Modern Boheme vol. 12 | Book Review - "The Displacements" by Bruce Holsinger
In “The Displacements”, Bruce Holsinger paints a stark picture of what could happen if the world’s first category 6 hurricane were to sweep across Florida and Texas. In 2020, the week before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the country, I was planning to visit Miami for a work trip. Climate change’s impacts on the coast and climate gentrification were top of mind as I prepared a detailed retreat for 30+ CEOs from big greens (national environmental organizations). Of course, that trip was canceled but I made it to Miami last year, with those concerns still fresh in mind.
This is the book summary from Amazon,
“To all appearances, the Larsen-Hall family has everything: healthy children, a stable marriage, a lucrative career for Brantley, and the means for Daphne to pursue her art full-time. Their deluxe new Miami life has just clicked into place when Luna—the world’s first category 6 hurricane—upends everything they have taken for granted.
When the storm makes landfall, it triggers a descent of another sort. Their home destroyed, two of its members missing, and finances abruptly cut off, the family finds everything they assumed about their lives now up for grabs. Swept into a mass rush of evacuees from across the American South, they are transported hundreds of miles to a FEMA megashelter where their new community includes an insurance-agent-turned-drug dealer, a group of vulnerable children, and a dedicated relief worker trying to keep the peace. Will “normal” ever return?”
My Review
I picked this up on a whim from the library, knowing nothing about what it was about aside from what the inside jacket read. I’m so happy that I got it and I was drawn in immediately. Some of the characters, like most of the Larsen-Halls, are less sympathetic than others, and something is intriguing about non-sympathetic characters being the focus of the story. I felt that the weight of their despair, poor choices, and lack of acute problem-solving really highlight how devastating a climate catastrophe is for those who feel like climate change happens to ‘other people over there.’
Holsinger weaves in a variety of perspectives and my only critique is that we didn’t get to hear more of the perspective from farm workers who didn’t have the opportunity to evacuate as quickly as the Larsen-Halls or other adults from marginalized groups, but maybe that’s intentional. After all, marginalized and lower-income communities are hardest hit by climate change and also less likely to have the level of access that even the Larsen-Halls had, as bleak as it is sometimes described.
There is some real character development for many of the characters that the reader grows to know throughout the book. One of the ways this is achieved is by news segments, podcasts, and news articles that are woven within the book in light grey. I’ve always been a fan of a mixed media approach to writing as it allows us to see other perspectives and get a sense of the fullness of world-building. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for their next read. Although it is fictional, the subject matter isn’t very lighthearted so I would recommend it as an afternoon or commute read rather than a before-bed unwind.
I always recommend visiting your local public library when checking out new books. If your local library doesn’t currently carry “The Displacements” you may be able to request that they purchase a copy.
If you’re going to purchase it, I recommend visiting bookshop.org or thriftbooks over the big box sellers. Thriftbooks is my favorite online bookseller and I have not been paid to plug them (although, I would love to be!).
My Rating
4.5 out of 5 leaves. This is one of the most compelling books that I have read all year. I’m new to the environmental/climate dystopian genre and as an environmentalist who believes in the power of storytelling, I think it’s such a compelling way to make climate change real for those that don’t currently recognize its impacts. I’d love to read more by this author and more in this genre. (If you have any recommendations, please drop me a line here or over on Instagram).
in resiliency,
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