The Antidote

Unflinching history and a touch of magical realism told through a handful of fully fledged characters. I loved this novel. A fellow reviewer described it as devastating and hopeful - absolutely correct.

The personalities make the novel. With names like Harp, Asphodel and Clio, how could they not? They are thrust into historical events, accurately described the the author. A massive dust storm, an editor who hole punches negatives he doesn't like, and crashing prices of wheat. What isn't told directly is through flashbacks, memories (both kept and lost to a vault) also touch on historical events and locations. My favorite of these were the story of the Pawnee tribe, also detailed in an afterword by James Riding In.

The title character "stores" memories which are then forgotten by the original patron, though they can be retrieved later. This is a powerful theme in the novel, with characters "forgetting" how they deal with others, from offenses to atrocities. Convenient (or necessary) for these settlers in their dealings with the native Pawnee, but also connected with how the Polish Oletsky were treated by the Prussians.

Some reviewers described the beginning as slow, and I can see that - a quarter of the novel is introducing these various characters and fleshing them out. Rabbits, inmates, basketball and secrets all end up very important in the end. I had a slower start myself, partly because I left the library book at home while traveling for a week. Absolutely certain those characters tumbled through my unconscious while on the road. Just wish it had been to Nebraska!

The basketball also resonated with me, including one quote late in the novel (below). This is in my top two of 60+ fiction read this year (so far), and I wouldn't hesitate to recommended it.

“Up until the final buzzer, Coach used to tell us, you can always turn things around. Play like that. Play like you believe it's possible, even when you're down by twenty.”
? Karen Russell, The Antidote