Although the novel’s narrative structure borrows from the best-selling evangelical apocalyptic literary series entitled Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. The protagonists embody different life choices, suggesting the long-lasting imprint of the past over the present: Laurie Garvey has decided to join the Guilty Remnants, a community whose members are determined to honour the departed, while her husband Mayor Kevin Garvey strives to preserve social order in Mapleton. An omniscient narrator gives insight into the characters’ intimate journeys, raising philosophical questions about the meaning of individual and community life.
The novel focuses on the community of Mapleton and relates how its residents cope with the memory of the rapture three years after it occurred. 2 “ Left Behind is part of a tradition of rapture fiction that dates to the early part of the twentiet (.)ġ This excerpt from the prologue of The Leftovers introduces the traumatic event that propels the narrative of Tom Perrotta’s novel The Leftovers (2012): two per cent of the world population suddenly disappeared on that fateful day of October 14 th creating immediate chaos.With heart, intelligence and a rare ability to illuminate the struggles inherent in ordinary lives, Tom Perrotta has written a startling, thought-provoking novel about love, connection and loss.
Kevin wants to help her, but he’s distracted by his growing relationship with Nora Durst, a woman who lost her entire family on October 14th and is still reeling from the tragedy, even as she struggles to move beyond it and make a new start. Only Kevin’s teenaged daughter, Jill, remains, and she’s definitely not the sweet “A” student she used to be. Kevin’s own family has fallen apart in the wake of the disaster: his wife, Laurie, has left to join the Guilty Remnant, a home-grown cult whose members take a vow of silence his son, Tom, is gone too, dropping out of college to follow a sketchy prophet named Holy Wayne. Kevin Garvey, Mapleton’s new mayor, wants to speed up the healing process, to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to his traumatized community. Because nothing has been the same since it happened-not marriages, not friendships, not even the relationships between parents and children. That’s what the bewildered citizens of Mapleton, who lost many of their neighbors, friends and lovers in the event known as the Sudden Departure, have to figure out. What if – whoosh, right now, with no explanation – a number of us simply vanished? Would some of us collapse? Would others of us go on, one foot in front of the other, as we did before the world turned upside-down?
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