The Leftovers

By Tom Perrotta

A startling, thought-provoking novel about love, connection and loss from the New York Times bestselling author of The Abstinence Teacher and Little Children.

What if the Rapture happened and you got left behind? Or what if it wasn't the Rapture at all, but something murkier, a burst of mysterious, apparently random disappearances that shattered the world in a single moment, dividing history into Before and After, leaving no one unscathed? How would you rebuild your life in the wake of such a devastating event?

This is the question confronting the bewildered citizens of Mapleton, a formerly comfortable suburban community that lost over a hundred people in the Sudden Departure. Kevin Garvey, the new mayor, wants to speed up the healing process, to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to his traumatized neighbours, even as his own family falls apart. His wife, Laurie, has left him to enlist in the Guilty Remnant, a homegrown cult whose members take a vow of silence but haunt the streets of town as "living reminders" of God's judgment. His son, Tom, is gone, too, dropping out of college to follow a sketchy prophet by the name of Holy Wayne. Only Kevin's teenaged daughter, Jill, remains, and she's definitely not the sweet "A" student she used to be. Kevin wants to help her, but he's distracted by his growing attraction to Nora Durst, a woman who lost her entire family in the tragedy, and is still reeling three years later, groping for a way to face the remainder of her life.

Through the prism of a single family, Perrotta illuminates a familiar America made strange by grief and apocalyptic anxiety. The Leftovers is a powerful and deeply moving book about people struggling to hold on to a belief in their own futures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Aug 30, 2011
• ISBN: 9780307366931

Tom Perrotta

Tom Perrotta is the author of several works of fiction: Bad Haircut, The Wishbones, Election, and the New York Times bestselling Joe College and Little Children. Election and Little Children were made into critically acclaimed movies. The Leftovers and Mrs. Fletcher were both adapted into HBO series. He lives outside of Boston.

Reviews for The Leftovers

[howifeelaboutbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Even though The Leftovers has a hint of a supernatural storyline - the characters have been left behind after the Rapture - it is pure Tom Perrotta. There are many characters, but there is never a problem of forgetting who is who, or what storyline goes with which character. While the overall story is very compelling and well-done, I was most engrossed by the people themselves, as if the novel was an in-depth character study. Perrotta is skilled at making each character a real person, with their own unique history and voice. There were certain lines that made me laugh out loud, and some that made me catch my breath. Pure Perrotta.

[mhanover10 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

First of all, I did NOT finish this book. I have 3 CDs left and I just can't take it anymore. I've been wanting to quit since CD 2 and thought I would give it a try but after reading the reviews I thought forget it. It's SO boring as an audio book and now that I've read some of the spoiler sections of reviews, I'm not wasting another second on this thing. Oh, and to read in one review there is a TV show based on this book! Really?! Who would waste their time on a show based on a boring book. I say skip this one, don't waste your time.

[nml_dc · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This is another example of a literary fiction author using a sci-fi trope to jazz up a story and failing to write either a good sci-fi novel or a good story about suburban malaise. The plot is wholly predictable and none of it is engaging. Disappointing after being pleasantly surprised by Little Children.

[kylekatz · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ultimately unsatisfying book about the Rapture, maybe. Lots of people disappear, but not from any one religion or in any recognizable pattern. Not really sure if it's the Rapture or not, people are waiting for the final trump to sound. Don't hold your breath; it doesn't happen in the book. Tells about how some people deal with having their loved ones disappear in the blink of an eye. Definitely some imaginative conceptions, but not earth-shattering or important. Readable and mildly amusing?

[kimreadthis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An interesting idea of what would happen if a significant portion of the world's population randomly disappeared, with no detectable rhyme or reason to whom or why. I enjoyed the idea of various cults developing. I read this after watching the HBO series, so was suprrised by the lack of additional characters and not a lot of plot development. There was no real resolution in the book, while the series tried to supply some.

[dariazeoli · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Leftovers is a character study in the lives of a group of people after a Rapture-like event occurs, leaving those left behind feeling survivor's guilt and other emotions that change the course of their lives.

