/lit/ - Literature

The Deluge - Stephen Markley (2023)

Although it'll be some time for me to really know, at this time I can say that The Deluge is one of the books I've most enjoyed. I don't mean for that to be taken as a recommendation, as these are my personal thoughts and nothing more. In terms of entertainment, how emotionally engaged I am is usually the greatest determinant of my enjoyment. The Deluge was such an emotional experience that early on I hoped it would be less. What I was feeling was so intense that I didn't know if I'd be able to finish. Reading this was an unusual experience, an awesome one in the sense that it was terrifyingly beautiful. The kind where someone is terrified and has tears streaming down their face in joy. I don't believe any of this matters unless you to do the same though.

This has one of the greatest cast of characters of anything I've ever read, though I don't know how much of that's due to how engaged I was with it and personal preferences. They all felt so real and alive, to the point where it read more this was a historical text about actual people than something fictional. There's not really a leading character so much as simply who has the most influence over what happens in the world, as it is in life. This isn't an ensemble either, as they're not in any way of equal importance. If anything, this is a curation of lives that presents a narrative to explain what happened and why.

Each viewpoint character is presented from a different perspective, which is a blend of stylistic and functional purpose. All of it is intentional and explained by the end when the metanarrative is revealed. It's not anything deep or complex, though I did appreciate the extra layer it provided. Each period of time goes through the the same six viewpoint characters with one exception. Although the year and sometimes the date are given, it's more common that that's when it ends rather than starts. The chapters aren't necessarily linear, meaning that one comes directly after the other. Some completely overlap, start afterwards, or begin before the prior chapters for that time period. There are often passing references to other characters and the same events from different perspectives.

When there are several viewpoints one of my first questions always is, "Do they ever meet up?". The answer to that is that most of them meet up with most of the others in person at some point, even if it's only in passing. That's how I prefer it to be, rather than several entirely disparate characters whose stories never converge in any meaningful way. None of them are more than a few degrees of separation from any other. It's a rather complicated web of relationships that I considered trying to make a visual explainer for. I don't believe you need to keep all of that in mind though.