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Weather
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From the author of the nationwide best seller Dept. of Speculation--one of the New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of the Year--a shimmering tour de force about a family, and a nation, in crisis
Lizzie Benson slid into her job as a librarian without a traditional degree. But this gives her a vantage point from which to practice her other calling: she is a fake shrin ...more
Lizzie Benson slid into her job as a librarian without a traditional degree. But this gives her a vantage point from which to practice her other calling: she is a fake shrin ...more
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Hardcover, 207 pages
Published
February 11th 2020
by Knopf Publishing Group
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Paige Holmes
Mainly 2016, as there are plenty of references to Trump first being elected.
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Start your review of Weather
Jenny Offill is amazing! So excited to read more of her stuff!
weather noun
: the state of the atmosphere at a particular place and time
weather transitive verb
: to come safely through a difficult period or experience
“First they came for the coral, but I did not say anything because I was not a coral.”
I loved every minute of Weather. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, thanks to the choppy style, specific brand of humour and refusal to deliver conventional narrative movement, but I thought it was brilliant.
This novel is both sardonic and warm, reflective of ...more
: the state of the atmosphere at a particular place and time
weather transitive verb
: to come safely through a difficult period or experience
“First they came for the coral, but I did not say anything because I was not a coral.”
I loved every minute of Weather. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, thanks to the choppy style, specific brand of humour and refusal to deliver conventional narrative movement, but I thought it was brilliant.
This novel is both sardonic and warm, reflective of ...more
When one reads as many book as I do, the search for something different but good, is ongoing. This author seems to fill the bill. She takes the reader inside the thoughts of a young woman, Lizzie, who is juggling many of life's trials. She is a mother, a wife, tried to take care of her mother, and her brother who has had a problem with drugs. Additionally, the doomsday prediction with the climate and the unfriendly political situation, also preys on her mind. She works in a university library, s
...more
NOW AVAILABLE!!
fun fact about that line, beyond the “fuck, yeah!” of it in my heart: the verb between “I” and “sure” is missing in my ARC, so the quote is totes [sic], but i’m 2/3 convinced that the word was intentionally omitted. as the novel draws to its close (and that is on page 170 of the ARC's 201 pages), and as the sense of anxiety and fragmentation that is the mo ...more
Can I ask you something, Will says one night and I sure, ask me something.
“How do you know all this?”
“I’m a fucking librarian.”
fun fact about that line, beyond the “fuck, yeah!” of it in my heart: the verb between “I” and “sure” is missing in my ARC, so the quote is totes [sic], but i’m 2/3 convinced that the word was intentionally omitted. as the novel draws to its close (and that is on page 170 of the ARC's 201 pages), and as the sense of anxiety and fragmentation that is the mo ...more
Almost the Blues
What the new world of literary America consists of perhaps: diary entries; the not quite aphorisms of a typical NYC life; the recording of trivia amidst cataclysmic events. There is obviously a selection of things to be noted/published. But there are no conclusions or points to be made. Whatever story there is is left to the reader’s imagination. Blanks are filled in and events connected by the same process that one unconsciously corrects errors and typos in print copy.
Weather is ...more
What the new world of literary America consists of perhaps: diary entries; the not quite aphorisms of a typical NYC life; the recording of trivia amidst cataclysmic events. There is obviously a selection of things to be noted/published. But there are no conclusions or points to be made. Whatever story there is is left to the reader’s imagination. Blanks are filled in and events connected by the same process that one unconsciously corrects errors and typos in print copy.
Weather is ...more
And now for something completely different…
Strange little novel that had me in the palm of its hand. There’s not really a plot, but sometimes, who needs one? Plot lovers, please don’t be scared off. It’s full of insights that are accessible and fascinating, and there is a story thread, I promise.
You probably want to know, what’s the thread? The thread is Librarian Lizzie’s life as a wife, mother, professional letter writer, and helper of her brother, who is trying to stay clean. Amid all of this ...more
Strange little novel that had me in the palm of its hand. There’s not really a plot, but sometimes, who needs one? Plot lovers, please don’t be scared off. It’s full of insights that are accessible and fascinating, and there is a story thread, I promise.
