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The Leftovers

Tom Perrotta

3.41 · Rating details · 43,817 ratings · 5,787 reviews

What if — whoosh, right now, with no explanation — a number of us simply vanished? Would some of us collapse? Would others of us go on, one foot in front of the other, as we did before the world turned upside down? That's what the bewildered citizens of Mapleton, who lost many of their neighbors, friends and lovers in the event known as the Sudden Departure, have to figure ...more

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Hardcover, 355 pages

Published August 30th 2011 by St. Martin's Press (first published August 11th 2011)

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Sep 08, 2011 Melissa rated it it was ok

Tom Perrotta, I don't know. Your characters always start out so intriguing at the beginning of your books, but then you throw too much weird superfluous stuff into the mix. Couldn't you have focused a little more adroitly on two or three things, instead of the five or six lives you thought worthy of documentation? Couldn't we have done away with the seemingly tacked-on Christine/Tom/baby/Holy Wayne business and maybe had a little more about with the cult members killing each other, since one plo ...more

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May 26, 2012 Kemper rated it really liked it

Shelves: modern-lit, apocalypse-now, 2014, sky-cake

Millions of people vanish in the blink of an eye leaving everyone left on Earth feeling like God just told them, “It’s not you, it’s me….”

It’s been three years since the Sudden Departure, and the mayor of Mapleton, Kevin Garvey, is trying to get the town back to a feeling of normalcy. However, Kevin’s family was profoundly impacted by the disappearances. His wife Laurie has left him to join a cult of white-clad chain smokers called the Guilty Remnant who silently stalk people while son Tom dropp Millions of people vanish in the blink of an eye leaving everyone left on Earth feeling like God just told them, “It’s not you, it’s me….”

It’s been three years since the Sudden Departure, and the mayor of Mapleton, Kevin Garvey, is trying to get the town back to a feeling of normalcy. However, Kevin’s family was profoundly impacted by the disappearances. His wife Laurie has left him to join a cult of white-clad chain smokers called the Guilty Remnant who silently stalk people while son Tom dropped out of college to follow a man called Holy Wayne who offers hugs as comfort. Kevin is left with his teenage daughter Jill and her best friend who has moved in with them to get away from the creepy stepfather she was left with when her mom went poof. The girls are blowing off class to get drunk and high at parties that seem more depressing than fun. Another key figure in Mapleton is Nora Durst whose husband and two children vanished, and she’s been made a reluctant symbol of the mass loss.

While there are no definite answers as to what exactly happened to the missing people; the implication is that most of them believe deep down that this was a religious judgment of some kind. However, while it seems to fit the template of the Christian Rapture, people of all faiths from all over the world were taken while some hard core believers were not, and those who vanished were seemingly just as flawed in their lives as those who remain. So those left behind walk around feeling like they were judged and found wanting. Even worse is that since they don’t know what the criteria was, there’s no way to know why they didn't make the cut.

The real bitch of this is because these people have realized that the biggest event in human history occurred, and they were left out of it. Now they’re supposed to…..what? Go to work? Study for a test? Join a cult? Start a softball league?

There’s an unspoken belief among them that the real story is taking place with the people who departed, and the ones left are just a minor footnote at best. That’s the creepy vibe that haunts the book and makes the idea really work. There aren’t any huge apocalyptic battles to fight or horrors to endure, just that feeling that they’ve been abandoned and not knowing how to react to it. Can any of them find a reason to go on? Is it even worth trying?

I read this after seeing the TV series on HBO which I found disturbing on a lot of levels. While the basic plot and most of the characters are the same, the show seems to be hinting that there is still something looming, that this was just the first act which makes sense since most of the book's plot was used in the first season so it needs more story to tell. That gives the show a different spin because there’s more rage and craziness while the book is more about quiet despair. ...more

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Jun 27, 2016 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing

I wasn't disappointed AT ALL!!!!!

After enjoying. "Commonwealth", by Ann Patchett recently, I wanted another contemporary type novel involving community- social graces/human dealings. This fit the bill: families falling apart....relationships....struggles....tragedy....emotional drama....style & tack.

