Spheres of Disturbance
Amy Schutzer
This is a book that snuck up on
me in pretty much every way. I picked it up on a whim on a new release shelf at
the library, was alternately repelled and sucked in by the lush- though often
self-indulgent- language, and ultimately found myself crying during the final
pages, though I had accurately guessed the book's ending from the summary on
the back cover. One could make a number of fair complaints about the book, not
the least of which is that Amy Schutzer is clearly very enamored with her prose;
even for a book that aims (often successfully) for a somewhat ethereal, lyrical
vibe, Spheres of Disturbance contains
a fair share of ridiculous, overwrought language that shakes readers right out
of their pleasant stupor. Schutzer is also a proponent of the absolutely
maddening tendency to make what I'm sure is some horribly pretentious point by
omitting quotation marks, though she does have the decency to set off different
speakers with line breaks and, usually, their spoken words with commas. This
always sets off my bullshit alarm, and the kindest thing I can say about it
here is that it wasn't always completely disruptive and most of the dialogue
was understandable as such- that the latter point should be a given is, I suppose,
too much to ask of the current litfic crowd. Schutzer does, however, navigate
many of the other traditional litfic pitfalls with an element of grace. Most
impressive, perhaps, is the fine integration of plot and characterization, where
each gently flows into the other, often seamlessly. Ultimately, not much
happens in Spheres of Disturbance,
but not much has to; the characters and their interactions are enough.
Schutzer, then, has accomplished
something quite impressive: she has written an unapologetically pretentious litfic
novel that is somehow emotionally moving, to the point where she often held this
very no-bullshit reader in the palm of her hand. There is a subtle compelling
quality to this book, even if Schutzer sometimes says the obvious through
narration or (presumed) dialogue and utilizes a pregnant pig- yes, a pig- as
one of her central viewpoint characters. This, and many other things that I
usually hate, worked for me in this novel, even the baldly Mary Sue poet whose
supposedly on-the-spot poems are clearly anything but. Perhaps it is because
each of the characters is recognizable in ourselves, or because their stories
intersect and parallel each other so compellingly as they fade in and fade out
of view; perhaps it is the suspense and tension that are somehow tightened
despite much of the plot being blatantly telegraphed throughout the novel. The
book also has compelling subplots that illustrate its central theme, which
revolves around the necessary connection between disturbance and (self-)discovery.
From the teenager who finally reaches the tipping point to the group of truly
terrible people who end up providing some (perhaps unintentional?) dark comic
relief to the people most directly affected by a woman's quick decline, the inhabitants
of Schutzer's spheres are all chasing a kind of resolution; much as in life,
they receive and wait as their closure arrives as expected, surprises them in a
much different form, or eludes them for just one more hour, day, or lifetime. Spheres of Disturbance constantly took
me by surprise, moving me when I wasn't inclined to be moved and creating something
beautiful in line with- though occasionally despite- its lofty ambitions; in
that way, it's just like life, I guess.
Grade: A-
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