But it was very, very loose and actually over time it changed quite drastically.

I had a general idea of the arc of the novel.

I was just thinking, Something about globalism! And anger about the workforce! Ling Ma:There was definitely a lot of drafting and revision, but honestly when I started I had no idea where I was going. But I bet there was an incredible amount of drafting and revision behind it. Ryan Chapman: The book reads very seamlessly. I spoke with her by Skype the following has been condensed and edited. Severance has a light touch, belying Ma’s literary acuity and brilliant imagining of capitalism’s death spasms at civilization’s end. And we learn Candace is guarding a secret which may imperil her chances with her newfound “friends.” She updates a photo blog called NY Ghost with images of the empty city.

She maintains her routines and eventually moves into her office. Candace’s coworkers sport designer flu masks, idly wonder about the colleague who didn’t return on Monday, and debate whether to take the spot bonus for staying on when everyone else has the good sense to get the hell out of NYC.Ĭandace doesn’t have good sense. Ma has fun with the end of the world: Severance reads like The Walking Dead infected with the anarchic spirit of Office Space. She specializes in Bibles and takes occasional business trips to printing facilities in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. specialist.Īlthough this post-apocalyptic remnant waves a typical number of red flags - micro-authoritarianism, liberal use of euthanasia - Candace makes do as they scavenge for food and mercy kill the “fevered.” Ma depicts the end times with alternating chapters on Candace’s pre-apocalyptic life: dating in Brooklyn, navigating adulthood, and working at a book production company. Candace Chen, a New York-based, Chinese-American millennial, is immune to the disease, and joins a small group of survivors led by a former I.T. Ma injects comic levity into a world ravaged by “Shen Fever,” whose victims perform habitual tasks in a mute, somnambulant state until they waste away.

If this sounds familiar, it’s far from dreary. The end of the world in Ling Ma’s novel Severance comes not with a bang, nor with a whimper, but a stream of misinformation, social media hysteria, and plenty of willful denial. Ryan Chapman | Longreads | August 2018 | 12 minutes (3,139 words)

Severance ling ma