📚’An exploration of grief, friendship, and the impact of climate change on personal and global scales.’ Frank Reviews The Means Of Keeping by Rich Marcello.

Today’s team review is from Frank.

Rosie’s Book Review Team

Frank has been reading The Means Of Keeping by Rich Marcello.

There are people who believe that civilisation is doomed. Sooner or later the damage we collectively are doing to our environment, and especially the climate, will lead to widespread loss of life. This will be the result of changed weather patterns, mass migration and resource wars.

Others view such predictions as fear mongering.

Between these two camps are people who argue that there is still time to adopt certain changes in our lifestyles that will slow the pace of change and ultimately, perhaps, reverse the most worrying trends. This novel is about a group of people that fall into this last category.

Set approximately ten years in the future it features two people who have been close friends since school days but each of whom has married other people and have young families. Now middle aged they have been devastated by the loss of both families in a tragedy caused by one of the increasingly frequent freak storms. In dealing with their shared grief they set about adopting and proselytising about an alternative way of life.

Along the way we learn a lot more about their past as well as secrets about the pasts of the people they enrol in their enterprise. The plot is complex. The characters and their backgrounds equally so. However, despite the complexity of their relationships, the characters are well realised and relatable.

The events that shape their lives and that they try to shape over a period of two years are what defines the theme of the book. I won’t spoil it for you by telling you whether the outcome matches the hope and optimism with which they set out on their journey. Suffice to say that it is by no means an easy journey, full of set backs and acts of betrayal all of which are entirely believable.

The question that Marcello is attempting to answer is this: is there a way forward which can avert the worst effects of climate change? Are the current inhabitants of the developed world capable of making drastic changes? Should we be resigned to a future in which the wealthy shut themselves away in fortress like gated communities in parts of the world less impacted by the worst effects of the impending disaster? To find his answer you must read the book yourself.

My rating: 3.5 stars

Book description:

The Means of Keeping is a profound exploration of grief, friendship, and the indelible impact of climate change on personal and global scales. Set in a near-future America, the novel follows Tereza Allard and David Luca, two lifelong friends in their forties shattered by a climate crisis-induced tragedy that claims the lives of their families. The evolving dynamics between these characters against the pressing issue of climate change provide a rich narrative ground, exploring the intersections of personal loss, love, renewal, environmental activism, and the search for meaning in a world on the brink of unrepairable catastrophe.

Expected Publication date: July 12th

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