You probably want to know, what’s the thread? The thread is Librarian Lizzie’s life as a wife, mother, professional letter writer, and helper of her brother, who is trying to stay clean. Amid all of this ...more
I don't think this is a bad book at all, I want to make that clear right away. I think Jenny Offill is a talented writer, and that she achieves everything she set out to achieve with this little book, a potent commentary on the impossibility of balancing every day domesticity with encroaching anxiety about the climate crisis.
But with that said... I didn't particularly like it? I mostly found this book incredibly forgettable. It was a short, breezy read, but for whatever reason I didn't have t ...more
But with that said... I didn't particularly like it? I mostly found this book incredibly forgettable. It was a short, breezy read, but for whatever reason I didn't have t ...more
Loved it!!!
Audiobook/ sync... with the physical book.
The audio-narration is read by Cassandra Campbell....( a well known pro in the audiobook-world).
This is not an easy book to review....
My guess is that readers will either appreciate and enjoy it....
Or....
They won’t.
I enjoyed “Dept. of Speculation”....so I had a pretty good idea of what I might be getting into — “Unconventional Unique beauty”....
This book exceeded my expectations. I liked it even more!
It really ‘is’ like poetry .... and/ or p ...more
Audiobook/ sync... with the physical book.
The audio-narration is read by Cassandra Campbell....( a well known pro in the audiobook-world).
This is not an easy book to review....
My guess is that readers will either appreciate and enjoy it....
Or....
They won’t.
I enjoyed “Dept. of Speculation”....so I had a pretty good idea of what I might be getting into — “Unconventional Unique beauty”....
This book exceeded my expectations. I liked it even more!
It really ‘is’ like poetry .... and/ or p ...more
Now Nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020
Jenny Offill describes what it feels like to live in today's America, she writes about the political and social weather, the charged atmosphere that has enveloped the nation. Her protagonist Lizzie Benson works as a librarian without a traditional degree, thus administrating knowledge without being formally qualified - but, in the metaphorical sense, who really is? In the age of fragmented filter bubbles and the rise of hate, Lizzie also naviga ...more
Jenny Offill describes what it feels like to live in today's America, she writes about the political and social weather, the charged atmosphere that has enveloped the nation. Her protagonist Lizzie Benson works as a librarian without a traditional degree, thus administrating knowledge without being formally qualified - but, in the metaphorical sense, who really is? In the age of fragmented filter bubbles and the rise of hate, Lizzie also naviga ...more
4 stars — so close to 5/stars!
There’s something that seriously clicks between me and Jennifer Offill’s writing. I loved The Dept. of Speculation and, again, loved Weather. This is a very short novel, told through a series of first person vignettes. The narrator is a librarian, living in New York with her husband and young son, and eventually her addict brother. Each paragraph is a quick impressionistic reflection on the library’s patrons, parenthood, the state of her marriage, her “enmeshment” w ...more
There’s something that seriously clicks between me and Jennifer Offill’s writing. I loved The Dept. of Speculation and, again, loved Weather. This is a very short novel, told through a series of first person vignettes. The narrator is a librarian, living in New York with her husband and young son, and eventually her addict brother. Each paragraph is a quick impressionistic reflection on the library’s patrons, parenthood, the state of her marriage, her “enmeshment” w ...more
I stayed up past midnight to finish, exhilarated by the prose, and excited about every exquisite perfect detail, and eager for the perceptions and the recognitions that came tumbling along on every page...and now I'm done, and I just don't know. I don't think I'm going to remember this in a year. The tiny paragraphs of insight, one after another, remind me a little too much of Twitter. "Good Twitter," but still.
Reading this novel was like watching a gentle rain falling on a pond.
Reading this novel was like watching a gentle rain falling on a pond.
“How do you know all this?”
“I’m a fucking librarian.”
Hell yeh! How could I not love a book with those words!
Weather is an enjoyable and quick read, perfect for when you find it hard to concentrate. I know many of us are finding it difficult to get into books at the moment. I don't know how many books I've begun and set aside this past week. From page one of this book however, I was able to concentrate almost 100%. It reads sort of like a journal because our protagonist is sharing her though ...more
“I’m a fucking librarian.”
Hell yeh! How could I not love a book with those words!
