June 11, 2018
This disappointing modern retelling of the Camus classic by Chong (Beauty Plus Pity) is a war reportage–like account of a localized plague in Vancouver B.C. by three quarantined individuals: Dr. Bernard Rieux, a physician; Megan Tso, an American author partway through a book tour; and journalist Raymond Siddhu, separated from his family by the quarantine. The novel charts the progression of the plague from their perspectives, beginning with first signs of the disease and ending with the lifting of the quarantine several months later. Along the way, the novel dissects the city from other similarly trapped perspectives but always returns to the three primaries. Chong presents the near-future version of Vancouver in broad strokes that touch upon past and present stereotypes (e.g., mocking the city for its hockey riots, making note of the opioid crisis, and citing the general indifference of its people), but Chong’s characters come across as embodiments of ideas rather than people. The formal, distant style of narration echoes Camus’s original, making it difficult to get into the story. Readers are told of rising chaos at hospitals and funeral homes, and of a growing general hysteria, but they never experience it. This novel fails to engage either intellectually or satirically.