Book Review: The Morningside: A Novel (a most unusual book)

The Morningside: A Novel, by Tea Obreht (Random House, 286pp, 2023, $29 HC) Review by Skye Anderson

The Setting

The Morningside seems to be a sparsely-populated apartment building sometime in the future after a quite destructive war - whose caretaker is a grandmother, then her daughter. The granddaughter and her mother arrive in this town as selectees from a repopulation program (food is rationed and meat is non-existent). The school waiting list for 11-year-old Silvia (Sil) is a couple of years long so she learns vicariously in the meantime, also helping her mother in maintenance duties.

The Plot

The "Dispatcher" broadcasts a few times a day and reads responses to a 3-question survey about how respondents like their life here. Sil figures out who he is (a former resident of The Morningside) and together they venture out into town at times. Sil also manages to steal keys and sneak into apartments which reveal some breath-taking moments.

This reviewer had a bit of difficulty discerning the plot and recommends that you read the slow parts quickly but not miss the few words that describe what happens at times almost in one sentence (that quickly!) - or you will have to backtrack!

The book ends a few years down the road (timewise) and catches us up on what has happened to the various characters, including a girl Sil befriends. Sil believes in omens and that she has special powers (what child doesn't) that cause things to happen. Or perhaps they are just explanations of why something happened?

Nevertheless, I would not have finished this book had it not had a dog, or two, or three. Perhaps they turn into young boys at night. Or perhaps they don't.