I honestly can’t make up my mind if the Covid-19-ness of this novel holds it back or gives it a hook. Reunion, after all, offers an engaging story ... Even as I tried to extend the same generosity that the story grants its characters, I found myself nitpicking their behavior in a way I associate with social media, not novels. Could this be a side effect of Reunion being so true to life, set in a world with not only the same pandemic we experienced, but also the same algorithmic feeds we scrolled? ... I’m not sure how much power Covid holds as a source of narrative tension in 2024. Perhaps as novelists we need a few more years before we’re able to reflect, invent and make that period our own.
What makes Reunion, Juska’s third novel, particularly compelling is the edgy fragility with which these humans emerge from the pandemic’s first year ... Juska has a talent for deeply immersive details and rich character development. Reunion pulls the reader in, as if we too were returning to Walthrop and assessing the state of our life.
The problem is that, given their undiscussed, long-standing resentments, the two women’s friendship is never convincing, and maintaining their relationships never seems a high priority to Adam. What works in this novel is how Juska keeps the Covid cloud hovering in readers’ minds without overkill.
While some of the plot turns are predictable, the characters are well drawn, and Juska does an especially good job of portraying how her cast navigates a new normal. It’s a diverting twist on the Big Chill formula.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay[/caption]