I feel that the premise for this story was interesting and was certainly engaged enough to want to learn what happened to the people who were focused on throughout the story, but somewhere along the line it began to feel as though nothing remarkable was to come of any of it. While it was an entertaining read, I closed the book feeling a bit disappointed.

[fearshop · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is one of the few times the book is not as good as the movie/TV show. The show is much more intense and the characters are developed better believe it or not. I found I liked none of the characters in the book. I felt cheated at the end. Like the author just decided that was a good place to stop. Maybe I was expecting too much.

[annhepburn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is flat-out fantastic. Take all the best bits of Perrotta's previous genius novels (Election, Joe College, Little Children, The Abstinence Teacher) and mix it with a "Rapture-like event" and... Perrotta's best ever!

Read it quick, before they turn it into a TV show and it loses its amazingness.

[chucknorton · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In this novel, Perrotta explores a world much like our own, but with the major difference that, in his imagined universe, three per cent of the people of the Earth had suddenly vanished (a few years before the events of the novel) without leaving a trace of evidence as to what caused their disappearance, where they have gone and, most troubling of all- why they have left everyone else behind. While fundamentalist Christians describe the mass disappearance as the Rapture, although the disappeared include proportional numbers of non-Christians, atheists, and unsavory individuals such as Charles Manson, while leaving millions of the presumably "saved" un-Raptured, the general secular term for the event becomes the Sudden Departure. The vast majority left to go on with their lives are the "Leftovers" and this is their story.Unlike the HBO series based on the novel, other than the initial Departure itself, there is not much of the supernatural in this tale. There is the cult of the Guilty Remnants, who believe the End is Near, who take up smoking as a sacrament and a vow of silence and go about annoying people with their morose message. There is also the cult of Holy Wayne, who seems to have supernormal powers of empathy but who turns out to be an all too human con man. And, representing the ordinary man in response to unfathomable tragedy, is Kevin Garvey, mayor of Mapleton, New York, whose family has fallen apart and whose community has also been traumatized by the Departure and its aftermath of emotional stress. It is a tale of loss and grief, and also of hope and the suggestion of recovery.

[bpeters65 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A very quick and satisfying read. I can easily see this being made into a movie or mini series. It just lends itself to that medium. If you're into a book that reads like a movie, with lots of great dialogue and a very unique story, than this book is for you.* As a footnote, it was made into a series on HBO and I love it! First season followed the book. Second is even better than the first.

[jewel.barnett · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was an interesting book. It grabs you if you are interested in takes on the Rapture. This book focuses on the people who are left behind and how they manage to survive.
The ending was a real twist.

[eurafalsky · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you're hoping for a sci-fi, doomsday twist, this is not the book for you. It's slow, haunting, and in the end you realize you have been lead into nothing, which turns out to be a beginning.

[birdo82 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Subdued just like the suburban life which is its backdrop, "The Leftovers" is a poignant post-9/11 tale about the various ways people cope with great and sudden loss.

[techeditor_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

THE LEFTOVERS is about the lives of people in one small town after millions of people all over the world suddenly disappeared. Many people think it was "the rapture," the belief among some Christian religions that all Christian believers will rise into the sky and join Christ before the end of the world. Rather than "the rapture," others call this the "sudden departure" because the phenomenon was random, i.e., it involved non-Christians as well as Christians.The town is full of different reactions: cults develop and some people join them. Others are full of guilt or are upset because they, too, were not taken. One woman in town lost her entire family, and she sometimes seems to be the most confused of all. Many people in the town, people like Kevin, the Mayor, and his daughter Jill, have not decided what happened, but they want to get back to their lives as they were before. They have varying degrees of success.This is a thought-provoking book. If I lost someone like this, if they just up and disappeared, would I figure they were gone forever? Or would I keep the faith that they might come back, that they could suddenly reappear just as they suddenly disappeared?I did not want THE LEFTOVERS to end. Even so, I've decided that it's a 4-star novel, not 5. Why?Although its observations about the human condition, all the possible reactions to life-changing events, is well written and right on, although this book is a page turner, it didn't grab me the way 5-star novels have. It kept me expecting something more.

