On Not Knowing

In reading Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers, there is a consistent level of uncertainty for both the characters and the reader. The premise of the novel is the mysterious disappearance of billions of men, women, and children on an autumn afternoon; an event later called the Departure. Perrotta devotes his attention to the Garvey family of Mapleton, New York, and their individual struggles in the aftermath of such a traumatic event as the Departure.

Given that there's no reasonable explanation for why so many people disappeared, the uneasiness of all of the characters is understandable. Perrotta does not solve the mystery of Departure for his characters or the reader, at least so far, and that's an authorial decision difficult to get on board with. It's difficult to understand the reasoning behind each character's behavior when you cannot understand the context of the event either. This is rather clever; it allows the reader to wonder whose path they would follow out of the Garveys: Kevin's (husband, father, and mayor) attempt at moving forward; Laurie's (wife, mother, former domestic goddess) joining of an organization dedicated to "reminding" other citizens of the agony not knowing where their loved ones Departed; Tom's (son, college dropout, devotee) following a cult leader who "takes" pain from those suffering; or Jill's (daughter, rebel, vulnerable) rebellion against her former straight-A self. It's utterly thought-
provoking.

For myself, I entirely sympathize with Jill. Her mother abandons her family for a group of white-clothes-wearing, cigarette-smoking selective mutes in the Guilty Remnant only months after her best friend vanishes from the couch they sat on. If the world as I knew it changed like that, I would not cope well. I would likely revert to an insular shell, with little to no motivation or patience for anything that I consider normal now.

Uncertainty is not something human beings are well-equipped for. It destroys and reforms all of the characters in The Leftovers, and that's what makes the story so engaging to me. Leaving the situation up to fate, or God, or whoever or whatever made human beings vanish into thin air does not sit well with anyone. Perrotta's decision to not reveal the reasoning behind the Departure makes me want to examine the roots of the Rapture more closely, and to examine the psychological effects a disappearance like that could have on the human mind. Perrotta's different representations of that on the Garveys and other characters, like Nora Durst, a young mother whose two small children and husband vanish during a normal, hectic dinner leaving her alone seem to be accurate, but I'm curious to know more.

Not knowing also engineered a philosophical reboot in me. Accepting that there will never be a concrete reason for everything is difficult to understand, as a human being who likes to control the events in her life, is something I should work on...as should many of the characters in the novel.