Tariq Shah’s debut novel, Whiteout Conditions, is one of the few new releases of 2020 so far that is both a technically and emotionally rich creation. The story follows Ant as he returns to his hometown of Chicago, from which he has been absent for five years, to attend a funeral. The funeral of his childhood friend Ray, Vince’s younger cousin, who Ant and Vince literally watched grow up. A self-proclaimed examination of “toxic masculinity” and male friendships, as Vince picks Ant up from the airport the reader is immediately made aware that their relationship is not what it once was. And their journey is a dark, haunting, nearly surreal mix of flashbacks to their childhood and drug-fueled steps closer and closer to the funeral.
Vince struggles with the immediacy of his loss, the trauma of being the one to find his cousin’s body, while Ant expresses an ongoing morbid fascination with funerals. Having lost his mother and grandparents years ago, he considers these cultural expressions of loss to be “fun” on the surface; however he also seems to find a kind of truth, perhaps honesty, in them that he lacks elsewhere in his lonely life. Mile by mile, an incoming blizzard paralleling the impending events and emotional landslide, this tale quietly grinds toward a gut-wrenching and unexpected conclusion.
A brief whisper of a novel at just over 100 pages, Shah doesn’t waste a word. Each sentence carefully chosen, he creates crisp images and a fast emotional connection by saying only what is necessary. He builds the story through a series of short vignettes which work like pieces of a puzzle, connecting one upon the other until the full, shocking picture is revealed. While notably bleak in it’s exploration of grief, Shah’s writing is also at times darkly humorous. Considering the length of the novel, he conducts a surprisingly thorough exploration of death’s impact on our lives, considering such impossible issues as how to “make things right” again and move forward after such loss. He then weaves in themes of coming of age, coming to terms with being an adult, and how we find or redeem ourselves. Saying much more would spoil all that is packed into this brief, yet stunning novel.
Whiteout Conditions is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers. Thank you to Two Dollar Radio for providing an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
Tariq Shah is the author of Whiteout Conditions, a debut novel. Born and raised in Illinois, Shah writes fiction and poetry, and has work appearing or forthcoming in Jubilat, Heavy Feather Review, No, Dear Magazine, ANMLY (fka Drunken Boat), Gravel, BlazeVox, and other publications. From 2007-2009, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mozambique, and he holds an MFA in Creative Writing from St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn, where he now teaches. His chapbook, heart assist device, was a finalist for the 2019 no, dear/small anchor press chapbook series.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Ant is back in Chicago for a funeral, and he typically enjoys funerals. Since most of his family has passed away, he finds himself attracted to their endearing qualities: the hyperbolic language, the stoner altar boy, seeing friends in suits for the first time. That is, until the tragic death of Ray ― Ant’s childhood friend, Vince’s teenage cousin. Ray was the younger third-wheel that Ant and Vince were stuck babysitting while in high school, and his sudden death makes national news.
In the depths of a brutal Midwest winter, Ant rides with Vince through the falling snow to Ray’s funeral, an event that has been accruing a sense of consequence. With a poet’s sensibility, Shah navigates the murky responsibilities of adulthood, grief, toxic masculinity, and the tragedy of revenge in this haunting Midwestern noir.
