INFINITE TENDERNESS

Clemens’ novel tells the tale of a divided family in the wake of a terrible disaster.

In 2005, nearly a month after Hurricane Katrina hit Hancock County, Mississippi, dental technician Delia “Dewey” Bassett is still looking for her missing 19-year-old son, Landon. Disaster workers Travis Harney and Lew Roche attempt to help, journeying to Picayune, where they meet Dewey’s estranged partner—and Landon’s father—commercial diver Hershel Prall. Later, the family’s ever-present pain transforms into something new, something sharper, and Travis and Lew take it upon themselves to support Landon’s parents. Travis heads back to Biloxi, while Lew remains with Dewey and Hershel, bearing witness as their anguish gives way to other emotions, kept inside for years. Although the novel’s plot follows a clear central throughline, Clemens tells the story in vignette-like sections, allowing readers to get a strong sense of the community that surrounds these characters—all of whom are rebuilding their lives, too. Simultaneously, the author makes clear that the central narrative is just one part of a larger whole. The area in which they live is forever changed by Katrina, marked by loss and displacement, but also allowing for the titular “infinite tenderness” of strangers. Vivid descriptions fill out the world with striking detail: “The inland side of the building is a bright cornflower blue, but it looks like the hurricane did a number on the weather side, its metal sheets stripped down to battleship gray by the winds, many of them twisted and pried away from the studs.” Overall, the story gets at something real and alive as characters rekindle strained relationships and building new ones along the way.

A touching, clarifying story about the potential for kindness, even at the worst of times.