I wasn't too concerned about 'context' of Tom Perrotta's novel "The Leftovers", because his 'content' was sooooo friggin-gripping-engaging. I was aware of a bigger story going on throughout this nov ...more

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Nov 06, 2013 Fabian rated it liked it

This is about the cult of cults, a very fascinating topic. Its something that baffles me, and thinking about joining a collective of weirdos (which is the reason I naturally avoid malls and Wal-Mart) gives me the willies. Anyway, the thing about Perrotta is that his work, as terrific or as pedestrian as it is, is insanely readable and "getting into it" is easy and fun. His books are given the usual three stars by me, but it really means something that some of his novels have made terrific films ...more

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Mar 21, 2013 Alias Pending rated it it was ok

Shelves: last-word-book-club

SHORT REVIEW: ~~What Conan the Barbarian was to High Fantasy, The Leftovers is to Mid-Life Crisis Fantasy.~~ No, that's too kind.

SHORT REVIEW #2: A book so OK it hurts.

ANOTHER SHORTY: I liked this better the first time, when it was called American Beauty.

LONG REVIEW: Reading this book was like heading down a playground slide made of glass. It starts off fun, but soon the smooth, featureless texture is burning your skin and all you can see is the cold, rocky ground waiting for you at the end. And the ...more

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Aug 18, 2011 Peter Derk rated it it was ok

Have you ever read one of those books where it feels like the middle part of a trilogy, like all the action happened just before the first page and then kicks into gear right on the last page?

I guess it doesn't matter if you've read one like that or not. That little description makes sense enough, right?

Okay, how about this:

When I get a pizza, the first slice is awesome. Because I was so hungry and anticipating it. And then you get into a cycle of diminishing returns about three slices in. Then ...more

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Aug 11, 2014 Stacia (the 2010 club) rated it it was ok

Shelves: frustrating, multiple-pov, magical-realism, male-pov, realistic-general-or-lit-fiction, adult, hybrid-multiple-genre, mystery, paranormal-other

Never, have I ever wanted an author to pull a George RR Martin the way I wanted it to happen in The Leftovers.

WHO WANTS TO BE A MARTYR? the caption asked.

Yeah...there was not as much of this as I'd hoped.

Up until the last few pages, I was somewhat enjoying the book, happy sunshine (oh wow, I accidentally typed happy sunshit and had to correct that. I might have just coined a new term.) and all. Okay, so there wasn't actually a whole lot of happy or sunshine going on, but compared to ...more

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Jun 24, 2011 Jill rated it liked it

This is quite the literary year for ordinary families becoming enmeshed in extraordinary, indeed, catastrophic, situations. Erik Larson, in The Garden of the Beast, portrays an all-American family at the cusp of the horrendous Hitler years. And now Tom Perrotta one-ups him by introducing the Garveys…a suburban family who was left behind in the aftermath of a Rapture-like event.

To his credit, Tom Perrotta drinks no Kool-aid. Before the event occurs, one character says this about the Rapture: “It This is quite the literary year for ordinary families becoming enmeshed in extraordinary, indeed, catastrophic, situations. Erik Larson, in The Garden of the Beast, portrays an all-American family at the cusp of the horrendous Hitler years. And now Tom Perrotta one-ups him by introducing the Garveys…a suburban family who was left behind in the aftermath of a Rapture-like event.

To his credit, Tom Perrotta drinks no Kool-aid. Before the event occurs, one character says this about the Rapture: “It felt like religious kitsch, as tacky as a black velvet painting, the kind of fantasy that appealed to people who ate too much fried food, spanked their kids, and had no problem with the theory that their loving God invented AIDS to punish the gays.” Yet suddenly – whoosh! – millions of people simply vanish, including John Mellencamp and J.Lo, Shaq and Adam Sandler Miss Texas and Greta Van Susteren, Vladmir Putin and the Pope. There seems to rhyme or reason as to who disappears. What has happened?

No one knows and Tom Perrotta doesn’t even speculate. He wisely leaves it to the imagination of the reader. His focus is not on the “big event”, but rather how those who remain find the will to survive afterward. Some of them – Laurie Garvey, the mother, for example – join Guilty Remnant, a ragtag group that dress in white, continually smoke cancer sticks, and “stand before you as living reminders of God’s awesome power.” Others follow a self-proclaimed messiah, Holy Wayne, who promises to “take on their pain.”

And the majority just struggles by – trying to find some meaning in college classes, council meetings, community dances. They try to move forward while grieving the departed and getting by in a world where consumerism, politics, conventional religion, and mindless entertainment have lost their meaning.