[kp9949 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

After seeing the HBO version of this book, I had to read the novel. It is different from the series. Not completely different but it has a slightly different "feel" to it. One day, "The Rapture" occurs. Or is really The Rapture? Families are torn apart. Whole families disappear. What does this occurrence do to those left behind? I enjoyed the book a lot and I kind of wish there would be a sequel.

[beckyjg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

So, the Rapture. It's been predicted a bunch of times throughout Christian history, most recently--and very spectacularly, with radio spots and billboards in Spanish and English all over the country--by California radio evangelist Harold Camping, who predicted that most of us would be left behind on May 21, 2011 and then, when that date came and went, on October 21 of the same year. Needless to say, that hasn't happened. But it's a fascinating concept that has captivated religious and irreligious alike for hundreds of years. There's even a long-running series of supernatural thrillers by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins which is set among those not taken up. The Left Behind books scare the bejesus, if you'll pardon the expression, out of people, and are wildly popular.Tom Perrotta's latest book The Leftovers tackles the Rapture--or, to be more accurate, the sociological and psychological effects of a "Rapture-like phenomenon"--with both mordant wit and generosity of spirit. As the book opens the world is still reeling from what is being called the "Sudden Departure," which saw millions of people around the world disappear from dinner tables and airplanes, classrooms and bedrooms and offices, all at the same moment. The world is still reeling, and people are still scratching their heads at the meaning of the event, which doesn't appear to have come from a religious place of reward and punishment, as those taken came from all faiths, and even included unbelievers. Society as a whole has coped as well as can be expected. Leaders secular and religious have sought a cause or a reason for the event. Many have lost their faith. Cults have arisen, and two, the Guilty Remnant and the Healing Hug Movement, will play an important role in the lives of the Garveys, the family at the center of The Leftovers. The Guilty Remnant, or GR, is a group the mission of which is to remind those who remain that the end really is nigh, and that the way to reserve a place on the next elevator up is to take a vow of silence and mortify the flesh to assure one's readiness and purity. The GR dress in white and are never seen in public without a cigarette (a visible reminder that the physical self is the least important aspect of the person). The Healing Huggers follow a charismatic who calls himself Holy Wayne and who can take on an individual's spiritual pain, if only temporarily, through his hugs.Each member of the Garvey family has dealt with the Sudden Departure differently. Father Kevin, who was elected mayor of the small town of Mapleton not long after the event, strives for normality. Kevin is relentlessly cheerful. He makes omelets for daughter Jill and her friend Aimee, arranges for an anniversary parade remembering those who were taken, waits for wife Laurie to come to her senses and return to him. Laurie has joined the Guilty Remnant, and can be seen around town dressed in white, smoking, and staring relentlessly at those targeted by her group for...censure? recruitment? judgement? It's never entirely clear. Elder child Tom left college to join Holy Wayne's entourage, and is now on the run from the scandal that has brought the cult down. And Jill, the younger child, just runs wild. She's shaved her head, smokes dope in the morning, cuts classes. As in his previous novels (most recently Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher), Tom Perrotta manages both to skewer contemporary suburban sensibilities and to treat them with an achingly beautiful sensitivity. His characters, while as bristly, self-centered, and annoying as they come, are at the same time real and rich, and so well-rounded I identified with each in turn. I frequently found myself wondering as I read what form my dealing would take, were I to be in the position of the left behind. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'd join a cult. But a fun one.

[david_brown_851454 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The Leftovers was an unknown book to me until a friend mentioned over coffee one evening this confusing book that had been loaned to him by one of his friends. He mentioned it a couple of times over the next few weeks, and consistently referenced that, while it was an easy read, he just couldn't figure out what it was that the author was up to. Because of my background, though, he had sought his friend's permission to loan the book to me in turn when he finished, because he was interested in my opinion.

