Small moments in ordinary life often escalate into something much larger and unexpected in novels by Jill Ciment (Heroic Measures). In Act of God, the story grows from the discovery of a tiny mushroom that identical twin sisters--64 years old, neither married nor with children--find sprouting in the closet of their deceased mother's rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn, N.Y. The fungus is of grave concern, but so, too, is the closet, as it houses a precious archive of letters their mother wrote for a once-popular syndicated advice column, "Consultations with Dr. Mimi."
Edith--the "white-haired," older twin by 17 minutes--is a staid, retired law librarian, who had lived in the apartment with their mother her entire life. When the sisters first discover the mushroom, Edith is in the process of compiling the letters to submit for exhibit at the Smithsonian. Kat, on the other hand, is a romantic free spirit, a "blond with white roots." She has recently returned to the city after a yearlong vagabond existence with high hopes to secure a book deal for the letters.
Edith sees Kat as her "poor delusional sister" who had always "mistaken irresponsibility for daring, eccentricity for originality, obsession for intimacy." But beyond their differences, they both agree the mysterious, now suddenly spreading, fungus needs to be stopped; Mother's letters are at stake. Edith repeatedly calls the owner of the apartment building, Vida Cebu, a Shakespearian actress on "the kind side of middle age," whose claim to fame is a commercial for the first-ever female sexual-enhancement pill designed for "college-educated woman between forty and sixty whose husbands or boyfriends already took erectile dysfunction pills." Self-important Vida, however, is too busy pursuing her acting career to respond to Edith's repeated pleas for help or even to notice that the closet in her own apartment is being secretly occupied by a Russian teen, the former au pair of Vida's agent and lawyer, who was fired for giving the agent's baby a "tiny chip of Ambien to help him nap."
Rich, quirky characterizations, witty insights into human nature and cruel twists of fate metamorphose the initial absurdity of the narrative into a profound, suspenseful story. The virulent fungus gains strength as calamity spreads beyond the apartment. Ill-equipped hazmat teams try to quell citywide pandemonium while the growing plague wreaks widespread havoc and claims lives in the process.
The story examines how larger-than-life events can strip human beings of everything--especially those steeped in the trappings of the modern world--in order to fill their souls with empathy, compassion and the healing powers of love and forgiveness. Insurance companies ultimately declare the devastating toll of the fungus as an "act of God," and perhaps a higher power had a hand, too, in the unexpected personal transformations of those inhabiting this thoroughly entertaining and unforgettable microcosm that reflects the realities of life. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines
Shelf Talker: A mysterious, virulent fungus originating from the closet of a Brooklyn apartment building becomes a calamitous, life-changing force.