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Warmer #2
Boca Raton
A mother’s latent fears rise as relentlessly as the Florida seas in a startling story of a planet, and an imagination, under pressure, by the New York Times bestselling author of Fates and Furies.
During an eco-friendly cleanup at the beach, Ange finds something horrifying in the brush. The sickening, heartbreaking evidence of an irreversibly changing earth triggers dread about the future for her daughter. But as reasoned worries slide into paranoia, reality itself begins to untether. For Ange, there may be no stepping back from the destructive darkness of her sleepless nights.
Lauren Groff’s Boca Raton is part of Warmer, a collection of seven visions of a conceivable tomorrow by today’s most thought-provoking authors. Alarming, inventive, intimate, and frightening, each story can be read, or listened to, in a single breathtaking sitting.
During an eco-friendly cleanup at the beach, Ange finds something horrifying in the brush. The sickening, heartbreaking evidence of an irreversibly changing earth triggers dread about the future for her daughter. But as reasoned worries slide into paranoia, reality itself begins to untether. For Ange, there may be no stepping back from the destructive darkness of her sleepless nights.
Lauren Groff’s Boca Raton is part of Warmer, a collection of seven visions of a conceivable tomorrow by today’s most thought-provoking authors. Alarming, inventive, intimate, and frightening, each story can be read, or listened to, in a single breathtaking sitting.
26 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 30, 2018
About the author
Lauren Groff
54 books6,700 followersLauren Groff was born in Cooperstown, N.Y. and grew up one block from the Baseball Hall of Fame. She graduated from Amherst College and has an MFA in fiction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Her short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in a number of journals, including The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, Hobart, and Five Points as well as in the anthologies Best American Short Stories 2007, Pushcart Prize XXXII, and Best New American Voices 2008.
She was awarded the Axton Fellowship in Fiction at the University of Louisville, and has had residencies and fellowships at Yaddo and the Vermont Studio Center.
She lives in Gainesville, Florida, with her husband, Clay, and her dog, Cooper.
Her short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in a number of journals, including The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, Hobart, and Five Points as well as in the anthologies Best American Short Stories 2007, Pushcart Prize XXXII, and Best New American Voices 2008.
She was awarded the Axton Fellowship in Fiction at the University of Louisville, and has had residencies and fellowships at Yaddo and the Vermont Studio Center.
She lives in Gainesville, Florida, with her husband, Clay, and her dog, Cooper.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 186 reviews
February 23, 2022
“Boca Raton” is another short story from the Warmer Collection. Then Warmer Collection are visions of a conceivable tomorrow by different literary authors. In this one, Lauren Groff writes her version. All short stories I’ve listened to in this series recognizes climate change. Groff places her story in Boca Raton Fl, and her protagonist, Ange, is a single sleep deprived working mother. She participated in an eco-friendly cleanup at her beach and learns more of the rising water levels and beach erosion. Her worry results in sleepless nights. She’s a librarian who is doing research for the university.
Because I’m a huge fan of Groff’s, I listened to it twice. The first time I was left with “confused puppy dog” face. The second time I listened, I understood a bit more about what she was trying to say(I think). In this case, sleepless nights and worry about our environment leads to a woman’s professional nightmare.
Because I’m a huge fan of Groff’s, I listened to it twice. The first time I was left with “confused puppy dog” face. The second time I listened, I understood a bit more about what she was trying to say(I think). In this case, sleepless nights and worry about our environment leads to a woman’s professional nightmare.
April 7, 2020
Another author whom I am embarrassed to admit I have not read yet. The second entry in Amazon’s Warmer collection is a completely different beast to The Way the World Ends by Jess Walter, but equally as good in its own right. I wonder if this particular short story forms part of Groff’s collection called Florida, which gets a plug at the end?
It is a darkly modulated tale about single mother Ange who finds herself haunted by a vision of a dead nest of chicks she stumbles across during a creek clean-up with her daughter and a bunch of volunteers. The chicks had been fed plastic by a parent in a desperate bid to keep them alive.
