A new strain of flu, a world-wide pandemic, a death rate apparently exceeding that of 1918-19: No one should have been surprised, but no one was prepared. Moreover, this influenza virus frequently attacked the brain, leaving survivors with varying degrees of brain damage and memory loss.
The government was crippled -- the American president herself suffering from memory loss -- but continued to function. Goods and services were in short supply. As in earlier troubled times, people turned inward, seeking fulfillment within themselves rather than in consumerism. Christian fundamentalism thrived. Many concluded that the last days were upon us. Believers awaited the "rapture," the Second Coming, the Last Judgment.
This is the setting for Sigrid Nunez's sixth novel, Salvation City, the coming of age story of an intelligent youth named Cole, during the months before and after his fourteenth birthday. Cole -- the son of nonreligious Chicago professionals ("he'd been raised to believe religion was for retards") -- regains consciousness in an orphanage, after being severely ill, and learns that his parents have died. Eventually, he meets Pastor Wyatt and his wife who take him to their home in "Salvation City," a small, evangelical community in Indiana. His world is turned upside down. His parents had always lived in nervous fear of death; in his new community, on the other hand, everyone was eager to join Christ -- any moment now -- in His heavenly kingdom.
The story is told from Cole's point of view, with flashbacks to his earlier life as he gradually regains those memories.
All the ingredients seem available for a formulaic science fiction adventure. But Nunez understands that for any 13-year-old, in any society, the world he faces is always baffling, scary, turbulent -- but also exhilarating. To an intelligent boy growing up, say, during the decline and fall of Rome, great historical trends like barbarian incursions at the frontiers of empire, debasement of the currency, and the decay of domestic government would not have been among his primary concerns. Like boys of every age, his daily thoughts would have centered on his first love, his need to establish an identity apart from his parents, his search for vocation, his desire to find meaning in the universe.
Nunez's story is primarily about a boy's discovery of himself. The pandemic is the backdrop.
Even before the pandemic struck, Cole had been separating himself emotionally from his parents, especially after he discovered that his mom was making plans to leave his father. Silent and withdrawn, in the throes of adolescence, Cole was intelligent and observant and a gifted artist (drawings and graphic stories), but a bored student, an academic underachiever.
Cole's hostile response to the adult world represented by his parents is challenged by the warm Christian environment he encounters in Indiana. Nunez neither ridicules nor idealizes this less sophisticated world. Pastor Wyatt is conservative theologically, but loving toward everyone. He displays a full understanding of -- and sympathy for -- human weaknesses. He does not share the excitement of many in his flock that the"rapture" is imminent, and he reminds them repeatedly that their task is to live Christian lives, whether the world ends tomorrow or far into the indefinite future. His love and that of his wife for Cole, who becomes the son they were unable to have themselves, is touching and convincing beyond doubt.
Cole learns much about himself, about other people, and about the search for God while living in Salvation City. He falls in love with an older girl, and learns about heartbreak. He learns that even the best of adults have their own weaknesses, just as he does himself. He gains confidence in his artistic abilities. He learns to shoot a gun, despite his dislike of hunting or even fishing, realizing that, in the more dangerous post-pandemic world, an adult who does not know how to defend himself is at the mercy of others. He learns compassion for his parents, some degree of understanding for their problems, and regret they died still stinging from his rejection.
But he suspects that, even after all the Bible study that he has done together with the Pastor, he doesn't really possess the same strong faith as do the Pastor and the others in Salvation City. Too often in his prayers, he feels he is speaking only to the air or to himself.
Also, he realizes that his education before the pandemic was mediocre, and that his home schooling by the Pastor's poorly educated wife has been a disaster. Watching TV, he learns of a highly selective school in Washington, D.C., attended by bright students who -- unlike himself when attending public schools -- are neither bored by their studies nor bullied by their fellow students. He is overwhelmed by envy.
A huge misunderstanding had been allowed to take place. Why hadn't anyone seen that just because he hated school didn't mean he was lazy and dumb? It was unfair; it was a mistake. Somehow it must be corrected. If not, he would grow up to be something worse than an underachiever. He would grow up stupid, an ignoramus.
If he spent his life in the comforting world of Salvation City, he realizes, he would always be considered an uneducated bumpkin. Maybe bright kids, like those on the TV show, wouldn't bully him, but he knew that, as he was now, they'd never want him for a friend. "They would ignore him. Maybe even feel sorry for him. The one thing worse than bullying."
Always quiet, always withdrawn, Cole slowly decides that the folks in Salvation City are wrong about at least one thing: the world is not about to end. He doesn't reject the religious training the Pastor has provided -- he is more than willing to reserve judgment about questions of faith -- but he strongly feels the need to learn and to experience much more than he can ever learn or experience in Salvation City. He has a long life ahead; he's excited about living it. He begins making plans to leave.
He knew the things he wanted now he wanted badly enough that nothing would stop him. It was only for a little while longer that his place was here. He knew that he would stay, and then, when the time came, he would go away. He did not know if he would return.
He is speaking about residence in Salvation City. He also is speaking metaphorically about his life on earth.
And he is finding himself. Cole is growing up.
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