The premise of the Leftovers is this: a Rapture-like event called the Great Departure has occurred, and the story picks up with those who have been (pardon the cliche) left behind. Except this event didn't mesh with the Rapture of Christian theology, because people of all faiths are missing, just as many Christians are left behind. Obviously, the world toys with falling apart, and many individuals do just that. Perrotta centers his story on the citizens of one mid-western U.S. town, Mapleton, and how they survive and move forward.

Many religious cults begin to manifest in this future world that Perrotta spins, and all of them seem to emerge from a similar motivation: they are all attempting to correct whatever it was that had been missed in the first place. There's the Guilty Remnant, a fascinating idea for a group of characters, consisting of white-clad watchers that smoke cigarettes and mutely stare at you to remind you that you shouldn't be moving on with life or forgetting what they feel God has done. There's the more humorous Holy Wayne, who marries a few teenage girls and manages to get one pregnant with what he predicts will be the miracle child that will save the world. And, there's the more down to earth pastor whom, unbelieving that he has devoted his whole life to God and yet been deserted, begins to self-publish a newsletter exposing all the sins of the people who vanished, as though to find an outlet for his bitterness.

The Leftovers isn't a heavy read at all, but each evening I picked it up was a struggle. I hefted the book from the coffee table and generally grumbled about how unfair life was and why I should have my head examined for pushing through this thing. In fact, I have difficulty remembering the last time I struggled so much to simply finish a book. This is in contrast, however, to the last twenty pages, which I suddenly found nearly impossible to put down. So, to say that the pacing felt a bit odd to me would be an understatement.

One of the reviews on the book jacket describes Perrotta as the "Steinbeck of Suburbia," and I'll draw this comparison to Steinbeck's work immediately: this novel is supremely depressing (and this coming from someone who enjoys dystopian concepts). What Perrotta does masterfully is weave thoroughly developed characters who are working, some successfully and some not, through the grief process. I found myself heartbroken for some of them, and the touching descriptions of their most intimate struggles and attempts to cope were perhaps what made the book difficult to take in longer sittings.

The friend who loaned this book to me? He told me that his friend had told him that, for him, the entire novel came down to the last sentence. He urged me to resist the urge to look forward, and to wait for it to arrive. So I did. My friend also told me that, if that last sentence is really what the novel is working toward, then it didn't have much. I'll just say that it fell hopelessly flat.

And that, ultimately, is my description of much the book: hopelessly flat. That has a great deal to do with the fact that the reader finishes with absolutely no clue what Perrotta is trying to accomplish here. I've heard others say that he doesn't have an axe to grind, but I'm not so convinced. I would have walked away from the book much more fulfilled had I simply been able to get some glimpse of what axe it was, but Perrotta, perhaps intentionally, leaves it obscured. What seems most likely to me is a treatment of the shortfalls of organized religion, but even this reading runs into difficulties soon enough. I finished this book emotionally wrung out, but more bemused than I have been by a work of literary fiction in some time.

Perhaps I'm looking too deeply, and Perrotta is simply painting a picture of working through the grief of sudden and enormous loss, and how some always find ways to hope and move forward, while some become twisted and forever fractured, all againt an imaginative premise as a backdrop. If this is the case, then he certainly writes his characters beautifully, but to a shallow end. If this is what Perrotta wanted to accomplish, then he certainly did so, but I found it wanting. I have difficulty recommending this book to anyone.

[aldusmanutius · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not sure I found the way people's grief played out very plausible.

[septima-3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Set itself up very well for a sequel...

[stephkaye-923485 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Like every Tom Perrotta book I've read so far (or listened to, in this case), I loved it. The characters are complex and real, yet always capable of surprising you. The plot is not action-packed, yet totally engrossing. Highly recommended, especially for forty-somethings and teens, two of his common character types.

[aug3zimm-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book isn't quite was I was expecting. I was anticipating it having more of an immediately post-Rapture plot but it doesn't - most of this happens three years afterwards. It did seem to me to be a bit of a long wait between the event and people acting out from their grief, but I still found the book was massively engaging. It's really more of a character study, watching how each member of a family group (plus one) deals with the losses they've experienced. Grief, if done well, interests me (perhaps because of the somewhat higher than average number of family deaths I dealt with when I was young). This grief is done very well and I could barely put the book down. The characters don't always make logical choices or even smart ones, but it was fascinating to watch the paths they choose to take and why. I didn't particularly care for many/any of the characters (especially the males' tendency to be attracted to teenage/underage girls - totally could have done without that) but I was still very into the book and could barely put it down - I finished this book the same day I started it.

