In A Perfect World

The Short of It:

This is not a feel-good book. It’s a bit dark, and often times depressing, yet there is beauty between its pages and I found its simplicity oddly comforting.

The Rest of It:

The first third of this book is spent setting up the characters. Jiselle starts off as sort of one-dimensional. She falls in love with Mark Dorn and eventually quits her job to care for his three children. As a pilot, he is rarely home and as an ex-flight attendant, Jiselle is well aware of how such a career works. However, she becomes frustrated by his long absences and spend a lot of her time remembering how it used to be. In the mean time, the Phoenix Flu has hit. Celebrities are dropping like flies and panic has set in. To top it all off, Mark is show more detained and unable to return home so Jiselle is suddenly a single-parent.

The end of the world as we know it, is a scary thing to ponder. If you’ve ever experienced a natural disaster first-hand, you can sort of appreciate, on a smaller scale, the kind of chaos that is possible. For example, when I was in the big Northridge Quake…it did not occur to me that gasoline would be scarce. I mean, there are pumps everywhere, right? True, but when there is no electricity those pumps don’t work. Nor do ATMs or credit card machines, so if you’re without cash when the big one hits, then you’re up the creek without a paddle.

This book is sort of like that. Kasischke reminds you that food is scarce, that gasoline is at a premium and that medication is a luxury. As you follow along, you realize just how precious that torn scrap of paper is, or that empty plastic bag. As the characters are slowly stripped of their possessions, what remains is a simplicity…a quietness that is somehow comforting. A simple meal, a game of charades, conversation by candlelight…these are things we typically do not appreciate in the fast-paced world we live in today.

What I found particularly shocking was the author’s use of actual celebrities within the storyline. This put a 2009 “stamp” on it and made it all the more real. Additionally, the pandemic storyline strikes a little too close to home. In the book, the Phoenix flu loosely resembles the Avian flu but with H1N1 raging all around us, its hard not consider the similarities.

Reading about the end of the world is not pleasant and Kasischke does not paint a pretty picture but the novel is very thought-provoking and there are moments of quiet beauty. I found it to be very visual in the telling. A book club would have a lot to discuss.

Source: This review copy was provided by HarperCollins in conjunction with Book Club Girl. show less

While some dystopian books take place in an imagined future where things are very different from our own world (like The Hunger Games series), In A Perfect World takes place right in our here and now. There are no fantasy elements to this book at all—everything seems utterly believable and possible, which made it a more effective and scarier book for me.

Our glimpse into a world that encompasses nothing less than a complete breakdown of our society is Jiselle, a flight attendant who has "landed" the handsome and charismatic pilot Mark Dorn. In her 30s and tired of always being the bridesmaid and never the bride, Jiselle is ready to settle down and imagines a perfect little world with her ready-made family. (Mark has three children show more whose mother died a few years before.) Jiselle leaves her job and moves into the idyllic little town where Mark has a picture-perfect home. Anxious and excited to be the stepmother, Jiselle is eager to meet her new family. What she finds is three children who are less than thrilled—with the exception of the young boy (gotta love those boys!)—with their new stepmother. With Mark away for a good portion of time, Jiselle struggles to make the transition into her new life.

In the background of Jiselle's life, there are rumblings of another kind—a mysterious Phoenix Flu is causing troubles through the country. Even celebrities seems to be getting it and dying. (OK...a little editorial note here: I just loved that Kasischke killed off Britney Spears with the flu! Take that, Ms. I'm A Terrible Singer Yet Have Achieved Huge Success!)

As the story progresses, Mark is away more and more often, and Jiselle finds out some disturbing information about her new husband. And as the Phoenix Flu begins to become more and more of a problem, Jiselle's focus begins to shift from getting adjusted to family life to surviving—a skill she finds herself to be more adept at than she ever imagined.

As conditions worsen and society begins to fall apart, Jiselle is thrust into a nightmarish world where isolation, survival, sickness and death become a part of everyday life. Yet the worse things get, the more Jiselle's world actually becomes "a perfect world." With an ending that will leave readers who need things tied up at loose ends, this book surprised me in how it shifted and turned and twisted and changed into something that I can't quite describe. Consider it an uplifting story about the end of society as we know it.

Reading this right after The Hunger Games, I think this book came out on top for me. Where The Hunger Games is flashy and showy with its tantalizing premise, this book is more subtle and slow and deep. Written in an almost distant, chilly type of prose, Kasischke has created a dystopian book that truly scared and disturbed me yet also made me feel good about the world at the same time. As I said, this isn't a book that ties things up in a nice little package for you, but I thought it suited the story well. If you're looking for an adult book on the opposite side of the dystopian spectrum, then this book is for you.

The Bottom Line: I'm giving the book 4 stars. I was drawn into Jiselle's world in an almost hypnotic way. Each page brought me closer to horror but also to goodness. This is a book that I could envision happening in our lifetime, and I think Kasischke did a wonderful job of keeping it from falling into a run-of-the-mill "Oh No...There's An Epidemic" type thriller. This book has a vibrant beating heart if you take the time to look for it. show less

In A Perfect World is the story of Jiselle Dorn, newly wedded to the gorgeous and charismatic pilot Captain Mark Dorn. At 32 and never married, Jiselle is completely wooed by Mark’s stylish courtship and eager to begin a life with him. Her marriage brings her to the Chicago suburb of St. Sophia, a quaint and cozy town where Mark lives with his three children. Camilla, Sara and Sam put on happy faces as Jiselle arrives but waste no time undermining her authority. Petulant Sara, the most unhappy of all, scribbles terrible things in her journal — which she conveniently leaves out for Jiselle to find.