Weather is an enjoyable and quick read, perfect for when you find it hard to concentrate. I know many of us are finding it difficult to get into books at the moment. I don't know how many books I've begun and set aside this past week. From page one of this book however, I was able to concentrate almost 100%. It reads sort of like a journal because our protagonist is sharing her though ...more
Now shortlisted for the 2020 Women's Prize.
I joined a Radio 4 Book Club virtual discussion of Jenny Offill’s 2014 second novel “Dept of Speculation” (shortlisted for the Folio Prize); and, this, her third novel “Weather” appeared on a number of 2020-preview lists.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00...
This book is very much in the style of Dept. of Speculation – a style I described in my review of that book as elliptical and aphoristic style.
Offil said in many interviews around Dept. of Specula ...more
I joined a Radio 4 Book Club virtual discussion of Jenny Offill’s 2014 second novel “Dept of Speculation” (shortlisted for the Folio Prize); and, this, her third novel “Weather” appeared on a number of 2020-preview lists.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00...
This book is very much in the style of Dept. of Speculation – a style I described in my review of that book as elliptical and aphoristic style.
Offil said in many interviews around Dept. of Specula ...more
Mar 01, 2020
Jenny (Reading Envy)
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Recommended to Jenny (Reading Envy) by:
https://themillions.com/2020/01/draft...
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I first feel compelled to clear up some confusion on the part of the main character about academic librarians. As someone who has supervised students in an academic library, I have at times heard them refer to themselves as "librarians" but always correct them. Librarians do require a degree (MC does not have one) and do not spend their days checking out books, shelving books, or ordering random books based on whim. Many times, academic librarians are faculty members with the additional responsi
...more
Shortlisted for the Women's Prize 2020
I read Offill's previous novel Dept. of Speculation a couple of years ago, and enjoyed it a lot. This one shares many of the same traits - a narrative largely dominated by random thoughts, some of which are interesting and perceptive, with a simple narrative arc that mostly stays in the background. Much of it is dominated by thoughts on climate change and the election of Trump, so without the humour and quirkiness it might be rather gloomy, but overall it is ...more
I read Offill's previous novel Dept. of Speculation a couple of years ago, and enjoyed it a lot. This one shares many of the same traits - a narrative largely dominated by random thoughts, some of which are interesting and perceptive, with a simple narrative arc that mostly stays in the background. Much of it is dominated by thoughts on climate change and the election of Trump, so without the humour and quirkiness it might be rather gloomy, but overall it is ...more
This is a very specific kind of navel-gazy book that works really well for me but might prove frustrating or even kind of empty for other readers. This is the kind of novel Sarah Manguso would write and I loved it.
The blurb makes this sound like a plot heavy book but it is very much the opposite. Offill has edited her book down to sparse scenes, short musings, and witty sentences. Much of the action happens off-page and only the ramifications are felt. I thought the easily readable prose actuall ...more
The blurb makes this sound like a plot heavy book but it is very much the opposite. Offill has edited her book down to sparse scenes, short musings, and witty sentences. Much of the action happens off-page and only the ramifications are felt. I thought the easily readable prose actuall ...more
Weather is Jenny Offill's follow-up to the much-adored Dept. of Speculation. Like that book, it takes the form of a woman's inner monologue, told in short, sharp paragraphs. The woman in question is Lizzie, a university librarian who has a lot on her plate. Her brother is recovering from addiction and has a new girlfriend, but he relies heavily on Lizzie for support. Her knee hurts, and she's not exactly sure what to do about it. Her mentor Sylvia, who now hosts a podcast on futurism, is becomin
...more
Although I read Offill’s novel “Dept. of Speculation” over five years ago during one joyously long reading session on a plane, it stands out in my mind as so stylistically unique with a voice that seamlessly blends humour with poignant critiques on love and modern life. Her new novel “Weather” uses a similar style of narrative while engaging more overtly with current politics and social anxiety. Rather than a linear story we’re presented with clipped sections of text surrounding the life of Lizz
...more
Offill writes in witty, short paragraphs that mimic diary-like entries. It is a quirky style that works surprisingly well. The ‘author’ of these entries is Lizzie Benson, a curious librarian that absorbs odd facts about climate change, religion, and much more. These blurbs are peppered among entries that catalog how she is ‘weathering’ life’s challenges. There is her brother, Henry, a recovering addict that she allows to live with her periodically. And then there is her side job answering doomsd
...more
1 4 3, Canadian hunk
“A war-time romance, without the war, without the sex....” with the bookish hunk Quebecois, whilst taking care of the neurotic drug-addicted brother, and attending to her precursive decrepitude, mostly after husband took their young son out of town to get away from this near-negative Nelly.
