“You can worry all you want, but you’ll never predict the thing that will destroy you.”
It’s 5:00 p.m. Just an ordinary night. Emma is settling in for a night at The Final Final, her hometown bar. It’s a place that has had so much meaning to her through the years—it’s even where she met her husband, Lucas, on a blind-blind date. (Neither of them knew they were being set up.)
There’s something about a hometown bar. She’s surrounded by people she’s known for a few years, people who—in positive and negative ways—have been part of her life.
As she drinks throughout the night, and Lucas comes up in conversation periodically, she reflects on their relationship, their marriage, their life together. And throughout the night at The Final Final, tensions rise to the surface, old wounds are reopened, and discoveries are made, discoveries which could change everything.
This was a very good, emotional story which unfolded little by little. Emma isn’t necessarily the most likable character—she’s definitely a bit of a snob—but you feel for her as you realize what has happened to her.
The narrative structure of Ordinary Hazards is interesting in that it flashes between past and present, but not in a linear way. Emma remembers different moments, different incidents, so at times it was difficult to orient myself to where we were in the story. But the pull of the plot is still so powerful.
I remembered seeing this when it came out in hardback so I’m glad I picked it up. This was definitely one that left me thinking!
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