The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta

End of the world books appear to be prevalent this fall. In this book the rapture has happened and the people left behind are not sure why they are left. What becomes obvious is that those people taken in what is called The Departure were not all Christians, were not all god fearing, some were certainly not good people.

One can imagine the confusion of those religeous folks that felt they had prepared for the rapture and as true beleivers were sure to go.

With all this going on in the background Perrotta takes us to Mapleton an average suburban town. We meet Kevin Garvey a middle aged retired liquor distributor who has become the cities mayor. Having lost his wife to a cult called The Guilty Remnant after the departure he is struggling to keep his high school daughter on the straight and narrow. His son Tom has joined a cult of a religeous leader called Wayne and has now been tasked with protecting Wayne's concubine who will be his vessel for the delivery of the savior to heal the world.

A strange book. A book of 350 pages in which while the characters themselves are well developed not much happens. Perhaps that is the message, that even after an apocolyptic event such as the rapture, people will still eventually be forucsed on thier own day to day events.

I read the book but truthfully by the end it was a bit disappointing, nothing was resolved and one wonders why they read 350 pages in which so little happened.