To Read: Atmospheric Disturbances, by Rivka Galchen

Review
Early in Rivka Galchen's debut novel, Atmospheric Disturbances, the narrator, Dr. Leo Liebenstein, explains the Doppler effect and thereby introduces the novel's extended metaphor. Leo laments that trying to make sense of his suddenly uneven life is "like trying to determine the actual frequency of an object moving away from me at an unknown speed and in an unknown direction, and not knowing whether it in fact was me or the object doing the moving."

The object in question is Leo's wife, Rema, a vaguely mysterious Argentinean woman more than a few years his junior. At the start of the novel, Leo is convinced that Rema has been replaced with a "simulacrum," — a woman who very much resembles Rema physically (she even stands the same way, with her hips tilting slightly inward) and temperamentally, but seems to be just a bit off. Ever the calm, reserved psychiatrist, Leo quietly accepts this simulacrum's arrival, but internally, he is baffled and ungrounded — for once, he cannot reason any deductions from the observable facts. Where is the real Rema? Was she abducted, or did she leave willingly? Is this permanent, or temporary? Instead of confronting the problem head-on, Leo follows a series of bizarre clues that amount to an investigation of the inner workings of the Royal Academy of Meteorology, and specifically one of its researchers: Tzvi Gal-Chen. This investigation, he presumes, will lead him to Rema. The resulting story develops into a beautiful meditation on the nature of observation and perception.

Leo's quest to understand the language and ideas of meteorology stands as a complex, thought-provoking metaphor for his quest to understand the course of his relationship with Rema. Gal-Chen's research, it turns out, centers on the one fundamental problem with meteorology: accurately describing present conditions is exceedingly difficult, making future forecasts almost impossible. Mirroring that, Galchen — the author — suggests that interpersonal relationships are equally challenging to describe and thus predict. And, considering the stylistic, intellectual, and empathetic authority with which she writes, it's very hard to disagree with her.
- Tom Roberge