The voice in this is so strange, but makes everyone more intelligent and pretentious, so I like it, of course. Totally, something like Burn Without Notice comes to mind. Funny, intelligent, very strange at times. It runs no risk of feeling generic.

There’s an ostensible conspiracy ostensibly orchestrated by a synthetic water company. Wild fires are raging. Everything substantive seems to be crumbling down, as our protagonist ventures into the home of the wild fire to impress his wife and child, both of whom are tapped into the movements of the world and speak in yogi-like gestures of wisdom.

His hope is to see the adaptation of his novel to a Hollywood production, as though that would somehow rescind his malaise. He teams up with a product of Hollywood, an actress sleuth, and they become a dynamic duo of P.Is, each unwittingly using the other as a foil for their own inadequacies.

It’s a very weird novel. But it held my attention, was a pleasure to read, had themes—especially when focused on climate effects—that I personally resonate with, these days. The narration was great on the audiobook. It was a bit messy, or else it’d probably have been a five star read. It’s a notable read of the year for me, just because it’s unlike most things I’ve read.