Kevin Garvey – the father and also the mayor – thinks, “He’d seen this process before: It didn’t matter what happened in the world – genocidal wars, natural disasters, unspeakable crimes, mass disappearances, whatever – eventually people got tired of brooding about it. Time moved on, seasons changed, individuals withdrew into their private lives, turned their faces toward the sun. On balance, it was a good thing.”

It’s an ambitious theme that Tom Perrotta takes on – how diminished we are when something vital is being subtracted from our lives, but how we somehow put one foot in front of the other. Perhaps a little too ambitious. The grandness of the apocalyptic event is always lurking in the background, making the players who strut and fret their last hours on stage seem rather ordinary. It seemed to me that the random mystery of a devastating event would have created a universal clamor to find out why; otherwise, how to go on? Tom Perrotta is an engaging writer but at the end of the day, I need to know more about “the end of the day.”

...more

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May 09, 2012 James Thane rated it really liked it

What if there suddenly were a "Rapture" or something like it, where millions of people around the world disappeared in an instant, vaporized into nothingness? How would those left behind cope with such an amazing and inexplicable development?

Such is the premise of Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers, which focuses on the small town of Mapleton and on the family of the newly-elected mayor, Kevin Garvey. Everyone in town has been affected by the event and large numbers of people have been traumatized, th ...more

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May 04, 2017 Cody rated it did not like it

What the shit did I just read?
Truly, I’m at a loss for words. [Brain just mush; mush-begets-mush]
I don’t think this will be a review in the typical sense, more of a purging. Exorcism. Cleansing. Absolution.

[Backstory: my Better Half reallyreallyreally loves the show The Leftovers. I refuse to watch on the simple grounds that I don’t watch television. I read, why would I watch TV? No matter. She wants to talk to me about the show and I don’t know a thing about it. She says, ‘it was a book—I’ll b What the shit did I just read?
Truly, I’m at a loss for words. [Brain just mush; mush-begets-mush]
I don’t think this will be a review in the typical sense, more of a purging. Exorcism. Cleansing. Absolution.

[Backstory: my Better Half reallyreallyreally loves the show The Leftovers. I refuse to watch on the simple grounds that I don’t watch television. I read, why would I watch TV? No matter. She wants to talk to me about the show and I don’t know a thing about it. She says, ‘it was a book—I’ll buy you the book and then you’ll know what I’m talking about.’ Since I love her to the end of this world and the next, I agree. INTERRUPTION: lest you think my wife a troglodyte, don’t. She hasn’t read this abomination. She was simply trying to find a common-ground for us to share. That she had to go to such extreme lengths to get me to participate in something outside my hermitage is actually a reflection on my deficits and certainly not hers. END INTERRUPTION AND BACKSTORY]

Is this what people read? I don’t mean you, you hard-reading bastards; you’re all serious readers. I mean ‘people.’ Y’know, like people people? The one’s who buy books at the supermarket, or buy a book randomly because it ‘looks interesting’ (translation: nifty cover art)? ‘Cause if so, holy shit, my friends—we have a crisis of epidemical proportion on our hands. This is THE lowest-common denominator, the dregs. I wanted this book to mimic its subject matter: disappear; gone—poof!—vanished from my sight forever. It was that pitiable, and I’m not being dramatic. I don’t hate-read, and to each-their-own, but this is just a waste of trees. Pure, lovely, good, oxygenating trees died for this to come into being.

[I have to admit that I was intrigued when I discovered that Perotta also wrote Little Children. Now I’ve not read that (of course), but I thought the movie was exceptional. I think that Todd Field is in the van of the few truly innovative filmmakers America has left, so it raised my hopes a bit. I digress. These same hopes were quickly bashed against the wall, melon-head exploding in slo-mo.)

Let’s just get this over with so we can all go back to the good stuff. This is artless, meritless, useless drivel. The writing (grades 3-5) is so fundamentally juvenile that it just leaves me embarrassed for Perrotta. Lines like, “(S)he was a real hottie, with the nicest tits at the university” not only read like a sophomore pituitary cases’ attempts at wank-Fiction, they actually offend my too-too precious sensibilities. Why? Well, the only reasonable answer is that I’m an elitist snob who looks down his button-nose on all he surveys. Hey, if the pince-nez fits.