[annith-2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Tom Perrotta writes about ordinary people, living ordinary lives in suburbia. In his previous books, he?s told the tale of young suburban parents falling into an extra-marital affair (?Little Children?), of a New Jersey student who goes to Yale and learns how to integrate his persona as the son of a lunch-truck driver with that of an Ivy League student (?Joe College?), and of a high school sex-ed teacher whose career is jeopardized after admitting to her students that people may engage in oral sex because they like it (?The Abstinence Teacher?). Even the central dramatic events in these (very good) books are, well, ordinary.?The Leftovers? is different. While it?s again about ordinary people living in suburbia, the novel takes place after a most extraordinary event: the ?Sudden Disappearance? in which millions of people around the world have vanished. It?s a rapture-like event, except that unlike the rapture, the people in Perrott?s book just literally disappear rather than flying into the sky, and unlike the rapture, there appears to be no rhyme or reason to which people disappear. Those who do include ?Hindus and Buddhists and Muslims and Jews and atheists and animists and homosexuals and Eskimos and Mormans and Zoroastrians?, as well as a whole bunch celebrities: ?John Mellencamp and Jennifer Lopez, Shaq and Adam Sandler, Miss Texas and Greta Van Susteren, Vladimiar Putin and the Pope.? The Sudden Disappearance happens on Oct. 14, and the multiple references to ?Oct. 14? are clearly intended to recall Sept. 11, and the thousands who suddenly disappeared that fateful day.Perrotta?s novel begins three years after the Sudden Disappearance and focuses on the residents of the Mapleton who were left behind?the leftovers. They?ve responded in two ways. Some, like Kevin Garvey, have tried to regain the ordinary lives they led prior to Oct. 14, doing things like running for mayor and joining a softball team, while others, like Kevin?s wife Laurie, adopt extreme and unusual behaviors. Laurie, for example, joins the G.R.?the Guilty Remnants?a cult who members wear white, refuse to speak, and wander around town smoking cigarettes and staring at??watching??people outside the G.R. Another cult eschews baths and shoes?allowing just the slight leniency of flip-flops when there?s snow on the ground?while a third gathers around a prophet who offers healing hugs, but also turns out to have a penchant for impregnating underage girls. And then there?s the Rev. Matt Jamison, who is so disappointed that he has been left behind that he makes it his personal mission to out all the infidelities and petty crimes of those who have disappeared.Perrotta makes clear that both types of response to an event like Oct. 14 (and thus, Sept. 11?) are fraught with problems. The craziness of the cults is evident, but so is the craziness of trying to resume an ordinary life: to do so is to behave in ways that can?t be anything but absurd. Here is Perrotta describing a Thanksgiving dinner: ?What a beautiful bird, they kept telling one another, which was a weird things to say about a dead thing without a head. And then . . .cousin Jerry had made everyone post for a group photograph, with the beautiful bird occupying the place of honor.? And here, he depicts an announcement at the City Council Meeting: ?Congratulations to Brownie Troop 173, whose second annual gingerbread cookie fund-raiser netted over three hundred dollars for Fuzzy Amigos International, a charity that sends stuffed animals to impoverished indigenous children in Ecuador, Boliva, and Peru?. What would pass without comment during a normal time becomes downright ludicrous when huge numbers of people have just evaporated. And yet, the book?s ending makes clear Perrotta?s real belief about how we must respond to tragedy. After an unexpected revelation about the G.R. that wallops the reader, there is a further tidying of loose ends that leaves one with hope about the future of those characters who have determined that they will go on living their ordinary lives.

