Jenny Offill’s Weather is a surprisingly moving and sharp novel set in a not so distant future. It follows computer scientist Lizzie Benson as she navigates a rocky romantic relationship, her job working with a guru weatherman, and her role as a concerned mother in an America growing ever more politically complex and chaotic. The novel owes much of its charm to Offill's witty, wry observations and her deft character development.
The story opens in the near future with Lizzie pondering her relationship with her boyfriend. She's been in love with Arthur, an Austrian art professor, for years but can't seem to keep things together. Meanwhile, her job working nights doing customer service for a popular online weatherman brings her little joy or fulfillment. Suddenly, a life-changing opportunity arises. She is offered a job to assist the self-proclaimed Prophet, a doomsday weatherman who broadcasts from his bunker in Indiana. Lizzie takes the job, hoping for the best, despite warnings from those close to her that her new boss could be a crackpot.
In Indiana, the Prophet's cool demeanor quickly thaws and he reveals his true mission—to monitor and forecast upcoming catastrophic events that could occur as the result of climate change. All the while, Lizzie struggles to manage her tension, both professional and personal, as she navigates the chaos of a changing world. To make matters worse, she worries about the safety of her son Elias, caught in the grip of teenage hormones and the bizarre political landscape of his school in New York City.
With her intuition, Lizzie must decide who and what to trust, who to evict from her past, and whether or not to believe the Doomsday Prophet's forecasts. Weather expertly melds science, technology and family in a stunning depiction of one woman's attempt to stop disaster with knowledge and love.
Jenny Offill's novel is a masterfully-crafted script of emotional intensity and scientific mystery. Her use of metaphor and symbolism gives us a window into the current political, social, and climate crisis we find ourselves in. In Weather, Offill shows us our current reality, urging us to face and confront these crises with a newfound hope of love and knowledge. She also captures the fear and anxiety of a fraught future and a mother's desperation to keep her child safe.
Weather is a captivatingly tender and emotionally powerful story that is thought-provoking and full of ideas about the power of science, the importance of family, and the ultimate hope for a better world. By the end of the novel, readers will be moved and inspired as they come away with a newfound faith in humanity and a braver spirit to combat the disastrous effects of climate change.