PLEASE JUST READ THIS PART: if you like this book/books like this/Perrotta/etc., pay me no mind. My opinion is my own and is not worth taking seriously in any way. Just think of me as Early Man at Lascaux; drawing on my cave’s walls and trying to make sense out of a universe I can’t begin to comprehend. IN FACT, if you like this/read this stuff/etc., I say, ‘bully!’ ‘Huzzah!’ You know why? Because at least you’re reading something—you’re not staring at your imagination on a 90” flat screen or scrolling through it with your thumbs on your iSOUL. If I sound like a pedant, I’m honestly not trying to. It has nothing to do with you. Or Harry Potter or Goldfinches or the many, many shades that grey apparently comes in. You’re good, I’m good, we’re all good. Live and let live. Let’s agree to disagree, shake hands, and go back to our respective sections of the communal library and crack some spines. But if I may be so bold: I’ve now willingly swam your mainstream waters, your Nile’s and Amazon’s. Would you be interested in experiencing mine, just once? It would be my honor to offer my panga.

(Last point: as for the story, it’s a transparent and fundamentally bankrupt commentary on religion and suburbia—the easiest of all ‘urbias’ to shit on. Medoubts Perrotta lives in a double-wide on the Res' with that fat HBO check and all his feature film credits, but his glass house is apparently constructed out of mirrors facing-inward only) ...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Kim rated it really liked it

Shelves: giveaways

Tom Perotta’s newest book would not be a typical choice for me. I saw the movie "Little Children" starring Kate Winslet, so I was curious when this book came out. The fact that life after The Rapture was central to the story made me that much more curious. I was not disappointed.

In The Leftovers, Tom Perotta explores what would happen if The Rapture actually took place. The book opens just a short time after millions of people have just disappeared from the earth. Perotta’s characters show a var ...more

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Sep 17, 2011 Larry H rated it really liked it

Most of Tom Perrotta's novels have been wry examinations of society and its foibles. Election, Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher each did a terrific job in chronicling the positives and negatives of human behavior. His characters aren't always sympathetic, their motivations aren't always understandable, but his books always make you think.

With his newest novel, The Leftovers, Perrotta ponders an interesting question: what if the Rapture happened, but not all of the religiously devout w Most of Tom Perrotta's novels have been wry examinations of society and its foibles. Election, Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher each did a terrific job in chronicling the positives and negatives of human behavior. His characters aren't always sympathetic, their motivations aren't always understandable, but his books always make you think.

With his newest novel, The Leftovers, Perrotta ponders an interesting question: what if the Rapture happened, but not all of the religiously devout were taken, but instead, a random, unexplainable group of people disappeared? How would the rest of the world cope? How would a person deal with the disappearance of a spouse, children, or parents? These are the issues that the citizens of Mapleton, a small midwestern town, are confronted with when an event called the "Sudden Departure" affects the world. No one—not even religious leaders—can explain who was chosen and why, and no one can help those left behind to try and get on with their lives. Kevin Garvey, the mayor of Mapleton, lost none of his family to the Sudden Departure directly, but his family has fallen apart in the wake of the event. His wife, Laurie, joined a cult of survivors called the Guilty Remnant; his daughter, Jill, has started failing out of school and become promiscuous; and his son, Tom, dropped out of college to follow a questionable prophet named Holy Wayne. As Kevin tries to help the people of his town rebuild their lives, he embarks on a relationship with Nora Durst, whose husband and children were lost to the Departure.

I always marvel at Perrotta's storytelling ability and the way he thinks things through. He did a great job creating a post-Rapture world without actually having you experience what happened that day, so much like the characters themselves, you don't really know what happened to those who disappeared. When I finished the book, I found myself frustrated that not one character's situation was resolved, but then I realized that this must be a metaphor for how the world felt after the Sudden Departure. (It's still frustrating to me, though, that no narrative threads were wrapped up. I like some ambiguity, but this was tough.) In the end, though, this is a well-written and tremendously captivating book, and I'm so glad Perrotta is still in fine writing form. ...more

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Aug 08, 2018 Mohammed Arabey rated it it was ok · review of another edition

The idea 🌟🌟🌟🌟
I mean, half the people just vanished... and no Avengers here to save 'em in the sequel..

The Message (Moral) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Dealing with the loss, the grief, religion zealous, feeling lost..

The Characters 🌟🌟🌟
Most of them needed more developments..may be it's the plot..

The Story (Plot) 🌟🌟
May be if it were just a novella would have been much better..

