Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Granta Books (2019), 256 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. HTML: A powerful and moving new novel from an award-winning, acclaimed author: in the wake of a devastating revelation, a father and son journey north across a tapestry of towns. When a widower receives notice from a doctor that he doesn't have long left to live, he is struck by the question of who will care for his adult son�??a son whom he fiercely loves, a boy with Down syndrome. With no recourse in mind, and with a desire to see the country on one last trip, the man signs up as a census taker for a mysterious governmental bureau and leaves town with his son. Traveling into the country, through towns named only by ascending letters of the alphabet, the man and his son encounter a wide range of human experience. While some townspeople welcome them into their homes, others who bear the physical brand of past censuses on their ribs are wary of their presence. When they press toward the edges of civilization, the landscape grows wilder, and the towns grow farther apart and more blighted by industrial decay. As they approach "Z," the man must confront a series of questions: What is the purpose of the census? Is he complicit in its mission? And just how will he learn to say good-bye to his son? Mysterious and evocative, Census is a novel about free will, grief, the power of memory, and the ferocity of parental love, from one of our most captivating young writers.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member jmchshannon
There is something about literary fiction which attracts me and repels me at the same time. I love it for the way it typically evokes a strong emotional response, the strong character development, and slow pace that allows the story to fully build, and yet while reading it I cannot help but feel
In his latest novel Census, Jesse Ball creates an approachable literary novel that any person can understand because it is not about esoteric philosophies but rather about the one thing everyone can understand – love, grief, and the memories that surround those emotions. Everything that occurs to the narrator and his son on their journey is nothing but the impetus for memories to arise. There is no action, no real plot. It is nothing more than the memories of a person at the end of his life remembering the love and affection for and from others that graced his life and his wishes for his son. It is powerful and poignant and compelling.
To go into Census without preparation does mean struggles in the beginning. For one, much is made of the census for which the narrator begins his journey. Much is made of it but no one ever explains it. At the same time, there is no world-building. We are left with nothing but geographic areas identified by a single letter, a nebulous journey north, and an indication that the world of the narrator is not our world. There is no time stamp nor any hint whether the world is post-apocalyptic or simply an alternate universe. It would be easy to get caught up in these lack of details if only because inquiring minds want to know but also because the narrator expects us to know. There is no world-building because the narrator understands we are from his world and therefore already know all about his world’s history and the history of the census. To focus on that though is to miss the point of the story.
The point of Census is not the census. Nor is it the journey the narrator takes with his son. Rather, the novel is nothing more than an ode to his son. Once you realize that, you can become the active reader the story requires you to be as you go along with the narrator through his memories and get to know both men through them. Once you stop fighting the lack of world-building, you are swept away on a tide of emotions.
Little is actually made about the fact that the narrator’s son has Down’s Syndrome. In fact, I am still trying to remember if the narrator ever directly mentions it or whether this is a piece of information we know from the synopsis and the author’s note at the beginning of the novel. What we do see is how the narrator has structured his life around making sure his son experiences as little pain and grief as possible, and we especially see the joy his son brings him. There are dark moments when we are reminded of people’s cruelty, but the majority of the novel focuses on the positive – on the little joys his son brings to every moment and the subsequent joys his son brings him as a result. When our world is falling further into chaos and negativity, the narrator’s stories are a reminder that love trumps hate every single time.
Census is not flashy, and it will not generate the loud buzz that some other spring books are already receiving. Yet, it is going to be a success because it is so very lovely, and we all need a little beauty and joy in our lives right now. It is one that will mean different things to different people but will affect everyone who reads it. In the author’s note, Mr. Ball mentions he set out to write a love story about his brother who passed away several years ago. In that, he more than succeeded, for Census is a love story about everyone who has ever been loved, about anyone who has been considered different or not normal. Census is a balm to heal the wounds from which we all suffer caused by the hatred and vitriol being spewed by all sides on a daily basis.
