'The LeftOvers'
“It just took some people a little longer than others to realize how few words they needed to get by, how much of life they could negotiate in silence.”
What if — whoosh, right now, with no explanation — a number of us simply vanished? Would some of us collapse? Would others of us go on, one foot in front of the other, as we did before the world turned upside down? That's what the bewildered citizens of Mapleton, who lost many of their neighbors, friends and lovers in the event known as the Sudden Departure, have to figure out. Because nothing has been the same since it happened — not marriages, not friendships, not even the relationships between parents and children.
Kevin Garvey, Mapleton's new mayor, wants to speed up the healing process, to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to his traumatized community. Kevin's own family has fallen apart in the wake of the disaster: his wife, Laurie, has left to join the Guilty Remnant, a homegrown cult whose members take a vow of silence; his son, Tom, is gone, too, dropping out of college to follow a sketchy prophet named Holy Wayne. Only Kevin's teenaged daughter, Jill, remains, and she's definitely not the sweet "A" student she used to be. Kevin wants to help her, but he's distracted by his growing relationship with Nora Durst, a woman who lost her entire family on October 14th and is still reeling from the tragedy, even as she struggles to move beyond it and make a new start.
With heart, intelligence and a rare ability to illuminate the struggles inherent in ordinary lives, Tom Perrotta has written a startling, thought-provoking novel about love, connection and loss.
The Old World Is Gone
Based on the bestselling novel by Tom Perrotta, 'The Leftovers' follows Kevin Garvey, a father of two and the chief of police in a small New York suburb, as he tries to maintain some semblance of normalcy when the notion no longer applies.
When 2% of the world’s population abruptly disappears without explanation, the world struggles to come to terms with what happened. Three years later, the HBO drama series, 'The Leftovers' is the story of the people who didn’t make the cut.
The Leftovers (TV tie-in edition)
“She told her therapist it reminded her of coming home the summer after her freshman year at Rutgers, stepping back into the warm bath of family and friends, loving it for a week or two, and then feeling trapped, dying to return to school, missing her roommates and her cute new boyfriend, the classes and the parties and the giggly talks before bed, understanding for the first time that that was her real life now, that this, despite everything she'd ever loved about it, was finished for good.”
“To this day, she’s still sad. Because there’s not some finite amount of pain inside us. Our bodies and minds just keep manufacturing more of it. I’m just saying that I took the pain that was inside of her at that moment and made it my own. And it didn’t hurt me at all.” PREMIERES JUNE 29, 2014 AT 10PM.
What's Leftover at the Blog?
“It just took some people a little longer than others to realize how few words they needed to get by, how much of life they could negotiate in silence.”
What if — whoosh, right now, with no explanation — a number of us simply vanished? Would some of us collapse? Would others of us go on, one foot in front of the other, as we did before the world turned upside down? That's what the bewildered citizens of Mapleton, who lost many of their neighbors, friends and lovers in the event known as the Sudden Departure, have to figure out. Because nothing has been the same since it happened — not marriages, not friendships, not even the relationships between parents and children.
Kevin Garvey, Mapleton's new mayor, wants to speed up the healing process, to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to his traumatized community. Kevin's own family has fallen apart in the wake of the disaster: his wife, Laurie, has left to join the Guilty Remnant, a homegrown cult whose members take a vow of silence; his son, Tom, is gone, too, dropping out of college to follow a sketchy prophet named Holy Wayne. Only Kevin's teenaged daughter, Jill, remains, and she's definitely not the sweet "A" student she used to be. Kevin wants to help her, but he's distracted by his growing relationship with Nora Durst, a woman who lost her entire family on October 14th and is still reeling from the tragedy, even as she struggles to move beyond it and make a new start.
With heart, intelligence and a rare ability to illuminate the struggles inherent in ordinary lives, Tom Perrotta has written a startling, thought-provoking novel about love, connection and loss.
The Old World Is Gone
Based on the bestselling novel by Tom Perrotta, 'The Leftovers' follows Kevin Garvey, a father of two and the chief of police in a small New York suburb, as he tries to maintain some semblance of normalcy when the notion no longer applies.