Ange finds herself haunted by this vision, which overlays her ordinary life like a shroud she peers through at an increasingly incomprehensible and bewildering world. This simple story builds quietly to a devastating but ambiguous climax that is all the more powerful for its lack of resolution.
It is a darkly modulated tale about single mother Ange who finds herself haunted by a vision of a dead nest of chicks she stumbles across during a creek clean-up with her daughter and a bunch of volunteers. The chicks had been fed plastic by a parent in a desperate bid to keep them alive.
Ange finds herself haunted by this vision, which overlays her ordinary life like a shroud she peers through at an increasingly incomprehensible and bewildering world. This simple story builds quietly to a devastating but ambiguous climax that is all the more powerful for its lack of resolution.
September 16, 2023
4/5
Kažkada bičiulė paprašė užpildyti apklausą apie ekologinį nerimą. Ir nors niekada jokio nerimo trūkumu nesiskundžiau, toji apklausa, tokia smulkmeniška ir visapusiškai nerimastinga, man sukėlė vieną vienintelę mintį: ar aš turiu per mažai ekologinio nerimo???? Ir jei jaučiausi nesutikusi žmogaus, kuris jo turi daugiausiai, tubūt būtent tokį aprašė Lauren Groff – tikrą ekologinio nerimo įsikūnijimą. Ir tikrai, kaip žinia, kartais reikia tiek nedaug – to vieno filmo, vieno plakato, reklamos, knygos, socialinio video, dokumentikos ar net sutikto žmogaus, išgelbėto gyvūno, šiukšlių rinkimo iniciatyvos ar vasarinio darbo kokiame mėsų fabrike, kad gyvenimas pasikeistų. Ir į tai, kas atrodė jei ne normalu, tai bent jau „o ką aš čia pakeisiu, tai net nesistengsiu“, staiga tampa nebeignoruotina.
Paveikus tekstas, nors pradžioje ir kiek plaukiojantis – vien todėl įvertinimą skiriu ne patį aukščiausią. Bet atrodo, kad paprastai ir be aukščiausių emocijų sukėlimo Lauren Groff rašyti nemoka – todėl į apsakymo pabaigą užlieja ir empatija, ir nerimas (ekologinis ir ne tik), ir skausmas, ir net noras, kad greičiau kankynė pasibaigtų. Tiesa, jei nemėgstat aiškintis kas buvo tikra, o kur autorius tik patampė už nosies – tikriausiai „Boca Raton“ reikėtų nesirinkti.
Kažkada bičiulė paprašė užpildyti apklausą apie ekologinį nerimą. Ir nors niekada jokio nerimo trūkumu nesiskundžiau, toji apklausa, tokia smulkmeniška ir visapusiškai nerimastinga, man sukėlė vieną vienintelę mintį: ar aš turiu per mažai ekologinio nerimo???? Ir jei jaučiausi nesutikusi žmogaus, kuris jo turi daugiausiai, tubūt būtent tokį aprašė Lauren Groff – tikrą ekologinio nerimo įsikūnijimą. Ir tikrai, kaip žinia, kartais reikia tiek nedaug – to vieno filmo, vieno plakato, reklamos, knygos, socialinio video, dokumentikos ar net sutikto žmogaus, išgelbėto gyvūno, šiukšlių rinkimo iniciatyvos ar vasarinio darbo kokiame mėsų fabrike, kad gyvenimas pasikeistų. Ir į tai, kas atrodė jei ne normalu, tai bent jau „o ką aš čia pakeisiu, tai net nesistengsiu“, staiga tampa nebeignoruotina.
Paveikus tekstas, nors pradžioje ir kiek plaukiojantis – vien todėl įvertinimą skiriu ne patį aukščiausią. Bet atrodo, kad paprastai ir be aukščiausių emocijų sukėlimo Lauren Groff rašyti nemoka – todėl į apsakymo pabaigą užlieja ir empatija, ir nerimas (ekologinis ir ne tik), ir skausmas, ir net noras, kad greičiau kankynė pasibaigtų. Tiesa, jei nemėgstat aiškintis kas buvo tikra, o kur autorius tik patampė už nosies – tikriausiai „Boca Raton“ reikėtų nesirinkti.
