They are lifeless but continue to put away dishes, do paperwork, or organize shelves. When the Shen Fever infects people, they continue doing their mindless work and life routines. How did the disease overcome them, exactly? This is the second way Ling Ma makes us self-reflect, this way being purposeful, whereas the fever’s likeness to reality is coincidental. We are steadily overcoming our coronavirus, while, in Candace’s world, the Shen Fever overcame them. The likeness of the Shen Fever to COVID-19 is only one way Severance holds up a mirror to our own lives, a reflection that I would assert is positive in one sense. Some may even get the impression that Ma’s novel is semi-prophetic, being published in May 2019, before our own pandemic. Still, the talk of masks, quarantines, and shutdowns in the novel hits close to home. The analogy ends there, however-and thankfully it does, because the Shen Fever is far more deadly. It sounds a little like our non-fiction acquaintance, COVID-19! Should she escape from her rescuers?Ī send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Severance is a moving family story, a deadpan satire and a heartfelt tribute to the connections that drive us to do more than survive.And what is the End? “The End” is disease from China known as Shen Fever that takes the US and the world by surprise. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. So she barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps the world.Ĭandace joins a small group of survivors, led by the power-hungry Bob, on their way to the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. Club Jezebel VultureĬandace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine: her work, watching movies with her boyfriend, avoiding thoughts of her recently deceased Chinese immigrant parents. Named a Best Book of 2018 by: NPR Elle Marie Claire Buzzfeed Refinery29 Jezebel Bustle Electric Literature Lit Hub BookPage Bookish Mental Floss Chicago Review of Books HuffPost Electric Literature A.V.
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