Ken’s Pick (Guest Reviewer)
April, 2022
Storm
George R. Stewart
New York Review Books
Publishing Release Dates1941, and August 17, 2021
Being a reader of primarily non-fiction I was hesitant to consider George Stewart ’s well reviewed, republished (2021) novel Storm but since weather has always been of interest to me-why not? Storm, a bestseller in 1941, skillfully traces the development of a fictional catastrophic Pacific Coast storm in the mid 20th century. Using the 12 chapters of the book, each representing a day in the life of the storm, the narrative follows the event which begins as an “insipid little whorl” that gains enough power to flood Northern California and cover the Sierra Mountains with 20 feet of snow!
Stewart’s writing style provides intimate details of how the storm forms, where and how it gains energy, and what forces are steering its motion, all which represent the current meteorologic knowledge of the period. In doing so, the writing can be likened to that of non-fiction text, since the humans which interact with the storm are only briefly and anonymously detailed. More often than not they are identified by occupation or activity, such as “the linemen”, “the snow-plow operator”, “the meteorologist”, and “the chief”.
Reviewers have pointed out with Stewart’s elevating “the storm” as the main character, and humans described as impersonal actors, what at first glance seems like a literary contrivance, created a book that can now be considered something more radical: the world’s first climate- fiction novel . As Wallace Stegner states, “Weather is here for the first time as important in fiction as it is in fact”. The rising drama of the story is built on the interaction of environmental conditions and the fate of the human characters.
I highly recommend Storm, as an entertaining and an evocative book. For me, this book takes on an even greater importance when one considers the reality of climate change. It is a certainty that rising temperatures are leading to violent and extreme weather. While Stewart’s Storm detailed an event uncommon in its magnitude for its time, in the 21st century we are all facing a future where storms such as Mr. Stewart’s creation are becoming more and more commonplace. Storm is a non-fiction future we will all have to face.