November 8, 2018
Boca Raton is the story of a woman's descent into madness because she fears the effects of global climate change. It's the 2nd of 7 stories in the Warmer collection from Amazon Originals/Audible.
It all starts when Ange finds dead baby birds on the beach, killed by little bits of plastic they consumed. Then it dawns on her....global warming will destroy the wildlife habitats in Florida, destroy farms that grow food and ultimately destroy her young daughter's life along with millions of others -- humans and animals alike. She starts to drink, growing increasingly paranoid and emotionally overwhelmed.
While I understand the intent of this story and the importance of being good stewards of this planet....I didn't like this story. I just don't really enjoy stories that have no hope...where the characters have no chance. The main character is so out of control....her own descent into mental instability starts destroying her daughter's life...and her own....way before global warming would have had any effect.
I listened to the audible audio version of this short story/novella. Dana Rosenberg narrates the story quite well. Rosenberg skillfully brings across the panic, emotion and fear of the main character. The audio is only about an hour long, so it's easy listening length.
I'm two stories into this collection and not really feelin' it. So far, the stories are thinly veiled commentary on modern issues rather than tales about climate change. I'm on overload when it comes to social commentary at the moment. Because the stories are short, I will keep listening and see if any of these tales actually ends up being predominantly about climate change. So far.....not.
It all starts when Ange finds dead baby birds on the beach, killed by little bits of plastic they consumed. Then it dawns on her....global warming will destroy the wildlife habitats in Florida, destroy farms that grow food and ultimately destroy her young daughter's life along with millions of others -- humans and animals alike. She starts to drink, growing increasingly paranoid and emotionally overwhelmed.
While I understand the intent of this story and the importance of being good stewards of this planet....I didn't like this story. I just don't really enjoy stories that have no hope...where the characters have no chance. The main character is so out of control....her own descent into mental instability starts destroying her daughter's life...and her own....way before global warming would have had any effect.
I listened to the audible audio version of this short story/novella. Dana Rosenberg narrates the story quite well. Rosenberg skillfully brings across the panic, emotion and fear of the main character. The audio is only about an hour long, so it's easy listening length.
I'm two stories into this collection and not really feelin' it. So far, the stories are thinly veiled commentary on modern issues rather than tales about climate change. I'm on overload when it comes to social commentary at the moment. Because the stories are short, I will keep listening and see if any of these tales actually ends up being predominantly about climate change. So far.....not.
January 4, 2019
Five gold stars for this author’s obvious ability to write. Subtract one of said stars for my own inability to “get it” (unfair, but damnit it’s my review). And then there were four. Take away another because, as I may have mentioned I DONT GET IT! I’m sure there’s an extended metaphor lurking behind the ambiguity, but I’ll be damned if I can find it....and I mean, really, I was always a prize ���Where’s Waldo” competitor. That leaves us with three lovely, tin stars dipped in cheap gold plate, representing the promise of at least a plausible plot at the hands of a capable author. Nope...and it’s here that I offer a brief summary: woman is clearly aware of the effects of global warming; woman overreacts to a certainly sad but not life-altering event; woman goes mad leaving her young daughter parentless. Yep, another star shoots through the sky and blinks out unceremoniously, it’s death long past by the time we realize the light has been extinguished. Had I been able to predict that this particular crash and burn was on the horizon I would have given up trying to finish this thankfully short piece of tomfoolery. I’ll leave it at two rather tiny brassy stars, because, seriously, there’s talent here, even it it’s buried under a monolith constructed of ridiculous characters, an absurd plot and an overuse of tone in an attempt to create a sense of desperation. See? The melodrama must have been contagious.
May 12, 2021
Frightening and visceral essay about the gathering dangers of Climate Change.
January 1, 2021
This final installment of the Warmer series on Amazon Prime was my favorite. Not because of the plot, but because of the writing. Groff made me experience the disgust of litter, feel the hopelessness of insomnia and the loneliness of the single parent. In 31 pages.
