Description
Fragility is a satirical novel set in Portland, Oregon in the year 2020 from the author Mosby Woods. Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, political unrest and wildfires, an unnamed narrator struggles with societal fragmentation and ideological polarization. He sets out to celebrate his birthday at a party of his making, and this little bash proves to be a microcosm of the even bigger chaos brewing in the city.
Woods delves into language policing, ideological extremism and the distorting boundary between social justice and anarchy. The novel challenges the reader to contemplate the potency of modern social movements and the price of societal conformity. With a jaundiced eye, Fragility picks apart the absurdities of the protagonist’s real life, which was influenced by a Soviet dissident novella from 1959, adding black humor along the way. While it can be mesmeric in its pursuit of a story, it reminds you, in so many ways, how we are and have been demonized for having different beliefs, severing our connection to critical thinking in favor of sameness.
Woods adopts a satirically, cynically — as if written social commentary in the vein of Chuck Palahniuk or Bret Easton Ellis. With sharp, witty, and often provocative voice, the unnamed narrator serves up a series of observations and critiques of contemporary society, in a biting humor.
The density is a defining feature of its writing style. There is a lot going on in the story, and Woods’ subtexts can become sharp as nails, and that will mean you will need to pay careful attention to get the most out of it, but that pays off on many levels. The copious number of footnotes and illustrative passages is a contributing factor to the density, which may overwhelm some readers. But the style does reflect well the protagonist’s overwhelmed state and the turmoil of their surroundings.
Though a lot of drama in the novel is driven by dialogue and internal monologue, Woods exhibits an analogue eye for detail as well, describing the texture of Portland’s social and political life in vivid strokes. The prose, though not spare, crackles with dark humor and absurdity — a source of darkly comic relief through which we can look at contemporary neuroses.