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A review by more_books_than_days
Polar Vortex by Shani Mootoo
3.0
This novel offers a sort of antithesis to the often portrayed perfect 'happy gay couple'. There is a realness to this relationship that is susceptible to failure, like any other. A commonness to a pairing haunted by their past, and encumbered by questions of their individual identities.
We meet Priya, and her wife Alex, as a season of bitter cold envelopes their relationship. Insecurities and secrets fall like snow, burying fondness and blocking affection. Ice builds between them, seeping across their words like a January chill. It seems as if they allow this freeze to numb their hearts, bracing themselves against an almost inevitable breaking. As they turn from one another, their relationship begins to starve. They become like the songbirds at their empty feeder in the barren belly of winter. When past and present collide, we reach the final page, left to write our own ending. The story becomes ours, to do with what we see fit... do we end this polar vortex, or do we abandon these characters to find their own way? Shani Mootoo hands it to us, she has finished with it.
We meet Priya, and her wife Alex, as a season of bitter cold envelopes their relationship. Insecurities and secrets fall like snow, burying fondness and blocking affection. Ice builds between them, seeping across their words like a January chill. It seems as if they allow this freeze to numb their hearts, bracing themselves against an almost inevitable breaking. As they turn from one another, their relationship begins to starve. They become like the songbirds at their empty feeder in the barren belly of winter. When past and present collide, we reach the final page, left to write our own ending. The story becomes ours, to do with what we see fit... do we end this polar vortex, or do we abandon these characters to find their own way? Shani Mootoo hands it to us, she has finished with it.