[gbelik_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

What happens to those huwho remain after a rapturelike event causes a mass disappearance? This a study of how people behave in the midst of grief and a loss of their faith in a predictable future. Some choose a cult devoted to the idea of an immanent end of the world and some live a life that seems remarkably unaffected by the recent catastrophe. Interesting, but I found d that I didn't develop much connection with the characters.

[stevesmits · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One day -- all across the world -- people suddenly disappear. Is this the rapture prophesized in the bible? It seems so, but the composition of the "chosen" makes no sense. Children, atheists, non-Christians, some clearly bad people are among the missing. If there's no coherence to who was taken and who was left will what happens next be according to the commonly held teachings in the bible? The "leftovers", those not chosen, are stunned and grieving. How should they live their lives after this stupendous event?This novel describes the impact on those left behind through the reactions of families in a small northeastern town. Kevin and Laurie Garvey are a fairly prosperous couple with two teenaged children. None of their family was taken, but the daughter of a close friend is among those missing. Kevin, who is the mayor of the town, determines to restore as much normalcy to his, and the town's life, as possible. Laurie, however, is deeply affected by the event and joins a cult that has emerged. The "Guilty Remnant", also known as the Watchers, live communally, dress in white garb, take a vow of silence, and, oddly, must incessantly smoke as a sign of adherence to their beliefs. The Watchers persistently follow people around the town staring at them ostensibly to remind them of their failings as righteous people. There are a series of murders of Watchers that are believed to be by someone angry with the group's behavior, but are really staged by the cult to produce martyrs. The Garvey's daughter, Jill, drifts away from her persona as a good student to the wild side of drinking, drugs and sex, led by her new friend, Aimee, who takes up residence in the Garvey home. Tom, the Garvey's college student, is obsessed by the disappearances and drops out of school to take up with "Holy Wayne", a cult figure who has lost his son, and gains attention by claiming to be able to physically draw sorrow from the grieving. Tom cuts himself off from his family and follows Holy Wayne around the country. Tom grows increasingly disaffected about Wayne's growing scandalous behavior, especially the harem of young girls he has gathered around him. Wayne eventually is arrested for his sexual liaisons with the girls and Tom becomes a sort of guardian for Christine, a sixteen year-old who was impregnated by Wayne to deliver a "savior" for the new order. Nora Durst is a women in her late thirties whose husband and two young children have disappeared. Nora is deeply struggling with her guilt and grief. Her pain is increased when a former minister, Matt Jamison, exposes her husband's infidelity. Jamison has been greatly wounded by not being among the chosen as he has led the life that he believes entitles him to this. In reaction, he disputes that the event was the foretold rapture and sets out to prove this by defaming the reputations of people in the town who are departed. Nora has a great deal of difficulty shedding her sorrow and is continually painfully aware of other people's sensitivity to her state.The story reveals how those who were left behind have left also. Laurie abandoned her family to an entirely new life that is radically extreme. Without having experienced direct loss of family she creates it herself. By the end of the novel, she has participated in one of the martyrdom events and her own fate is vague, but probably doomed. Kevin takes up with Nora, but can never break through the veil of her grief borne withdrawal. Nora gives up on attempts to reestablish herself and attempts to physically change her appearance to become a new person in a new place. An event at the very end of the book suggests that it's still possible she will be able to revive her life with Kevin. Jill comes close to joining cult, but veers back toward a normal teenage life. Tom breaks with the Holy Wayne cult, but does not rejoin his family.The story is not overtly religious. It does not seek to explain or dispute the possibility that a rapture event could occur, but only to describe that it did and that it did not make sense. Whatever it was or wasn't it had a profound affect on those left behind and changed their lives wholly. Creating believable reactions in people in the context of an implausible fantastic event shows Perrotta's skill as a story teller.

[javagg-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is very character-driven, so much so that I kept thinking the whole time I was reading it "What's going to happen next?" But unfortunately there's not a lot of fulfilling ends tied up in this novel.

The setting takes place in a suburban town called Mapleton that is still dealing with the loss of friends and family members who disappeared 3 years prior in a Rapture-like event, which they call the Sudden Departure.