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like I am not intelligent enough to catch every nuance. I always envision intellectuals sitting around over drinks talking about the philosophical themes and the sociological implications of the novel’s events, referencing classical literature or philosophers that are unknown to me. In other words, literary fiction is intimidating as hell.In his latest novel Census, Jesse Ball creates an approachable literary novel that any person can understand because it is not about esoteric philosophies but rather about the one thing everyone can understand – love, grief, and the memories that surround those emotions. Everything that occurs to the narrator and his son on their journey is nothing but the impetus for memories to arise. There is no action, no real plot. It is nothing more than the memories of a person at the end of his life remembering the love and affection for and from others that graced his life and his wishes for his son. It is powerful and poignant and compelling.
To go into Census without preparation does mean struggles in the beginning. For one, much is made of the census for which the narrator begins his journey. Much is made of it but no one ever explains it. At the same time, there is no world-building. We are left with nothing but geographic areas identified by a single letter, a nebulous journey north, and an indication that the world of the narrator is not our world. There is no time stamp nor any hint whether the world is post-apocalyptic or simply an alternate universe. It would be easy to get caught up in these lack of details if only because inquiring minds want to know but also because the narrator expects us to know. There is no world-building because the narrator understands we are from his world and therefore already know all about his world’s history and the history of the census. To focus on that though is to miss the point of the story.
The point of Census is not the census. Nor is it the journey the narrator takes with his son. Rather, the novel is nothing more than an ode to his son. Once you realize that, you can become the active reader the story requires you to be as you go along with the narrator through his memories and get to know both men through them. Once you stop fighting the lack of world-building, you are swept away on a tide of emotions.
Little is actually made about the fact that the narrator’s son has Down’s Syndrome. In fact, I am still trying to remember if the narrator ever directly mentions it or whether this is a piece of information we know from the synopsis and the author’s note at the beginning of the novel. What we do see is how the narrator has structured his life around making sure his son experiences as little pain and grief as possible, and we especially see the joy his son brings him. There are dark moments when we are reminded of people’s cruelty, but the majority of the novel focuses on the positive – on the little joys his son brings to every moment and the subsequent joys his son brings him as a result. When our world is falling further into chaos and negativity, the narrator’s stories are a reminder that love trumps hate every single time.
Census is not flashy, and it will not generate the loud buzz that some other spring books are already receiving. Yet, it is going to be a success because it is so very lovely, and we all need a little beauty and joy in our lives right now. It is one that will mean different things to different people but will affect everyone who reads it. In the author’s note, Mr. Ball mentions he set out to write a love story about his brother who passed away several years ago. In that, he more than succeeded, for Census is a love story about everyone who has ever been loved, about anyone who has been considered different or not normal. Census is a balm to heal the wounds from which we all suffer caused by the hatred and vitriol being spewed by all sides on a daily basis.
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LibraryThing member booklove2
Jesse Ball had a brother with Down Syndrome and as a child, he envisioned taking care of his brother when they were both adults. Sadly, his brother died in his 20s. Ball wrote this book to envision what that life might have been like, with the main character raising a child with Down Syndrome. In
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the novel, the father knows he is dying, so he and his son set off on a weird road trip. I've heard it took him a week to write this, but if this book was to honor his sweet hearted brother, I feel he should have put a little more work into it. With such a tough subject matter for him, the writing did seem at a remove. The book is one of those 'collection of profound tiny moments' sort of books (see Rachel Khong's 'Goodbye Vitamin'). But of the other from Jesse Ball I've read, he seems to write those sorts of books. This book reminded me of a Tarkovsky movie: the plot makes little sense but the details and imagery are freakin beautiful. Show Less
LibraryThing member kcshankd
Another weird Indiespensable special - they just seem to delight in the slightly off-kilter weird genre.
A man and his special-needs son take off to the dystopian territories in this novel. It was fine, but nothing memorable happened here.
A man and his special-needs son take off to the dystopian territories in this novel. It was fine, but nothing memorable happened here.
LibraryThing member Dreesie
In a brief intro, Ball writes that this book is for his older brother, who died at age 24 and had Down Syndrome. Ball has had 20 years to come to terms with his death and the changes that it meant for his own life (he had always known he would be his brother's caretaker, for example), but did not
This book reads very post-apocalyptic: a dying widowed father and his adult son with Down Syndrome, traveling through towns A to Z, administering the census and tattooing respondents. I think, though, that this book is an allegory.
The road is the strange road parents with a disabled child find themselves on.
