APOCALYPTIC POLLY

Wenzl’s memoir details her experiences during the global Covid-19 pandemic, including her encounters with grief and health anxiety.

The author, a middle-aged former reporter living in Kansas with her husband and son, depicts her life during 2020 and 2021, focusing mostly on the pandemic, social and political upheaval that occurred in the United States, and personal losses. However, a second layer to the author’s anxiousness is revealed as she talks about her parents, who lived through rationing during World War II, and her work as a journalist in the Soviet Union when she was younger; she was there in 1991, just weeks before its collapse, when food was scarce. She discusses parts of the pandemic that many other Americans experienced, such as toilet paper shortages; social isolation; learning how to do work remotely, when possible; missing family and friends; and struggling with divisive notions regarding lockdowns and vaccines. She also records her personal ordeals during this time, including the loss of the family cat, Mr. Boots, health scares for both her and her husband, and the death of a loved one from a heart attack. This novel is sure to cause readers to reflect on their own pandemic experiences and may provide a sense of catharsis. The author’s writing is easy to follow and engrossing as she relates her personal but highly relatable journey. In the end, Wenzl is hopeful, as evidenced by her closing words: “Turns out, on the other side of the end of the world, I stopped being afraid of everything,” she writes. “Because I realized death is inevitable—and living well isn’t.”

An emotionally familiar work about a struggle between fear and hope.