More in a review to come -in Arabic though,

Mohmmed Arabey
From 2 Aug. 2018
To 8 Aug. 2018 ...more

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Jan 25, 2015 Lisa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: screwed-up-future

I thought this audio would be decent laundry-folding entertainment, but I seriously underestimated Mr. Tom Perrotta and his awesome ability to tell a rad story!!!! This book was killer!!!!! The premise is this: A rapture-like event occurs and 2% of the population is vaporized. And it appears to have been a totally random sampling: people of all (or no) religious beliefs are taken, nice people as well as some real a$$h*les. The people who are left really can't make sense of it. Some folks get the ...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Katie rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy, loooooonnnnng, nother-book-group-book, boring-as-being-alive

I laughed! I cried! I dreamed dreams and saw visions!

Oh wait, no I didn't.

I enjoyed it briefly. Then I got to halfway and started wondering if it were going to go anyplace. Then I got farther and started wondering if it were ever, ever going to go anyplace. Then I wondered if it were going to end. Then I saw it was going to end, and I wondered if it were going to have a climax. Then, like a dull night at home, it didn’t.

If this book were food, it would be carob. Carob chip cookies. Great sell ...more

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Nov 19, 2011 Cathy rated it really liked it

This book takes on some weighty issues but leavened with comic twists. The author plays with issues I've dealt with as I get older; my life is increasingly influenced by absences, by who and what I have lost; the people who have disappeared from my life or roads not taken. Yet I also mistrust my memories of events; what was real and what were simply stories that I told myself? These are my 2 am musings.

The novel also explores how people deal with losses and what things they tell themselves to ge ...more

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Mar 27, 2014 Kelly (and the Book Boar) rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2014

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

3.5 Stars

A strange phenomenon has swept the globe. People, seemingly chosen at random, simply vanished.

After what is dubbed the “Sudden Departure,” those remaining are left to deal with the aftermath. The Leftovers focuses on the residents of a small town called Mapleton. Some, like Kevin, have decided to move on with life – and are maybe doing a little better or feeling a little more needed than they were before the Sudden Depart ...more

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May 01, 2019 Auntie Terror rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: general-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 2.7 stars

This isn't a book for impatient readers. And even patient ones might be hard put to it.
This also isn't the book companion to the HBO series made from it. I didn't watch it myself but compared notes with a colleague after I'd finished reading. And it turns out they took the basic premise and some elements, and then mixed, edited, rewrote and added to the rest to make a decent TV show from it. They seem to be good that way (see also ASoIaF vs. "A Game of Thrones").

This book basically is a 2.7 stars

This isn't a book for impatient readers. And even patient ones might be hard put to it.
This also isn't the book companion to the HBO series made from it. I didn't watch it myself but compared notes with a colleague after I'd finished reading. And it turns out they took the basic premise and some elements, and then mixed, edited, rewrote and added to the rest to make a decent TV show from it. They seem to be good that way (see also ASoIaF vs. "A Game of Thrones").

This book basically is a lengthy story of different people dealing with different kinds of (unexpected) loss in a smallish town in somewhere, USA. Some turn to "shallow enjoyments" to numb their pain, others to fanatism of the "sectish"/religious kind, some to complete seclusion. And they do that lengthily and expansively to quench any feeling of sympathy you might have had for the protagonists.
Still, I trudged on because I had the feeling that at some point after this long build up there had to be an amazing plot coming. And after merely 390 pages, there it was. Kind of. Sort of.
The book ends with a homicide mission to pretend there was a serial killer that becomes a suicide, a cult-leader's baby from a teenage mum getting dropped at someone's front porch to be adopted by a grieving mother in dire need of therapy and her ex-boyfriend who was dumped by his wife for a sect of smoking mutes, and the teenage daughter of said ex-boyfriend hanging out with the local pothead twins instead of joining her mum's sect. Which makes this almost a happy ending in a very screwed-up way for some characters - I guess.
What started it all in the first place, the disappearance of a huge part of the population, isn't really a point for anyone anymore, it seems.
What is the author's core message here? I've no idea; and I'm not sure he had either.