They meet wonderful people who are kind to his son, and happy to have him help them or to entertain him.
They meet people who are mean and cruel.
They find empty towns.
The father decides to do the census differently than he was actually told, because it works better.
I'm not sure what the tattoos mean--kinder people are marked by their kindness? Take brief pain for their kindness?
In the end, the father puts his son on a train, back to their home and the couple who promised he and his wife they would look after their son. Just as any parent of a severely disabled child must launch them off into the world hoping for the best, and hoping they can trust the people who need to look out for that child.
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want to write a memoir.This book reads very post-apocalyptic: a dying widowed father and his adult son with Down Syndrome, traveling through towns A to Z, administering the census and tattooing respondents. I think, though, that this book is an allegory.
The road is the strange road parents with a disabled child find themselves on.
They meet wonderful people who are kind to his son, and happy to have him help them or to entertain him.
They meet people who are mean and cruel.
They find empty towns.
The father decides to do the census differently than he was actually told, because it works better.
I'm not sure what the tattoos mean--kinder people are marked by their kindness? Take brief pain for their kindness?
In the end, the father puts his son on a train, back to their home and the couple who promised he and his wife they would look after their son. Just as any parent of a severely disabled child must launch them off into the world hoping for the best, and hoping they can trust the people who need to look out for that child.
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LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl
Census tells the story of a man who, after the death of his wife, signs on as a census worker and heads out into a depopulated north with his son, who has Down Syndrome, listening to people's stories and remembering his wife, who had been a famous clown with an unconventional schooling.
My local
I was not the right audience for this book, which came across to me as both underwritten and slightly pretentious. The heart of the book isn't evident on its own, but relies on both an introduction and on photos at the end to explain itself.
My local
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library has this shelved in science fiction, but that's a categorization that will make no one happy. While the novel is set in a dystopic land that is both sparsely populated and yet has good infrastructure, Jesse Ball isn't interested in explaining or amplifying the world he's created. What he is interested in doing is telling stories in brief vignettes and short segments. Some of the tales come from the people they meet along the way and others focus on his life and his wife's life. I was not the right audience for this book, which came across to me as both underwritten and slightly pretentious. The heart of the book isn't evident on its own, but relies on both an introduction and on photos at the end to explain itself.
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LibraryThing member kayanelson
This book won the summer TOB and I don't think it should have. I liked understanding how Downs Syndrome child go through life but the Census story I found very lacking. This could be good for a book discussion because people would have a lot of thoughts, feelings and interpretations about the book.
LibraryThing member KLmesoftly
Gratuitous (and gratuitously vague) dystopia setting aside, this book has a really strong emotional core and some beautiful imagery. "Marilyn Robinson's Gilead but in a dystopia road trip setting" is my one line summary... And unfortunately I would so pick Gilead over Census if I had to choose
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between the two. Show Less
LibraryThing member asxz
I really tried to like this more. I did not succeed. It was so mannered and distant. Staccato and episodic so that even if some of the episodes had flashes of brilliance they would have worked better as flash fiction because they weren't contributing to my sense of this novel.
The subject matter
The subject matter
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was so personal and heartbreaking that I couldn't get past the lack of emotion and intimacy in its presentation. It might have been fine as a shorter work, but as a full-length book, it was frustrating and exhausting. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheEllieMo
Clearly I am not intellectual enough for this book; where others have seen imagery and meaning, I found a bunch of random paragraphs with no sense of cohesion at all. Cormorants? Someone suggesting a doctor leave one of his instruments in a patient? Bizarre “clown” acts that involve doing
The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type any given text. In the case of Census, someone took the typewriter away too soon and came up with this garbled mess instead.
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nothing but stare at the audience for an hour? I thought this was meant to be about a father-son relationship. The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type any given text. In the case of Census, someone took the typewriter away too soon and came up with this garbled mess instead.
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Awards
The Morning News Tournament of Books (Short List — 2019)
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction (Longlist — Fiction — 2019)
Gordon Burn Prize (2018)
Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year (Fiction — 2018)
NPR: Books We Love (2018)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2018
Physical description
256 p.; 5.08 inches
ISBN
178378377X / 9781783783779
Similar in this library
DDC/MDS
| 813.6 |