When 2% of the world’s population abruptly disappears without explanation, the world struggles to come to terms with what happened. Three years later, the HBO drama series, 'The Leftovers' is the story of the people who didn’t make the cut.
The Leftovers (TV tie-in edition)
“She told her therapist it reminded her of coming home the summer after her freshman year at Rutgers, stepping back into the warm bath of family and friends, loving it for a week or two, and then feeling trapped, dying to return to school, missing her roommates and her cute new boyfriend, the classes and the parties and the giggly talks before bed, understanding for the first time that that was her real life now, that this, despite everything she'd ever loved about it, was finished for good.”
“To this day, she’s still sad. Because there’s not some finite amount of pain inside us. Our bodies and minds just keep manufacturing more of it. I’m just saying that I took the pain that was inside of her at that moment and made it my own. And it didn’t hurt me at all.” PREMIERES JUNE 29, 2014 AT 10PM.
What's Leftover at the Blog?
TOM PERROTTA is the author of six works of fiction, including The Wishbones and Joe College. His novels Election and Little Children were made into acclaimed and award-winning movies.
Biography
That Tom Perrotta struggled into his early 30s to find success should come as no surprise to fans of his work. A Yale grad, Perrotta studied writing under Thomas Berger and Tobias Wolff before moving on to teach creative writing at Yale and Harvard. It was during this period that he began work on the stories that would comprise his first release, Bad Haircut. He had finished two more novels (including Election, which would prove to be his breakthrough book) before Bad Haircut was finally picked up by a publisher in 1994.
It wasn't until a chance introduction with a screenwriter that
Perrotta finally moved into the public eye. The result of that encounter
was the publication of Election (1998), which was made into the
much-beloved film starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon. At
last, Perrotta was able to call himself a working novelist.
The theme of ordinary people trapped in lives they never imagined
runs throughout Perrotta's novels. Success for his characters is always
just out of reach, and the world is always just outside of their
control. Characters that seem destined for success serve as foils to the
true protagonists, constant reminders of the unfairness of life.
Which is not to say that Perrotta's novels are depressing. On the
contrary, his razor-sharp observations of the human condition are often
side-splittingly funny, and the compassion he exhibits in his writing
makes even the most ostensibly unlikable characters sympathetic. Perotta
does not create caricatures; his novels work because he has a basic
understanding that life is complex, and everyone has a story if you take
the time to listen.
Good To Know
Some fun factoids from our interview with Perrotta:
"My mother is Albanian."
"I don't eat eggs."
"My dog lived to the ripe old age of 18."
Official Tom Perrotta Chronology.
"Lost with a postapocalyptic drama that has no monsters and no mystery to be answered. It's gloomy, it's slow--and it's absolutely gorgeous."— Damon Lindelof
HBO to Debut New Drama Series THE LEFTOVERS, 6/29.14.
There are no zombies to contend with; "A Fever Dream You Can’t Wake Up From"
Review via @AndrewRomano
Still, with numerous characters and ghost subplots galore, maybe a tiny light will seep into one of the story-lines. There’s still time; What’s Not to Like…?
Review via @LeonardMaltin
Some may see it as a shadow metaphor for the aftermath of Sept.11, but it really has more on its mind than that. "It’s worth watching even when it’s not easy."
Review by David Hinckley via @NYDailyNews
TheREVIEW Accommodates Many Voices. Thanks for Reading!
Official Tom Perrotta Chronology.
"Lost with a postapocalyptic drama that has no monsters and no mystery to be answered. It's gloomy, it's slow--and it's absolutely gorgeous."— Damon Lindelof
HBO to Debut New Drama Series THE LEFTOVERS, 6/29.14.
There are no zombies to contend with; "A Fever Dream You Can’t Wake Up From"
Review via @AndrewRomano
Still, with numerous characters and ghost subplots galore, maybe a tiny light will seep into one of the story-lines. There’s still time; What’s Not to Like…?
Review via @LeonardMaltin
Some may see it as a shadow metaphor for the aftermath of Sept.11, but it really has more on its mind than that. "It’s worth watching even when it’s not easy."
Review by David Hinckley via @NYDailyNews
TheREVIEW Accommodates Many Voices. Thanks for Reading!
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