When talking about a visit to the province of Fuzhou, China, she recalls: “If Fuzhou Nighttime Feeling were a sound, it would be early/mid-nineties R&B. Much of the book’s appeal comes from Candace’s dry sense of humor and evocative observations. Told in the voice of a witty, impenetrable narrator, Ma’s novel is familiar yet refreshing. It combines elements of a horror novel, adds a twist to the leaving-New-York essay, and serves as a satirical piece on modern capitalism. Beyond the obvious similarities between the work of fiction and the actual COVID-19 pandemic, the book is a beautiful palimpsest. It’s at this point that she decides to leave.ĭespite being published in 2018, “Severance” feels like a book of the current moment. Only then does she realize that she is one of the few alive in the city, possibly the country. Alone and immune to the disease, Candace moves to her Manhattan office. She continues working there as her boyfriend leaves the city, as her co-workers leave the office, and even as the city itself crumbles under the weight of the Shen Fever global pandemic. Candace Chen works at a publishing production firm in New York. In Ling Ma’s novel “Severance,” the protagonist hustles through the apocalypse.
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