In climate journalist and fiction writer Emma Pattee's nuanced debut novel, Tilt, an expectant mother must make a harrowing and illuminating trek across her hometown of Portland, Ore., which has been distorted into a disaster zone by a catastrophic earthquake.
At nine months, Annie is tired of being pregnant. She's reaching her breaking point in IKEA, of all places, while doing some last-minute shopping for a crib. But before she can snap, something else does. Next thing she knows, she's on the ground under a pile of shelves and boxes, and the world around her has changed irrevocably. When Annie emerges from IKEA, she finds her familiar city has been transformed into an anarchic landscape. Now, she must traverse the city to find her husband, as she confronts loss and grief; unexpected and even desperate hope; and her own disappointments and anxieties along the way.
Based on its description alone, Tilt may sound like a nightmare for expectant mothers; yet Pattee's surprisingly tender portrait of motherhood is enough to buoy even the most fearful reader. Always pragmatic and never sentimental, Annie's first-person narration guides readers through what might seem unimaginable but is nevertheless, like most things, ultimately bearable. What's more, even faced with some serious doom and gloom, Annie manages to be funny, her dry humor at once acceptable and wrenching in its attempts to push her through real turmoil. With Annie at its helm, this all-in-one-day survival story manages to be thrilling and thoughtful, distressing and joyful.
Fears, uncertainties, and hopes about motherhood form the spine of Tilt, to be sure. But Annie's character is formed by more than motherhood alone. Stitched into Annie's surreal circumstances are her discontent with her career, her grief over losing her mother, and her wrenching sadness and frustration over her wavering marriage. When the world is turned upside down, Pattee's novel suggests, these familiar concerns aren't erased but rather thrown into terrifying, yet still clarifying, relief. Priorities stabilize. Unexpected capabilities emerge. And the external challenges Annie comes to face seem viscerally appropriate for what she is confronting internally. As Annie's journey is facilitated and interrupted by other fiercely determined mothers and even a few bloodthirsty teenagers, readers can't help but think that for all its horror, this post-quake world may not be that different from the chaotic landscapes women often must find not just the will but the determination to survive. --Alice Martin, freelance writer and editor
Shelf Talker: Emma Pattee's debut novel, Tilt, offers a devastating and funny, wrenching yet hopeful portrait of motherhood and marriage in the near-apocalyptic context of environmental devastation.