Seattle

The portrait of Seattle reflects the ambivalence of Dorothy and Greta, for whom it is both hell and home. By including real places, such as the Space Needle and the Smith Tower (where Dorothy lives), alongside disconcerting references to state control and environmental disaster, the novel delineates a landscape that is alternately familiar and strange. Whereas in 2014, the “ever-darkening skies” reflect Greta’s growing unease, the “blanket of gray flannel that passed for a Pacific Northwest sky” makes her daughter “feel stuck, made the city feel like a padded cell” (164, 62). Frequent power failures contribute to a climate of fear and uncertainty, while the storms break down boundaries between sea and land by leaving marine life everywhere, “rotting on the sidewalks” (59).

The picture is not wholly bleak, however, with Dorothy noticing how danger can bring people together. “There were more smiles and eye contact than usual,” she observes in...