So why did it still get 2.7 stars?
I liked the premise and the general idea about showing what a random bunch of people disappearing in the blink of an eye does to individuals and a society. Some parts were quite amusing and some observations about humans and society were rather clever. And the last 50 or so pages were one quick, though weird run. ...more

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Nov 06, 2011 John Wiswell rated it it was amazing

Though promoted as a novel about The Rapture or a Rapture-like event, fifty pages in you realize The Leftovers isn’t. Tom Perrotta’s novel is about human reactions to tragedy. We don’t know why millions of people disappeared, can’t recognize a methodology or pattern to the mass disappearances, and spend none of the book pursuing answers. Perrotta tells us multiple times that no one can figure it out. Sorry, world: you just lose, and now your citizens deal with it.

We go to inspirational speeches, Though promoted as a novel about The Rapture or a Rapture-like event, fifty pages in you realize The Leftovers isn’t. Tom Perrotta’s novel is about human reactions to tragedy. We don’t know why millions of people disappeared, can’t recognize a methodology or pattern to the mass disappearances, and spend none of the book pursuing answers. Perrotta tells us multiple times that no one can figure it out. Sorry, world: you just lose, and now your citizens deal with it.

We go to inspirational speeches, grief counseling and A.A. We hit the bottle, seek out any company we can get, and watch obscene amounts of talk-TV. We get a mother walking fugally through her empty house and writing a journal to the son who no longer exists. Marriages break up and cities tremble.

We follow a handful of people trying to make sense of their own lives in the wake of civilization’s shake-up. It’s not quite an apocalypse (The Rapture wouldn’t be, right?), but things can’t quite go back to being the same. Faithful priests left behind seek to comfort others while questioning what they did wrong; parents grieve for children whose bodies aren’t even left to bury; characters hit the road, or form sexually-liberated support groups, or simply linger. This book doesn’t push the plot forward with every page. It shouldn’t, and it exposes how shortsighted that rule is, for a book about not knowing what to do must necessarily revel in stalling out.

The analogs to real life are refreshingly distinct. When the event is largely called “October 14th,” it’s hard not to think “9/11.” Perrotta eventually tackles the parallels in exposition, yet the lack of a single image or video to capture what happened, and the lack of villains to blame, turn October 14th and its “Sudden Departure” into something ultimately far more frustrating. It’s equal parts existential crisis and tragedy.

The religious horror spawns an analog of the Westboro Baptist Church, the “Guilty Remnant,” a cult of people who swear vows of silence and mill around public areas to remind everyone what happened. Where it could be generic anti-Westboro fiction, Perrotta instead depicts them as some of the saddest people, and introduces the group through the lens of a husband whose wife is in that hushed crowd, having seemingly shed her gross depression for this zeal. That she’s lost so much weight, has resumed smoking and has the vigor from earlier in her life presents a more dynamic portrait of a human being than any fiction that directly tackles Westboro-like groups, and frankly, presents more dimensionality than the Westboro protestors themselves.

Religion gets its stage time, as it ought to in a book using a Rapture-gimmick. Yet we use an interesting lens to see inside the fundamentalist cult: a mother who’s lost her children joins as much out of malaise as the persistence of the priest. When she becomes a Watcher, designated to essentially stalk people of suspected high-sinfulness, she pursues it for gossipy entertainment, is often bored or uneasy, and has mundane thoughts like craving chocolate or to avoid the smoking the cult insists upon. We get the typical application of religion-as-coping-mechanism, but also see it as more nuanced, in just how an individual could cope through ritual and dogma, and how in some ways it simply fails. We also see how it makes our regular world seem strange; there’s a particular double-edged humor to her shock that a Safeway has four shelves devoted to barbecue sauce.

The Leftovers features an increasingly popular form of loose narrative. You’re seldom brought into the moment; chapters open with a recap of recent events, and tend to progress by recapping what happened next, and next, and so-on, focusing in on a few conversations or particular events for a page or less. This makes the bulk of the book expository. I like the style; it worked in ancient myths, in formative histories, and still works when we tell each other about our days. Perrotta makes it work by keeping most of his exposition novel, glossing over the details we can guess. The beginning is particularly strong, as recapping the October 14th tragedy feels not just valid, but a little like newscasting reportage. Yet for a book that follows specific characters over long journeys of self-discovery, there are readers who will want it to be more focused on what they actually did, and to be brought into the moment page after page.

