her hometown white boyfriend and a compassionate young man she meets at a native folk dance group; Oksana, a potential kidnapping witness who experiences the pain of loss when her dog goes missing; the mother and sister of Lilia, a teenage girl who disappears years before without a trace; and Marina, the mother of the two missing sisters.

Kamchatka plays its own role a background location that is as mysterious, brooding, alienated and impenetrable as inner psyches of the women. This is a spellbinding, wonderfully imagined book that haunts the imagination.

I dont know where to start – but Ill try. After 100 pages of rereading messy paragraphs, trying to trace pronouns to nouns I started flipping pages. The setting and the history is layered on with characters for no reason remembering at silly moments. Suddenly a guitar appears or a TV screen projects pictures of the missing children. Where did this TV come from? Back story is piled on and meanwhile the missing girls are missing from the story. I found a smattering of insights but this writer has little faith in her reader so the insights were in bold. I dont often quit a book midway but I did with this one. I went back to Stephen King on writing yo remind myself how to do it right! If Ms Phillips wanted to write about this region and the society then write that book.

this is one of those reading experiences, all too rare ~~ can’t put it down, don’t want it to end! the characters and the place, Kamchatka, a place we barely know, come alive and take a reader to these ends of the earth to follow a story of two sisters, disappeared one summer day. we come to know all sorts of people over the course of a year, where their disappearance haunts many, revives traumas for some, and puts into play the lives of women and girls in their families, in a place of few options, yet deeply held rituals, and interconnected kin.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member