March 30, 2023
‘Boca Raton’ by Lauren Groff is an odd story about an odd Florida woman. I know, not completely unexpected, right? Florida. Still, I thought the novella, being book #2 in Amazon’s Warmer Collection might be more about the environment. Instead, the main character, Ange, mother of Lily, with possibly another one on the way, is losing it. Is it hormones? Worrying about her partner in Puerto Rico? Idk.
Ange is a librarian. She is feeling unmoored after she finds dead baby birds while picking up trash around a stream. Because of the plastic bits in the birds’ remains, she can’t sleep for days afterwords. Everyone who knows Ange begins to be terribly concerned over her increasingly erratic behavior, including her young daughter.
I suspect there are people who are very very anxious to the point of becoming a little insane about the warming planet and the changes we’ve all noticed in the weather and wildlife around us. While I am feeling very depressed about the environmental changes I’ve seen, I am not hallucinating or losing sleep. I felt sorry for Ange.
I am afraid for the future of Mankind, but most of us are carrying on with our daily concerns. This story is about someone who can’t do that.
Ange is a librarian. She is feeling unmoored after she finds dead baby birds while picking up trash around a stream. Because of the plastic bits in the birds’ remains, she can’t sleep for days afterwords. Everyone who knows Ange begins to be terribly concerned over her increasingly erratic behavior, including her young daughter.
I suspect there are people who are very very anxious to the point of becoming a little insane about the warming planet and the changes we’ve all noticed in the weather and wildlife around us. While I am feeling very depressed about the environmental changes I’ve seen, I am not hallucinating or losing sleep. I felt sorry for Ange.
I am afraid for the future of Mankind, but most of us are carrying on with our daily concerns. This story is about someone who can’t do that.
September 4, 2023
My favorite in amazon's Warmer series, focusing on possible effects of climate change, but then, Lauren Groff is one of my favorite writers. During a cleanup project, a woman becomes traumatized by a sight that so disturbs her, she finds herself unable to sleep, eat or take care of her daughter. Well written and more plausible than the others in this series.
November 21, 2018
This story focuses more on the emotional upheaval when you're confronted with some of the horrors of pollution and climate change when added on to a life already littered with a ton of stressful issues. Still powerful, but differently so. This one really seems to hammer home the need to focus on mental health.
May 2, 2022
I really like Lauren Groff’s writing. Loved “Matrix”, one of the best novels I read this year. This story however was junk. Crazy woman with a useless lover in a non-sensical story that I couldn’t figure out what the message, if any, was. Just a note: ecological responsibility and climate change psychosis are not the same thing.
December 8, 2020
Pollution Derangement Syndrome
Review of the Amazon Original Kindle eBook edition (October 2018)
This short story is very much a piece with those in Lauren Groff's collection Florida (published June 2018) which I did read shortly around the time of its release, but which I found too depressing to review at the time. Boca Raton has librarian and mother Ange spiralling into depression after finding a nest of dead birds during a Girl Scout Troop trash cleanup with her daughter Lily. The mother bird had been feeding the chicks plastic garbage. After the experience, all things bird and egg related begin to nauseate Ange and she becomes an insomniac. Fellow librarian Phyllis tries to counsel her.
The theme here was out of sync with the cli-fi theme of the Warmer Collection series as it dealt primarily with a depression related to pollution rather than climate change.
Boca Raton is one of the 7 short stories included in the Warmer Collection, a series of climate-related fiction released October 30, 2018 from Amazon Original Stories. Fear and hope collide in this collection of possible tomorrows. What happens when boiling heat stokes family resentments; when a girl’s personal crisis trumps global catastrophe; or when two climate scientists decide to party like it’s the end of the world? Like the best sci-fi, these cli-fi stories offer up answers that are darkly funny, liberating, and all too conceivable.
Review of the Amazon Original Kindle eBook edition (October 2018)
This short story is very much a piece with those in Lauren Groff's collection Florida (published June 2018) which I did read shortly around the time of its release, but which I found too depressing to review at the time. Boca Raton has librarian and mother Ange spiralling into depression after finding a nest of dead birds during a Girl Scout Troop trash cleanup with her daughter Lily. The mother bird had been feeding the chicks plastic garbage. After the experience, all things bird and egg related begin to nauseate Ange and she becomes an insomniac. Fellow librarian Phyllis tries to counsel her.
