Book Review: Severance by Ling Ma

Severance by Ling Ma
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Release Date: August 14, 2018
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine. With the recent passing of her Chinese immigrant parents, she’s had her fill of uncertainty. She’s content just to carry on: She goes to work, troubleshoots the teen-targeted Gemstone Bible, watches movies in a Greenpoint basement with her boyfriend.

So Candace barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps New York. Then Shen Fever spreads. Families flee. Companies cease operations. The subways screech to a halt. Her bosses enlist her as part of a dwindling skeleton crew with a big end-date payoff. Soon entirely alone, still unfevered, she photographs the eerie, abandoned city as the anonymous blogger NY Ghost.

Candace won’t be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They’re traveling to a place called the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers?

A send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines, and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Ling Ma’s Severance is a moving family story, a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale, and a hilarious, deadpan satire. Most important, it’s a heartfelt tribute to the connections that drive us to do more than survive.

I discover many great reads from listening to the New York Times Book Review podcast. I picked up Severance after hearing the host and NYT Book Review editor Pamela Paul, talk about it during the segment where she and other reviewers talk about what they are currently reading. I put it on hold (pre-pandemic) at the library but by the time it came in a couple of weeks ago, I had forgotten what it was about. It turns out, it’s about a global pandemic! I read it anyway, dubious that I could enjoy it given the state the world is in currently, and I’m glad I did. On the surface, Severance could be classified as a zombie apocalypse book but in actuality, it’s much more. It’s also about the immigrant experience and late-stage capitalism.

This book was published in 2018, making the similarities to today quite eerie. It’s a good thing I’m not a conspiracy theorist. A fungal infection out of China called the Shen Fever is sweeping the world. As the fever spreads in the US, the government becomes less forthcoming with the information about the death toll. People are urged to wear masks but not everyone does. Tourists continue to come to New York as the fever spreads. The New York Times prints the names of the dead on its homepage. I could go on.

A person infected with Shen Fever performs the same mundane task over and over until they die. For instance, Candace observes a fevered woman working at an abandoned Juicy Couture store folding sweatpants over and over. She has been there doing that for so long that half her jaw has rotted off.

Candace Chen is one of the last people to leave New York. Before the fever takes over, she works at a publishing company in the Bible division, with basically the same routine every day. She keeps coming into work long after her coworkers have left both their jobs and the city. When she does finally quit, she joins a group of survivors on their way to a place their leader calls The Facility, where they can start a new society.

Candace’s journey with them is only part of her story. She immigrated to the US from China as a child. Growing up the daughter of immigrants has always set her somewhat apart from her friends and coworkers in New York. The book alternates between three timelines – Candace’s present day journey with the group, her recent past in New York before the fever hit and her childhood. There is a lot going on in a fairly slim novel. Fair warning -the ending is not going to be for everyone. I didn’t care for it at first but the more I thought about it, the more I felt it was appropriate. Recommended.