The End of October, by Lawrence Wright

As a pandemic sweeps the globe, CDC scientist Dr. Henry Parsons races to identify the virus and find a cure.  Lawrence Wright, writer of acclaimed non-fiction like The Looming Tower and Going Clear, takes on dystopian fiction in this incredibly prescient novel.  This was already on my “to-read” list before we found ourselves smack dab in the middle of our own pandemic; given Wright’s meticulous research  and attention to detail, I was anxious to read this and see how it differed from or was similar to our current situation.

Sadly, this novel is a mess.   A hot mess.  It starts well enough, as Parsons identifies the virus outbreak in a camp in Indonesia, and then travels to Saudi Arabia to try to contain the outbreak during the pilgrimage to Mecca.  Even though I had a few quibbles with the story at this point (as one of the world’s most preeminent virologists, Parsons makes some astonishing errors in judgment when he visits the Indonesian camp), I flew through the first third of the novel.

Then the wheels fell off.

I don’t want to be too specific so as to not spoil this novel for other readers, but suffice it to say: I think Wright needs to stick to non-fiction.  This novel was full of holes, lacked characterization, included entire chapters that had no bearing on the plot (Idaho?) and skipped around in maddening ways.  Marooning the main character in Saudi Arabia and then in a submarine — while the pandemic raged world-wide — was an incredibly odd choice.  

I could go on and on about the problems here, but I won’t.  This novel needed an editor and a substantial re-write.  Wright is incredibly talented, and much of this novel was eerily prescient, but ultimately this was a disappointment.  This would’ve been an acceptable first novel from an unknown author but I expect more from Wright.  Skip it.