Apocalypse for Beginners

A wonderfully quirky, coming of age book that kicks off in the late 80's in the small town of Riviere Du Loup where Mickey Bauermann is introduced to Hope Randall. She's the latest in line to realize the Randall curse - to predict the end of the world.

While the clan's visions of the apocalypse have proven less than accurate so far, when Hope discovers her date, further corroborated with by the expiry date of hundreds of ramen packages, she sets out across the globe looking for answers.

Meanwhile Mickey is left behind, somewhat smitten but otherwise eking out his small town existence. It's wry and bittersweet like all highschool crushes that abruptly end.

And so it seems the world ends everyday. From broadcast images of the Gulf war, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the burying of Pompeii, to the continuous reinvention of Japan. the disappearance of childhood landmarks and family legacies.

All in all pretty impressive in that it's wonderfully translated from the original French. Throughout I couldn't help but think of that great Joel Plaskett song “Love This Town”

Davey and me, face down in our soup
In some French restaurant, outside Riviere Du Loup
Last night out on tour, we burned the place to the ground
There's a reason that I love this town.