The theme here was out of sync with the cli-fi theme of the Warmer Collection series as it dealt primarily with a depression related to pollution rather than climate change.
Boca Raton is one of the 7 short stories included in the Warmer Collection, a series of climate-related fiction released October 30, 2018 from Amazon Original Stories. Fear and hope collide in this collection of possible tomorrows. What happens when boiling heat stokes family resentments; when a girl’s personal crisis trumps global catastrophe; or when two climate scientists decide to party like it’s the end of the world? Like the best sci-fi, these cli-fi stories offer up answers that are darkly funny, liberating, and all too conceivable.
March 4, 2022
Not even sure what was the point of this short story. Thank goodness it was short and put me to sleep last night.
April 23, 2022
What!?!
Maybe, like Ange, I am too sleep-deprived to appreciate what I just heard/read - although I did get three hours where she got none - but I have no idea what this story was trying to say.
I get the concerns about rising seawater, hurricanes, Florida's unclean beaches, and its possible bleak future - but the rest - Huh?
Maybe, like Ange, I am too sleep-deprived to appreciate what I just heard/read - although I did get three hours where she got none - but I have no idea what this story was trying to say.
I get the concerns about rising seawater, hurricanes, Florida's unclean beaches, and its possible bleak future - but the rest - Huh?
November 1, 2018
The insanity making reality of impending climate doom.
A woman grapples with the horror of impending climate disaster. A good short story about the bizarre times we live in.
A woman grapples with the horror of impending climate disaster. A good short story about the bizarre times we live in.
January 4, 2021
A downer of a story that never really grabbed me.
November 3, 2024
Ange participated in an eco-friendly cleanup at her beach, I'm sure she had the best intentions to help cleaning. Finding a dead nest of chicks triggered a psychotic episode.
While global warming is going to destroy the wildlife in Florida, Ange starts dreading the future for her daughter. How can you be call and live day by day like nothing is going to happen? It can destroy her daughter's life?
The future was a hurricane of so many elements—plastics and sea risings and drought and hunger—that it was hard to know from which direction the true full stop would come.
Ange doesn't sleep, starts feeling sick, starts drinking, grows extremely paranoid and emotionally overwhelmed. She is completely out of control… which can also affect her daughter. But who cares right?
There's a point where she talks about her daughter's father. Who is in Puerto Rico, and this is around the time the island was hit by Hurricane Irma and Maria in quick succession. She gets really mad because she can't reach him… this really pissed me off.
WELL, LET ME TELL YOU! I went through both hurricanes that hit home. Hurricane Maria destroyed the telecommunications, and we had no way to make calls, text messages or even use the internet to reach our family. It was more than ONE YEAR with no ELECTRICITY, at least 6 MONTHS with no WATER. We have severe PTSD when the weather gets bad.
While global warming is going to destroy the wildlife in Florida, Ange starts dreading the future for her daughter. How can you be call and live day by day like nothing is going to happen? It can destroy her daughter's life?
The future was a hurricane of so many elements—plastics and sea risings and drought and hunger—that it was hard to know from which direction the true full stop would come.
Ange doesn't sleep, starts feeling sick, starts drinking, grows extremely paranoid and emotionally overwhelmed. She is completely out of control… which can also affect her daughter. But who cares right?
There's a point where she talks about her daughter's father. Who is in Puerto Rico, and this is around the time the island was hit by Hurricane Irma and Maria in quick succession. She gets really mad because she can't reach him… this really pissed me off.
WELL, LET ME TELL YOU! I went through both hurricanes that hit home. Hurricane Maria destroyed the telecommunications, and we had no way to make calls, text messages or even use the internet to reach our family. It was more than ONE YEAR with no ELECTRICITY, at least 6 MONTHS with no WATER. We have severe PTSD when the weather gets bad.