I expected this would be more like the first three (Autumn, Winter and Spring) of Ali Smith’s brilliant seasonal quartet.
I’ll say this: it kept me reading for 224 pages of an inner monolog ...more
“A war-time romance, without the war, without the sex....” with the bookish hunk Quebecois, whilst taking care of the neurotic drug-addicted brother, and attending to her precursive decrepitude, mostly after husband took their young son out of town to get away from this near-negative Nelly.
I expected this would be more like the first three (Autumn, Winter and Spring) of Ali Smith’s brilliant seasonal quartet.
I’ll say this: it kept me reading for 224 pages of an inner monolog ...more
Author Jenny Offill’s third novel, “Weather”, isn’t for the average reader. She has written a novel that comprises mostly fleeting thoughts and moments. There isn’t much structure with the exception of time.
Our narrator is Lizzie who is married with one sweet boy. She feels responsible for her brother who is fighting depression, anxiety, and addiction. She works for a woman who has a podcast about climate change; Lizzie has the responsibility of writing responses to this woman’s fans.
What Offill ...more
Our narrator is Lizzie who is married with one sweet boy. She feels responsible for her brother who is fighting depression, anxiety, and addiction. She works for a woman who has a podcast about climate change; Lizzie has the responsibility of writing responses to this woman’s fans.
What Offill ...more
Short. Interesting. A little strange. Funny. A little scary. Made me wonder. Made me ponder. Made me laugh.
I was inside Lizzie's head for a few hours, and I very much enjoyed being there. I started out highlighting a few quotes, but then realized I should just recommend the book.
Here are a couple though, just for fun.
"Young person worry: What if nothing I do matters?"
" Old person worry: What if everything I do does? "
"One morning a student tells me failure is not an option, and is angered whe ...more
I was inside Lizzie's head for a few hours, and I very much enjoyed being there. I started out highlighting a few quotes, but then realized I should just recommend the book.
Here are a couple though, just for fun.
"Young person worry: What if nothing I do matters?"
" Old person worry: What if everything I do does? "
"One morning a student tells me failure is not an option, and is angered whe ...more
Yeah, good luck trying to find a better one than this, Booker people.
'There’s a sign on our elevator saying it is out of order. I stand there looking at it as if it might change. Mrs. Kovinski comes into the lobby. They’ll let anyone be super now, is her theory. Anyone.
I get the mail, put off making my slow way up the stairs. The fancy preschool still sends us the newsletter. This one features a list of the top ten fears reported by their students. Darkness doesn’t make the cut. Blood, sharks, a ...more
'There’s a sign on our elevator saying it is out of order. I stand there looking at it as if it might change. Mrs. Kovinski comes into the lobby. They’ll let anyone be super now, is her theory. Anyone.
I get the mail, put off making my slow way up the stairs. The fancy preschool still sends us the newsletter. This one features a list of the top ten fears reported by their students. Darkness doesn’t make the cut. Blood, sharks, a ...more
This book speaks deeply to my personal and specific sense of despair and dread. It’s nothing short of remarkable and is complete perfection. And it’s funny! Best book of 2020 so far and just the best book I have read in ages. I don’t even want to tell you anything about it so you go in knowing exactly what I did: new Jenny Offill. How did I get to be so lucky to be alive at the same time as her?! I feel rearranged in the best possible way.
