Demon in My View.

Emily Walters Gregor is a graduate student in 20th-century American
literature and an ESL writing tutor at the University of Minnesota.

Set in a post-apocalyptic 2099, the world of Demon in My View is dark and violent. Seventeen-year-old Toby’s understanding of the world is limited to interactions with his teacher and classmates at a primitive one-room schoolhouse, and with his father, a town eccentric who attempts to maintain a moral order now rendered obsolete.

With Toby, the reader learns of the recent past of the book through a series of crumbling newspaper clippings. These tell a fractured story of nuclear meltdown, pandemics, world war, and the influx of millions of American refugees to what was once known as Canada. Toby soon learns that he must leave on a dangerous quest to collect a debt, accompanied by a secretive stranger.

An author’s note explains that the book’s plot is a secular, dystopic retelling of the apocryphal Book of Tobit, which the author notes is rich in its depiction of familial relationships.

The narrative of the novel is complex and challenging. In his note, the author states that this is deliberate so as to parallel the confusing world in which Toby finds himself—a world in which history and social mores are obscured or upended. However, this narrative structure can be distracting, and recognition of the intricate mythological themes will require some effort on the part of the reader. Consequently, this book is best suited for those readers who will be willing to commit to unravelling the story in the context of its literary and mythological predecessors. Recommended with reservations.