A Prayer for Travelers

A Prayer for Travelers by Ruchika Tomar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First off, I loved Tomar's writing style. She used such an economy of language that was still descriptive and atmospheric. The amount of information packed into each sentence, without being esoteric was inspiring. The setting, a small town in the desert, as well as the core friendship of Cale and Penny, was well-developed, new and yet familiar. The odd circumstances of the plot, both of their adventures and their back stories felt authentic and tragic without being unbelievable. The way Tomar chose to tell the story, was both irritating and genius. The book starts at chapter 33 and you wonder if somehow the book didn't load correctly, until you realize that the story was told sequentially, then the chapters cut up and put in a blender. Every chapter you have to reorient yourself,--where does this chapter actually take place? And yet, I think it ultimately adds to the propulsiveness of the novel. Told simply sequentially this story might not pack the same punch. Still, between her economical sentences and the mixed up time-line I wanted a more definitive ending--what exactly happened in the trailer park when Cale went back? What exactly happened to Penny at the end? Just a few more sentences to clarify would have made the novel worth the work, imo.

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Lamb was bent over his bureau in a cotton undershirt clutching a fistful of loose denim at the waistband of the jeans, the sum total between his past and present selves.

How much easier for an object to inhabit a second life.

All of life a repetition, the details slightly changed.