In Community Board, Tara Conklin takes us inside the major depression of a woman whose husband has left her for another woman - yet she manages to make the story entertaining! The character isolates herself in her parent's empty home, eating only the canned goods her mother still stocks in what was a bomb shelter. Excerpts from a community board are her main contact with the outside world - and are the quirky sort of conversations you'd find on a Facebook community page. Also included are unfinished emails the woman writes to her husband, often about the hairiness of his new lover. The ending is quite satisfactory as well.
For writers this is worth reading because of the structure of the book - using social media excerpts within a larger narrative - and the use of humor in a serious story.
Comments