Authors’ pandemic novel is mixed bag of surprises

Getting 36 American and Canadian authors of different social, cultural, political and religious backgrounds together to write one novel is no easy feat.

But if there’s one current event that can bring everyone together to work on a creative endeavor, it’s COVID-19. In this case, the project is “Fourteen Days,” a poignant and emotionally resonant yet slightly repetitive and uneven collaborative novel edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston. The collaboration includes writers like Emma Donoghue, Celeste Ng, Tommy Orange, De’Shawn Charles Winslow, Ishmael Reed, Meg Wolitzer, Dave Eggers and Luis Alberto Urrea.

The scaffolding of the novel, crafted by co-editor and former Authors Guild President Preston, takes place on the rooftop of a six-floor walk-up on the Lower East Side in New York City during the first few days of lockdown at the end of March 2020. It follows 30-yearold Yessenia Grigorescu, who’s just taken a job as the (not-soqualified) super of Fernsby Arms, a “decaying crapshack tenement that should’ve been torn down long ago.”

In between trying to manage the tenants’ identities using a handbook she inherited from her predecessor, tracking the mounting number of COVID cases reported on the news and worrying about her Alzheimer’s-stricken father who’s stuck in a nursing home in New Rochelle, Yessie raids the alcohol stash left behind by the previous super and drinks boozy concoctions on the building’s rooftop to collect her thoughts.

Before long, she’s joined by some of Fernsby Arms’ other “left-behinds” — actors, dogwalkers, artists and even bedbug exterminators — who weren’t wealthy or privileged enough to escape the city when the pandemic hit. This ragtag group, plus or minus a few latecomers, gathers every night, 6 feet apart, to bang pots and pans in support of the frontline workers, bask in the increasingly cleaner and quieter air, and share stories about their lives.

As a concept — especially one whose proceeds benefit the work of the Authors Guild Foundation, the charitable and educational arm of the Authors Guild — the setup is admirably ambitious and delightfully kitschy. After all, with such literary talent attached to each of the character’s stories interwoven throughout the main narrative, who wouldn’t want to see what this quirky experiment had to offer?

In practice, however, the results — including the surprising yet slightly campy twist of an ending — are a mixed bag.

Unlike listening to the Moth Radio Hour — a recording of real stories told live by real people in front of a live audience — merely reading story after story without connective tissue or significant plot movement holding them all together can feel both monotonous and disorienting. (Maybe a more in-depth explanation of the process of putting the book together at the beginning would’ve helped readers feel more engaged?)

Because the characters are referred to only by either their apartment number or their nickname recorded in Yessie’s inherited handbook (Merenguero’s Daughter, Vinegar and Hello Kitty, for example), some readers might also have a tricky time keeping track of the characters and their backstories. (Admittedly, I did.)

Still, there’s a lot in “Fourteen Days” to latch onto and like.

For one, there are a number of story snippet standouts, covering topics ranging from immigration and assimilation, rape and revenge, love and heartbreak, or even ghosts. Some, like the 9/11-themed saga told by Merenguero’s Daughter, or the visceral story (about a nun’s ability to predict her patients’ death) shared by a visiting ER doctor who’s helping with the overload of COVID cases, deftly mine the long-lasting impacts of fear, grief and loss.

Others, like The Therapist’s story about her first-generation Chinese grandmother’s superstitious habits or La Cocinera’s softhearted tale of helping a fallen older woman on her way to church in Mexico’s San Miguel de Allende, highlight the characters’ diverse cultural experiences and underscore one of the book’s most important, unifying themes: New York City — America, even — as melting pot.

And, of course, there’s always the who-wrote-whichstoryline(s) guessing game to play.

Should you wait until you’re finished to read the end notes that detail who wrote what? Or cheat and find out the whole kit and caboodle before you begin? Either way, I guarantee some of the matches — and the way the stories are thrown together — will surprise you.

As a concept, the (novel’s) setup is admirably ambitious and delightfully

kitschy.

Bestselling writers Margaret Atwood, left, and Doug Preston are the co-editors of “Fourteen Days.”