Weather is undoubtedly a 'marmite' book; one that will delight some of us and irritate others. It was an absolute winner for me, and definitely benefited from my high tolerance for (love of?) relatively plotless literature. Weather is really a story of our times; a story of an anxious age where it feels like at any moment, the world we know could crumble around us, threatened by many and various evils. It's narrative, is unconventionally structured, although it contains so plot threads, these ar
...more
Could there be a more perfect book for 2020? A blunt, unromanticized but wickedly funny novel about how eco-anxiety permeates everyday life*, Weather is written in the same aphoristic style as Offill’s Dept. of Speculation, which I read in November 2015, but has a more substantial story to tell. Lizzie is married with a young son and works in a New York City university library. She takes on an informal second job as PA to Sylvia**, her former professor, who runs a podcast on environmental issues
...more
Undeniably clever and well-written. A carefully constructed distillation of one woman's individual worries and concerns (the microclimate) and how these undergo flux amidst the generalized anxieties occupying the world today (the global climate, literally and figuratively). Cause, effect, response, affect...and periodic affectation, I think.
As many have already stated, one's response to this book will depend upon taste. It is clearly catnip for some; an amuse-bouche for others. For me it was a r ...more
As many have already stated, one's response to this book will depend upon taste. It is clearly catnip for some; an amuse-bouche for others. For me it was a r ...more
I loved the narrator but found some of the other characters hard to keep up with. Specially as who they were and their role/job etc wasn’t always explicitly named. Maybe if it was read in one sitting then I wouldn’t have had this problem so much.
I found it both witty and thought provoking and would recommend you give it a read.
Offill turns everyday life into poetry
I found it both witty and thought provoking and would recommend you give it a read.
Offill turns everyday life into poetry
This was a different read, I knew from the reviews I've seen and feeling glad to have shoved my prejudice in the attic to start reading this.
The novel is written in the form of thoughts- or more like droplets of thoughts, and from the viewpoint of Lizzie, who is a librarian, a wife, a mum and a sister. There is something hilarious about the way Lizzie sees the world, but it's equally melancholic. Mesmerised me as I moved through the book and I really enjoyed this novel. Maybe it's not fast-paced ...more
The novel is written in the form of thoughts- or more like droplets of thoughts, and from the viewpoint of Lizzie, who is a librarian, a wife, a mum and a sister. There is something hilarious about the way Lizzie sees the world, but it's equally melancholic. Mesmerised me as I moved through the book and I really enjoyed this novel. Maybe it's not fast-paced ...more
Weather is an interesting concept, but it just wasn't for me, both because I'm completely apathetic towards climate change and had trouble relating to the main character's concerns, and also because I found the writing to be overdramatic and almost hokey. This "literary" (I beg to differ) novel is certainly very timely, dealing with a number of modern issues and fears amidst an intriguing backdrop, but I didn't find the writing or character development to be all that good.
The book follows the st ...more
The book follows the st ...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tournament of Books: 2020 August Camp TOB match-up | 1 | 14 | Jun 03, 2020 03:32PM | |
| Skokie Public Lib...: Discussion 2, Question 5: Sparsity | 10 | 14 | May 21, 2020 09:47AM | |
| Nothing But Readi...: Offill, Jenny -- Weather informal buddy read starts May 11, 2020 | 36 | 182 | May 12, 2020 06:14PM | |
| Skokie Public Lib...: Discussion 2, Question 2: Twitter Comparison | 6 | 16 | May 04, 2020 03:19PM | |
| Skokie Public Lib...: Discussion 2, Question 1: Gallows and Humor | 4 | 11 | May 01, 2020 10:44AM | |
| Skokie Public Lib...: Discussion 2, Question 4: Research | 7 | 11 | May 01, 2020 09:25AM | |
| Skokie Public Lib...: Discussion 2, Question 7: Additional Thoughts | 4 | 9 | Apr 30, 2020 01:10PM |
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Jenny Offill is an American author born in Massachusetts. Her first novel Last Things was published in 1999 was a New York Times Notable book and a finalist for the L.A Times First Book Award.
She is also the co-editor with Elissa Schappell of two anthologies of essays and the author of several children's books She teaches in the MFA programs at Brooklyn College, Columbia University and Queens Univ ...more
She is also the co-editor with Elissa Schappell of two anthologies of essays and the author of several children's books She teaches in the MFA programs at Brooklyn College, Columbia University and Queens Univ ...more
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“And then it is another day and another and another but I will not go on about this because no doubt you too have experienced time.”
—
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“Young person worry: What if nothing I do matters?
Old person worry: What if everything I do does?”
—
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More quotes…
Old person worry: What if everything I do does?”