August 12, 2024
This reads as though the author had a preexisting story about a woman unraveling and then shoe horned some climate change stuff in there to make it fit into the series. This one didn’t do it for me.
December 31, 2022
Didn't really do anything for me
March 28, 2020
Insomnia + Anxiety + single motherhood + climate change + living in Florida for a long while = I really felt this.
January 25, 2019
I received this book for free with my Amazon prime account. I would say it was an interestingly written account of a single character, though provoking, yet fell short of having an actually plotline or resolution.
November 26, 2018
What?
I felt like the connection to climate change here was marginal, that really this was a story about a mother's existential angst over having brought a child into a world that seems unsuitable to raising a child. I could have picked the mother up and plopped her into a war zone or a place without any economic opportunity and the plot still would have worked.
Though I didn't think there was much plot. There were a lot of fancy words and a confusing side plot involving a vanishing primary source and... You know what? I'm not sure why I'm trying to figure out what to make of this story. It was all over the place and didn't seem to have any cohesiveness whatsoever.
Also, I'm so over the drunken mother trope. So. Over. It. It's lazy shorthand to me. Find another way to show self-destructive behavior than falling back on the good old drunken main character will you please, fiction?
Clearly, this story was not my thing.
I felt like the connection to climate change here was marginal, that really this was a story about a mother's existential angst over having brought a child into a world that seems unsuitable to raising a child. I could have picked the mother up and plopped her into a war zone or a place without any economic opportunity and the plot still would have worked.
Though I didn't think there was much plot. There were a lot of fancy words and a confusing side plot involving a vanishing primary source and... You know what? I'm not sure why I'm trying to figure out what to make of this story. It was all over the place and didn't seem to have any cohesiveness whatsoever.
Also, I'm so over the drunken mother trope. So. Over. It. It's lazy shorthand to me. Find another way to show self-destructive behavior than falling back on the good old drunken main character will you please, fiction?
Clearly, this story was not my thing.
May 24, 2021
Boca Raton
Disclaimer: I read and listened to this book through my Kindle Unlimited subscription.
This novella should be part of a mental health collection, not a collection about the climate crisis we're facing.
In my opinion, the climate crisis seemed a to be an afterthought, brought up towards the end as an obsession of a woman in the middle of a mental breakdown due to insomnia.
Ange was one dimensional, the author concentrating on a mother desperately in need of medical attention, instead of staying on topic. Phyllis, her boss, acted irresponsible by leaving Ange's young daughter with her when it was clear that Ange was incapable of taking care of her.
Don't get me started on that abrupt ending. I was invested in the hopes that someone would get her help, and ended up being annoyed.
Disclaimer: I read and listened to this book through my Kindle Unlimited subscription.
This novella should be part of a mental health collection, not a collection about the climate crisis we're facing.
In my opinion, the climate crisis seemed a to be an afterthought, brought up towards the end as an obsession of a woman in the middle of a mental breakdown due to insomnia.
Ange was one dimensional, the author concentrating on a mother desperately in need of medical attention, instead of staying on topic. Phyllis, her boss, acted irresponsible by leaving Ange's young daughter with her when it was clear that Ange was incapable of taking care of her.
Don't get me started on that abrupt ending. I was invested in the hopes that someone would get her help, and ended up being annoyed.
November 4, 2021
Librarian and single mom Ange takes part in a beach cleanup and is sickened by a cluster of birds who died trying to eat plastic. In the following days she can’t eat or sleep fretting over the future that awaits her daughter Lily. Slowly she drifts into paranoia and delusion.
The tale is trying to talk about traumatic responses but, regrettably, the climate change narrative gets lost. Ange lives in a home where a murder-suicide occurred, has a history of mental instability, hasn't dealt with the loss of her baby's daddy, and fantasizes about failed cults. These issues don't have anything to do with her feelings about volunteer work she has recently completed and muddy those concerns. The writing is okay but suffers from the flaws of an unreliable narrator. Further it has an abrupt finish.
