Welcome to The Egg, an off-campus geodesic dome where David Fuffman and his crew of alienated Princeton students train for what might be the end of days: America is in a perpetual state of war, climate disasters create a global state of emergency, and scientists believe time itself may be collapsing.
Nemett’s book swerves between speculative coming-of-age fiction, a superhero story and an apocalyptic campus novel ... But I begrudgingly found the sincerities of both Nemett and his characters refreshing in their vulnerability ... Nemett captures a group whose unfettered exuberance is seldom found in today’s novels. There’s no final act in which they’re heroically rescued by self-awareness; the group remains forever 'masters of denial, impervious to reality.'
Adam Nemett’s debut novel, We Can Save Us All, is Fight Club by way of Don DeLillo with a side of Pynchon ... Nemett wonderfully employs what worked for Karen Thompson Walker’s The Age of Miracles and Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven: the terrifying disaster flick is ubiquitous, cities crumbling to dust in an instant — the End of Days is gut-wrenching when it’s gradual, a faucet dripping toward a crescendo ... [Time,] like other portions of We Can Save Us All, treads a fine line between clever and awkward ... Though, notably, Nemett deserves commendation for writing with poignancy about the toll that college takes on mental health ... Despite the choppy USV plot line, the final third act of We Can Save Us All is as fast-paced as it is dark ... Nemett is an undeniable talent with a unique voice.
Nemett’s incredible debut follows David Fuffman, a comics-obsessed freshman at Princeton ...The novel switches between the perspectives of David, or Infrared, and his old high-school crush, Haley Roth, also at Princeton. As their group grows into a ridiculous cult, and it becomes unclear what is real, there are numerous staggeringly imaginative set-pieces involving a striking cast of characters. With a preapocalyptic setting like that of Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story and soaked in hallucinogens in a way that recalls Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson’s Illuminatus! Trilogy, Nemett’s wondrously fresh novel positively bursts with charm, heart, and invention.