Only after the fact did I learn this was labeled the “comic novel.” I’m still uneasy with this label, and don’t wholly comprehend what it’s supposed to mean. The Leftovers, like virtually all “comic novels” I’ve read, isn’t particularly funny and never made me laugh, but I don’t know if that’s what critics intend by the label. It has its brightness, and there are some questionable things, but is a cult smoking because they acknowledge their lives are finite really comical? It could be played that way. Perrotta doesn’t seem to play it up for humor. Perhaps that’s the difference between the old literary establishment and the new one; comedy, and Twain, and Swift, and the art of actually being funny may be unfashionable. I hold none of this against Perrotta, who delivered a consummate job on his novel. In interviews he’s even conceded that this was originally a more humorous project than it became as he wrote it. Rather than a slight against the author, it’s simply a curiosity with publishers and critics.

...more

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Oct 25, 2011 sonicbooming rated it did not like it

Tom Perrotta’s The Leftovers is a book that I really want to like. It has all of the elements of a book I enjoy, a large cast of characters, an interesting plot, and yet this book for me is a complete fail.

The story is basically as follows: the post rapture - only more secularized. We’re not sure why or if the rapture actually occurred. Though, to be fair it doesn’t really matter, what matters is that people were here one moment and then gone the next. Some people are able to cope and move on, ...more

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Oct 12, 2011 Jodie rated it liked it

Shelves: 2011

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. What a massive premise to try and pull off. A rapture like event, where millions of people all over the planet simply evaporate. It can't be the rapture though, at least not the skewed Christian version of it, because a lot of Christians are left behind - devastated that their version of God has forsaken them, and a lot of people from varying faiths, including atheists and a few random celebrities have gone. There are some good character ideas in this book. I really liked how the minister loses ...more

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Sep 06, 2011 Caitlin rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011

This one comes from the author of Election and Little Children. Yeah, those movies you sort of forgot about. After listening to an NPR interview with Perrotta, I ran out and bought the book despite it being hardcover. He came off so intelligent and likeable on the radio, and his ideas were so provoking, I couldn't help being drawn to the book. While sometimes I found his writing a bit colloquial, I really enjoyed this novel and hated to see it end. The book takes place after a Rapture-like event ...more

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Jul 31, 2013 Suzanne Hard rated it really liked it

Really enjoyed this crazy thought experiment, where everyone is struggling to make sense of the sudden departure, grieving their lost loved ones, and trying to find meaning in their lives, when the usual structures and measures are disrupted or destroyed. Perrotta's take on the role of family and connection are what is most interesting and hopeful in the book. ...more

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Aug 02, 2016 Emma Scott rated it it was amazing

Okay so this book veered away from the show around the 75% mark and didn't come close to any of the wicked cool bizarre shit that happens in it. I love that show hard, but this book is its own entity and while I was a little disappointed at first, I got over it and was able to appreciate it for what it is. And that's only fair anyway.

The Leftovers follows five characters through the aftermath of a vast, unexplained Sudden Departure in which 4% of the earth's entire population has vanished witho ...more

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Nov 11, 2011 Dara Jackson rated it it was ok · review of another edition

First off I won this on a First Reads Giveaway as an Advanced Reader's issue. I really wanted to like this book. The premise sounded interesting: a Rapture-like occurrence and how the people left behind cope. I've never read anything of Mr. Perrotta's before, and chances are good that I will not be reading anything else of his if they are all like this one. Actually two stars may be generous, but I liked the concept, just not the book.

It was not what I was expecting, which in itself is not a bad ...more

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Sep 15, 2019 Jonathan K rated it it was ok

While an interesting story idea, I personally found the pacing far too slow, characters dull and the religious elements overdone. As the saying goes, each to their own!

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Nov 22, 2016 Cher rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobook, scifi-dystopian

3 stars - It was good.

Liked it, but didn’t love it. My GR friend Carmen summed it up perfectly and succinctly, “ The characters are very three-dimensional and fleshed out. It was very well written, but not especially compelling or meaningful.” You can read her review here.

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Favorite Quote: There's not some finite amount of pain inside us. Our bodies and minds just keep manufacturing more of it.

First Sentence: Laurie Garvey hadn’t been raised to believe in ...more

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Feb 04, 2017 Jess rated it liked it

Shelves: 2017-books

When one picks up what is supposedly the masterwork of one of the most lauded literary minds of the generation, one has... high expectations. Or I did, at least.