The novel follows a few main characters. One family Kevin, Laurie, and their teen-aged children Tom and Jill, remain on Earth after the event, but they each slowly drift apart from each other. Tom gets caught up in a religious cult-like movement while away at college, then mother Laurie joins the Watchers group, members who have taken a vow of silence, only wear white shapeless outfits, and are required to smoke cigarettes while in public. The Watchers follow people in the town around.
Kevin has been elected mayor of the town and finds himself lonely, failing in attempts to find new female companionship after his wife deserted him, and doing a poor job of engaging with his daughter Jill.

Contrasted by this story of a family that survived the Sudden Departure only to be torn apart, is the story of a woman named Nora, who was eating dinner with her husband and two young children when they all vanished, leaving her behind. She spends her time watching Spongebob Squarepants episodes to try to feel in touch with her son who used to enjoy the show. She goes for 70 mile bike rides and avoids most contact with people.

The intricacies and heartbreak of the characters from these two families intersect, but exist only (in my opinion) as interesting portraits of what would happen if a Rapture really did happen. The story doesn't dig into any questions or attempt to explain what the Rapture is - no context from scientists or government officials to get that aspect of what society would be like in a situation like this. Because those types of questions weren't explored or answered, for me it wasn't as fulfilling of a book as I was expecting - mostly because I enjoy end of the world books for the descriptions of what it's like and why it happened. This novel acts as a tiny snapshot of what one community is going through but doesn't widen the lens to anything outside of this.

I'm giving it 4 stars because the author is a very good writer and the prose was excellent. However, based on the story alone, it would be 3 stars, because it's not a story that moved me to tears or to think too much, it was just simply interesting.

[m2snick · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A clever notion for a book. I wanted to like it but couldn't really get there. None of the characters came to life for me. Leftovers maybe, but left lingering in the fridge too long.

[casualfriday_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The Leftovers are those left behind when many people on the planet are abruptly disappeared. It sounds like the Rapture, but the disappearances are random - Greta Van Susteren, Adam Sandler and the Pope are among the missing celebrities. Nevertheless, those remaining are prompted to make religious sense out of it all, and various oddball cults spring up to help people cope.This book was very strange, and I mostly didn't like it. I get that the Sudden Disappearance was not really the point of the book, but when you use a plot device that dramatic, you owe the reader a little meat: the impact on the world economy, on war, on media, etc. Inside, the book focuses on the white-bread residents of an excruciatingly banal suburban town, and their - I'm sorry - boring little dramas. If someone decided to write a parody of what a post-apocalyptic novel would be like if Tom Perrotta wrote it, they might come up with this. Somebody please tell me what I'm missing.

[bibleblaster · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I found this an enjoyable read, with a story and characters that kept me interested and looking forward to opportunities to read more. It was nothing incredibly deep but held some nice reflections on loss, memory, love...how events change shape in restrospect. I also liked the speculation on the types of religious groups that may form in the wake of a "rapture-like" event. They seemed fairly plausible to me.

[klburnside · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I felt there was a lot of unrealized potential in this book. It has such an interesting premise, and it was played out well in many ways, but I felt there was something lacking. Still, it was a quick and enjoyable read, and I was always anxious to get back to it after I put it down.

[kvrfan9 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

For all that reviewers have picked up on the science-fictional McGuffin of this book--millions of people unexplainedly vanishing in an instant--I haven't read anything of them identifying this novel for what it is: a post-9/11 book. The ones are taken and the ones who are left are so random that the remnant is left not only with the loss but with the survivor's dilemma: "Why?"

While in the wake of a "mass extinction" event, everyone's life will never be the same, everyone deals with grief in his/her own way. Some barely cope; others manage to carry on in, a little wiser perhaps, in their own way.

Of course, since the beginning of human history, people have had to deal with the grief of mass losses--the Europeans in the aftermath of World War I, the Russians after World War II, the Armenians, the Cambodians, the Ugandans. But why The Leftovers seems particularly a post-9/11 book is that the way the characters cope with their grief in this book is peculiarly narcissistic, i.e. peculiarly American. Perrotta once again demonstrates he keeps a keen finger on the American pulse and reads it well.