Disappearing Earth: Book Review

 

Disappearing Earth

By Julia Phillips

( My copy)

Disappearing Earth is a difficult book to review. It is different than any book I have read in my life time. The writing style is poetic in style, and prose. The set up of the novel the characters, place, and time and atmospheric as well as a touch of mysticism adds to the novel. I had difficulty keeping track of all the characters straight. There is a reason you will understand once you get further in the book. The author and publisher gave us resources to follow to understand the geography with a map. The publisher gave us a list of the some of the characters, not all. My suggestion is to make your own cheat-cheat. The publisher's is helpful. But, making your own makes a world of difference. 

Disappearing Earth won the Pulitzer prize in 2019. It has been praised by many literary magazines, and critics alike. Julia Phillips was born in the United States. She then studied in Moscow, Russia. She applied for the Fulbright.  was awarded the Fulbright Fellowship for traveling to Kamchatka Peninsula.

 I bet you never heard of it. Don't feel bad. Either did I. Most people in the US and even Russia didn't either. Who would unless you are an adventure traveler. I was surprised to see how close the area is to the United States. Where each Alaska and the Kamchatka Peninsula almost touch is 55 miles. Remember Russia sold Alaska around 1855. 

                                        Kamchatka Russia, Geography, History, and other tidbits

Kamchatka, Russia has been inhabited by the indigenous people in the area for generations. USSR(now Russia) invaded and took it for conquest. It was later used as a military base in the 1950's. Which is no longer used. There aren't any roads leading in and out. It is basically an isolated area. The only way you or any visitor can get in or out is by plane. It was closed off by the USSR until the 1990's. Which became Russia and opened the borders. It is very expensive to live in Kamchatka. To heat a home is done by using the energy of the volcano and the geysers. 

If you look at the map I pictured.  It is about 4,098 miles from Moscow. Which is about 9 hours travel time. You can't drive, the only way to travel is by air. The capital city is called, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Many adventure travelers come to the area. 

It is a very isolated area getting in or out. Adventure travelers come to climb the mountains, volcanos, geysers, etc. Yes, I said volcanos, and geysers!  Many of the volcanos are active. I have read they erupt frequently as recently as three months ago. The active area is a living breathing earth. With the fault line, Ring of Fire close by. The infrastructures are unstable and not well maintained.

Now that you have a slice of the background, geography, history, culture, and the people of  Kamchatka on with Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips. The novel opens with two girls at the beach who are alone and soon an older man offers the two sisters a ride home. But never arrive to their  home. The novel is not about the search for the little girls. Rather it is about the community how each individual character is affected by the kidnapping. 

The book is arranged from the start of the kidnapping by each month and one character in the community. The characters directly or indirectly know the sisters.  We only know about the girls and the kidnapping or hear about it in the first chapter, and then toward the end. The novel is poetic in prose and a touch and feel of the mystical. Perhaps it is the area where the story takes place. 

Disappearing Earth must be read slowly and not fast. Reading the book doesn't give the novel justice reading it quickly. It must be absorbed, digested, and thought provoking. I don't usually like  a book with too many characters. I was getting so confused. It was difficult to keep track of who was who. The book does have a list of the characters which was helpful.  But, I would still write your own cheat-cheat to distinguish the characters. Some of the characters are not listed. I hate to say this was my only critique. I had a difficult time enjoying the novel because of so  many characters of place, time, location, people. 

Each chapter seemed like a short story on to itself. Some of the stories I related to and was hoping the author would come back to. Instead each chapter didn't come back once the story was over. I felt like darn. The author could actually write a novel on a few of these characters I thought some of them were worth re-visiting. Some were not worth investing any more into these characters. I was actually asking myself and waiting for where is the connection? You had to wait till almost the end of the book to find any connections.

You will realize why the author wrote so many characters by the end of the novel. The author wanted to show there are so many different acts of violence for women. Injustices in class( white Russian vs. Indigenous people), gender, LGBTQ, identity, otherness. How lives changed and was impacted. How each of these characters grapple with fear, power, fury, and complicity, clues, and how some of the characters finally gain control of their lives. The different range of violence and harm to women and experiences. At times we accept as normal which really isn't. Society has at times white washed. And we learn to become complicit in many situations and we learn to self blame. Eg. I was wearing a short skirt, my blouse was to risque. Maybe that's why he did what he did. They ask yourself Who is a victim or who isn't? Who should believed and who shouldn't? 

 Was it coincidence I was watching the court case at the same time I was reading Disappearing Earth. The civil court case of E. Jean Carroll and President Trump was going on. I was asking questions and it who is to be believed in the characters in the book how it related to the court case. It brought up a lot of memories from the 70's and 80's of the court cases brought to the courts of domestic abuse cases and rape cases. Most of them dropped because of the women were not believed. 

The story felt like the characters and each of their stories could happen anywhere. In the United States, and globally.  The isolation of the peninsula elevated all the different types of sexual violence, harassments, domestic abuse, etc. 

These are the books I love when the place plays the part of character. Books like this which takes place in cold, desolate locales excite me. I don't know why as I'm not a camper, hiker, mountaineer. I like reading books of places I have never been and probably will never visit. Reading about the culture, and the slice of the people in the area excite me. I have already read a few novels that take place in cosmopolitan Russia, not desolate, cold climate like the northern part of Russia. 

Like I said this is a slow read, many characters. But the writing was still beautifully written and mystical in story telling. The story and writing style was unique. I think that is what impressed me the most. The book reminded me a bit of Tommy Orange's novel, There There. Which I have loved as well.

I didn't know what to make of the book. Do I recommend it or not? Because I think the book is not for everyone. We held our book club and had a good discussion. Most people I thought would tell me they hated it. That didn't happen most of the book club enjoyed reading it as well. By the way the book won the National Book Award.