And Mark is traveling all the time. Alone with the kids after she’s given up her job as a flight attendant, Jiselle struggles to find a show more place within her new family — and to identify, for the first time, as a mother. Her days drag on, filled with chores and reading and lounging on the cabin’s deck, which overlooks a deep ravine. And missing Mark, of course; her longing for him to return, to “save” her, is palpable.

Underscoring the family drama happening in In A Perfect World is a much greater threat: an influenza, called the Phoenix Flu, is spreading across the United States, infecting scores of Americans. Fearing the worst, the global community has turned away from us, sealing their borders and refusing to give us aid; a vaccine does not exist. After a well-known pop star dies of the Phoenix Flu, the threat of infection seems to be everywhere. Life continues for Jiselle and the kids in St. Sophia, but no one seems to be safe. Or to even know what “safe” is any longer.

Starting the novel, I was pretty sure I was going to despise Jiselle. She seemed hopelessly naive, ignoring the cautions of her mother that Mark, while loving, was merely looking for a babysitter to tend to his children. As Mark’s presence becomes less and less a part of their daily lives, Jiselle’s transformation is absolute and apparent. For a woman who was single and childless just a year ago, she adapts quickly — and well.

But life In A Perfect World is anything but perfect, littered with fear, uncertainty, illness and grief. The novel, while beautiful, is disturbing — mostly because the “Phoenix Flu” seems, at times, oddly reminiscent of a certain illness that has many Americans currently stocking up on anti-bacterial hand gel and covering their faces with surgical masks. At many Sunday services, parishoners are discouraged from shaking hands; at work places, mandatory handwashing stations have been set up all over the buildings. And that’s happening now – in our own world. So reading about an avian flu that sweeps across the U.S., killing off scores of citizens? Yeah, not exactly uplifting reading.

But I have to say — I actually really liked this book. Kasischke’s interesting writing kept me enthralled and, as the kids and Jiselle come to rely more and more upon each other, I actually felt their bonds plucking at my heart strings. They’re not beyond redemption — nothing is. And while I don’t think the novel had quite an ultimately hopeful feel, it didn’t leave me despondent, either.

Lovers of dystopian fiction or those interested in apocalyptic tales while find plenty to “enjoy” (can you enjoy these stories, really?) here, and readers with a taste for family-based struggles and stories will be intrigued by the Dorn clan. Every character eventually won me over — including, and probably especially, Jiselle. A worthwhile but disturbing look at the breakdown of a culture . . . and the creation of a family. show less

At first I disliked the book. Kind of romantic, almost a chic-lit story of a not-too-bright flight attendant who falls in love with a pilot. Blah. But then the pandemic strikes and the story turns into something else. This is definitely not the post-apocalyptic story I suspected, but an interesting one nonetheless. I kept wondering, though, would it really be so easy and peaceful to live in a world where the infrastructure is more or less lost? Would life in small town America continue peacefully - only without electricity - while the big cities collapsed? They might. But for how long?

I enjoyed this book. It covered so many issues: global warming, epidemics, motherhood, family, and survival. These topics don't sound like they would go together, but this book is beautifully written in the way it ties them together. The author based a lot of this story on the Black Plague which I haven't read much about. I am now interested in reading about it. Not all the characters are likeable at first, but many redeem themselves as the novel progresses. This is definitely a novel about the choices we make and the choices we are sometimes forced into. This book holds a lot of fodder for book club discussions. Definitely will be reading more from this author.

I was unsure about the novel for most of the time I spent reading - it seemed purely superficial, lacking some sort of depth that could truly draw me into the story. While the situation was eerily prescient for our current times, I just couldn't quite connect with Jiselle's life. And then the author gave this book the absolute perfect ending - for THIS story - and it all came together. I'm extremely happy I stuck it out until the end, because it wound up being a thoroughly rewarding experience.

Synopsis:
Set sometime in the near future but in a world ravaged by an epidemic of the deadly Phoenix flu, In A Perfect World is a close look at the demands and sacrifices of love.

Thirty-two-year-old Jiselle is ready to be swept off her feet by the dashing Captain Mark Dorn and shrugs off her mother's warnings. It didn't matter to Jiselle that she'd only known Mark for a few months and that she would be inheriting a ready-built family. Captain Dorn is universally regarded as a catch and the other flight attendants are jealous. After handling the tantrums of drunken passengers during transatlantic flights, the prospect of spending time with three children in a quiet New York town strikes Jiselle as a peaceful and positive change . So, show more Jiselle succumbs to the romance and trades in her flight attendant's wings for motherhood and married life. Then the Phoenix flu spreads into Jiselle's world, and alters it forever.

Review:
Kasischke takes complex and believable characters and drops them into an apocalyptic future. The effect is a suspense novel that holds all the emotional layers of a rich family drama.

I expected to be frustrated by Jiselle's naivete, but she proved to be such a sympathetic character. I was charmed by her kindness and thoroughly enjoyed Kasischke's approach to storytelling. In A Perfect World is an absorbing and satisfying read - I strongly recommend it!

Publisher: Harper Perennial (October 6, 2009), 336 pages.
Review copy provided by TLC Book Tours and the publisher. show less