It's Only Temporary
Eric Shapiro
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Buy *It's Only Temporary* by Eric Shapiro

It's Only Temporary
Eric Shapiro
Permuted Press
Paperback
108 pages
July 2005
rated 4 of 5 possible stars
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Sean is a recent collage graduate who doesn't know what he wants from life, except that he wants to live it - which is too bad, since a huge asteroid is going to hit Earth and destroy it. It's Only Temporary begins when there is less than a day left to live. Sean has finally come out of his denial and decides that he wants to die with his ex-girlfriend, whom he still loves. He says good-bye to his parents, and his father gives him a gun. Then Sean gets into his car and drives towards her house.

On the way he smokes some weed so that he doesn't have to think about the coming destruction. On the freeway, he encounters a bleeding woman who was kidnapped, abused, and thrown out of a moving bus. She wants revenge on the men who did this and also to rescue the two women who are still in the bus. Sean is reluctant to help her because time is precious, but in the end he agrees and they start to chase the bus on an otherwise empty freeway.

Shapiro's style is minimal, but he still manages to write effective descriptions within short chapters and scenes where nothing is extraneous. He uses effective occasional flash-back sequences to paint the life of Sean and his girlfriend, Selma, and their relationship. The other characters in the book get a lot less screen-time, but still they come across as very human.

Shapiro paints a vivid picture of the things people do when they are faced with imminent destruction, and sometimes the images are downright surreal. Some people commit suicide, others continue to work as usual. Most people think about their lives and their possible afterlives. However, when the end is very near, most people are in their homes with their loved ones, awaiting death together.

The first-person narrative delivers flashbacks into Sean's life, making the book an intimate experience. As may be expected, Sean ponders the meaning of life and death, what kind of death is better, and what a man can or should do this close to the end. However, that doesn't slow the story down much. There are some religious overtones but in the end, there are no certainties for anyone.



Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Mervi Hämäläinen, 2007

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