While looking at the various articles on Hurricane Sandy, I had flashbacks of turning on the television and constantly seeing the news coverage of the storm and the devastating toll it was having on the people of New York. Although I was watching this coverage from the comfort of my own home in sunny California, I thought of those individuals in New York that had to handle this treacherous storm. I can only imagine the panic and complete frenzy I would be enduring.

Yet while I read Nathaniel Rich’s novel, Odds Against Tomorrow I did not feel the same way. Although Rich discusses the immaculate hurricane that the people of New York are enduring he does it in a way that is extremely aesthetically pleasing. Which is odd because usually even the thought of a hurricane brings nothing but horrid and saddening images to mind. However through Rich’s vivid figurative language he does a great job at erasing the images seen in the articles regarding Hurricane Sandy and shines a light on bright colors and images. For example, “Out of this murkiness the larger shapes emerged first: the curved seat of a wicker chair; a strip of rubber insulation curled like an octopus’s tentacle; an inflated red yoga ball, like a candy apple; and the smooth black hull of a plasma television, bubbles coalescing and darting on its screen as it rocked in the current”(Rich 166.) As Rich explains the scenery while he is canoeing down the street flooded with water, he chooses to describe mundane everyday items such as a wicker chair, or a television and highlights the beauty and delicacy of them. Which makes me wonder if he does this to romanticize the tragedy of this storm.

Although he is making this storm sound and seem much more pleasing than it is, it makes me question that he points out these everyday items to make a point of the intensity of the storm and its effect on things that we see everyday, and take advantage of. I personally think that Rich does a wonderful job at displaying the effects of this Hurricane, because it allows us to be put in Mitchell’s shoes. And rather than being absolutely terrified as we are on a tiny little canoe roaming to safety, we are engaged in the scenery and the emerging objects all around.

Overall I think that Rich’s novel does its job as a climate fiction novel, it highlights the effects of climate change on natural occurrences such as hurricanes. Hurricanes are inevitable because of the unpredictability of our weather, yet things like higher sea levels, and extremely warm temperature can escalate these hurricanes, which is very scary. But Rich makes a point that these storms can effect and overtake a whole city, and I would certainly be nowhere near as prepared as he is. Which is even more frightening.