BOOK JOURNAL: The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez
Entry #3: for those looking for a pandemic novel that strikes the perfect balance of hope and anxiety, with a precocious parrot character as a cherry on top
The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez
Rating: 5/5 stars
Have you ever stumbled upon an author only to devour the book and realize you should have been reading said author for YEARS? That’s what happened to me when I picked up and gulped down The Vulnerables like it was Gatorade on a hot day. I read this book basically in one sitting, and I was coming from a place of unease toward any pandemic book. Like, seriously folks, isn’t it too soon!!? The COVID-anxiety is still so fresh in many ways, why would I use my precious free time to read about it?
This book has many reasons to go back to that “unprecedented” time. First and put simply: Nunez’s writing is gorgeous. Second, the plot. The book centers on a middle-aged woman who agrees to house- and bird- sit for her NYC-based friends who got stranded in California early in the pandemic. This book defies that COVID-anxiety, and uses it to propel a lovely reverie on writing and vulnerability in such an accessible way.
Third, and perhaps most important: Eureka, the precocious parrot character! I delight in any animal characters—think: Six Thirty in Lessons in Chemistry or Marcel in Remarkably Bright Creatures. (Both of which I would recommend to almost any reader!) This particular animal character didn’t have much in the way of sentience, but we know how I feel about birds. I was delighted anyway!
Favorite quotes from The Vulnerables:
“Only when I was young did I believe that it was important to remember what happened in every novel I read. Now I know the truth: what matters is what you experience while reading, the states of feeling that the story evokes, the questions that rise to your mind, rather than the fictional events described. They should teach you this in school, but they don’t. Always instead the emphasis is on what you remembered. Otherwise, how could you write a critique? How could you pass an exam? How could you ever get a degree in literature? I like the novelist who confessed that the only thing to have stayed with him after reading Anna Karenina was the detail of a picnic basket holding a jar of honey. What stayed with me all this time after reading The Years was how it opened, with that first sentence, followed by a description of the weather.”
“I believe there are more good people in the world than bad people. What does not follow, though, is that, thanks to the numbers, the good will prevail. What cannot be left out of account is that, under certain circumstances, the bad can get the good to act badly, and furthermore, in order to achieve certain goals—victory in wartime, for example—getting the good to act badly rises to the level of a necessity.”
Related content:
This NYTimes article on Nunez. I love this bit: “She didn’t publish a novel until she was in her 40s and wasn’t able to live on her writing until — 47 years after she began — she won the National Book Award, at 67, for ‘The Friend.’”
If you’re like me, and want a visual of Eureka, here’s some information on macaw parrots.
If you like Sigrid Nunez, you would like:
Another expertly done pandemic novel called Emergency by Daisy Hildyard. This was a Drink Books recommendation (RIP Book Cru) in 2022.
If you want a similar engrossing novel with characters you want more of, pick up Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano. This was one of my favorites from 2023. This book is much more plot-forward than The Vulnerables, but the writing quality is on par.
Ok, the cover alone is so delightful! While I, too, eschew pandemic books, I am adding this to my reading list thanks to your recommendation. Thank you!
Added this to my list!