The concept of The Leftovers is simple: one day about a tenth of the population just disappears. Is it the Rapture? Is it some metaphysical phenomenon that can't be explained? Were they abducted by aliens? And fucking why? The rest of us just have to go on without closure, constantly wondering at the truth and trying to cope. Perrotta u When one picks up what is supposedly the masterwork of one of the most lauded literary minds of the generation, one has... high expectations. Or I did, at least.

The concept of The Leftovers is simple: one day about a tenth of the population just disappears. Is it the Rapture? Is it some metaphysical phenomenon that can't be explained? Were they abducted by aliens? And fucking why? The rest of us just have to go on without closure, constantly wondering at the truth and trying to cope. Perrotta uses the denizens of one small town to explore how the leftovers of humanity might come to grips with this sudden, traumatic, and completely unexplained event.

Pretty strong premise, right? I thought so. And to be honest, Perrotta's whole point is a character study. He wanted to explore a community without a future. He wanted to know how people would carry on without the certainty of there being anything to carry on for. But I couldn't help feeling like the aspects of the post-Rapture world he chose to focus on were not the most interesting aspects. Which was disappointing, and led to a slightly boring plot.

A few moments stood out to me (spoilers ahead):

- In an early chapter, a middle aged father feels uncomfortable looking at his teenage daughter's friend after she comes downstairs in her pajamas. He's "uncomfortably aware" of her nubile teenage breasts or whatever. Definitely attracted to her. A few chapters later, the same character notices how good a woman's ass looks in her jeans, which he finds surprising because she is a 35-year-old mother of two (I hope I don't have to understand why that's infuriating). And that's when I side-eyed the book real hard. Because I did not want to spend 300+ pages dealing with the male gaze.

- There's a scene where a character goes to the mall and sits in one of those massage chairs at like Brookstone or whatever. And I listened to the description via audiobook as I was driving home from work and---I shit you not---the description was so fucking compelling that I seriously considered driving to the mall so I could sit in just such a chair. And if that's not good writing, I don't know what is.

- The cult leader with a bevy of teenage "brides" is so fucking over-played. And in this story it came across as disappointingly unoriginal. Cult leaders can be crazy in all kinds of fun and exciting ways! Why does it always have to be pedophilia?

- The Guilty Remnant "smoke to profess [their] faith" yet "aren't a cult"? So, like... what faith are they professing? And it seems frankly abuse to force people to smoke as a way of symbolizing that they don't believe they'll be around long enough to get sick, yet noooobody comments on this? The smoking seemed dumb. It was dumb.

I guess overall this was a book about uncertainty, purposelessness, and boredom. And while that's a beautiful sentiment to express, as a result it kinda felt... purposeless and boring. I won't belabor the point any longer. The book was fine. ...more

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Apr 27, 2020 Etienne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

4,5/5. Great book! A slow pace book for sure but an incredible one! Grief! That's all there is here. The author find a pretext to put everybody in the book into a grieving process. Then, we follow those characters seeing how they manage their part. Cult, sex, drugs/alcohol, work, isolation, socialization, taking care, being useful to society, abusing society and vulnerable people, etc. Almost very possible aspect of living through grief is present here and it procures a very well executed book, ...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Melki rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, family-based-fiction

No one predicted it this time, not even Harold Camping. This Rapture took everyone by surprise. Millions suddenly just vanished. But something seemed off. For one thing, Hindus, Buddists, Jews, atheists and Jennifer Lopez were among the missing, while many pious, God-fearing Christians were ... "left behind".

In the wake of the tragedy that quickly becomes known as the "Sudden Departure", many of those not "taken" struggle with feelings of survivor's guilt and a sense of futility. Others try to ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Huntsville-Madiso...: Staff Pick - The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta	1	15	Mar 05, 2018 12:07PM
Bookworm Bitches : April 2015: The Leftovers	29	101	Feb 11, 2016 07:55PM
Alternate Realiti...: Leftovers on HBO	3	33	Dec 07, 2015 07:40AM
TV adaptation of The Leftovers	3	31	Oct 20, 2015 08:21AM
The Leftovers	6	32	Oct 13, 2015 06:22PM

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About Tom Perrotta

Tom Perrotta

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Tom Perrotta is the bestselling author of nine works of fiction, including Election and Little Children, both of which were made into Oscar-nominated films, and The Leftovers, which was adapted into a critically acclaimed, Peabody Award-winning HBO series. His work has been translated into a multitude of languages. Perrotta grew up in New Jersey and lives outside of Boston. ...more