The tale is trying to talk about traumatic responses but, regrettably, the climate change narrative gets lost. Ange lives in a home where a murder-suicide occurred, has a history of mental instability, hasn't dealt with the loss of her baby's daddy, and fantasizes about failed cults. These issues don't have anything to do with her feelings about volunteer work she has recently completed and muddy those concerns. The writing is okay but suffers from the flaws of an unreliable narrator. Further it has an abrupt finish.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 28, 2022
So far the "warmer" series hasn't done much for me. I realize the idea is to base the stories around climate change, but you don't want every story to be a version of "The Day After Tomorrow" so we end up with some odd themes.
This story was unsettling and surreal, but never managed to quite grab me.
This story was unsettling and surreal, but never managed to quite grab me.
December 19, 2018
Dark whopper
I had to read this twice and I'm glad I did - so much more meaning. Worth your time for this interesting take.
I had to read this twice and I'm glad I did - so much more meaning. Worth your time for this interesting take.
December 26, 2020
Nəsə yaxşı bir hekayə gəldi. Öz tənhalığıyla okeana oxşayan, təbiətin onları aparmağa gəldiyini düşünən paranoyak bir ana.
Read
April 14, 2021She's pregnant, right? Did no one else pick up on that? She's not keeping things in proportion because her hormones are all out of whack.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 20, 2019
The effects of climate change have been distilled into the various talents of 7 creative authors. Boca Raton is my first short story in this collection I have read.
Wow, was I disappointed. My concern is a lack of hope in this account of a young single mum and her daughter.
Ange and her 7 year old child, Lily are tight and do stuff together, sensitive to each other and all they have as ‘Dad’ could not cope as a husband and father.
They go to a clean up event which freaks Ange out. As a result she can not sleep and her focus drifts to a future planetary catastrophe in Florida based on scientific productions of ice cap melts and sea level rises. It is an ecological disaster for the State, the loss of the Everglades and fresh water sources. Even their home would be flooded and lost to the salt water onslaught.
Ange can not sleep; her work suffers. Reality seems to blur with prophesies of doom and end of world thinking. Her boss recognises her need for rest a friend suggests sleeping tablets as depression overtakes Ange.
Meanwhile Lily goes through life as a normal functioning child with her whole life ahead of her.
What is not clear is what is sending Ange into a sense of loss and darkness. Lack of sleep. A doomsday scenario. The home they live in; where an earlier murder/suicide took place. Financial constraints. A lack of sex and male companionship.
This is not directly addressed by the author and the reader is left to watch helplessly as Ange she and us readers literally loss the plot.
That the ending comes too abruptly or is painfully delayed perhaps reflects the disquiet most will have with reading this short story. That I struggled to review it and award a fair assessment shows my confused mind. It is well written by a respected author but I failed to really appreciate what message it brings or how I engage with the story.
Wow, was I disappointed. My concern is a lack of hope in this account of a young single mum and her daughter.
Ange and her 7 year old child, Lily are tight and do stuff together, sensitive to each other and all they have as ‘Dad’ could not cope as a husband and father.
They go to a clean up event which freaks Ange out. As a result she can not sleep and her focus drifts to a future planetary catastrophe in Florida based on scientific productions of ice cap melts and sea level rises. It is an ecological disaster for the State, the loss of the Everglades and fresh water sources. Even their home would be flooded and lost to the salt water onslaught.
Ange can not sleep; her work suffers. Reality seems to blur with prophesies of doom and end of world thinking. Her boss recognises her need for rest a friend suggests sleeping tablets as depression overtakes Ange.
Meanwhile Lily goes through life as a normal functioning child with her whole life ahead of her.
What is not clear is what is sending Ange into a sense of loss and darkness. Lack of sleep. A doomsday scenario. The home they live in; where an earlier murder/suicide took place. Financial constraints. A lack of sex and male companionship.
This is not directly addressed by the author and the reader is left to watch helplessly as Ange she and us readers literally loss the plot.
That the ending comes too abruptly or is painfully delayed perhaps reflects the disquiet most will have with reading this short story. That I struggled to review it and award a fair assessment shows my confused mind. It is well written by a respected author but I failed to really appreciate what message it brings or how I engage with the story.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 186 reviews