An Ocean of Minutes

May 1, 2018
Traveling to the future is their only chance to stay together--as long as time doesn't tear them apart."People wishing to time travel go to Houston Intercontinental Airport," begins Lim's shimmering debut novel. The year is 1981, time travel is possible, and a flu pandemic has ravaged the globe. Frank and Polly, a young couple from Buffalo, are navigating the world together until Frank gets sick. In an effort to save him, Polly enters into a contract with TimeRaiser, a company that sends healthy people to the future to work in exchange for medical treatment for their infected loved ones. The couple promises to meet in Texas the year Polly is set to arrive, but something unexpected derails their plans. It's only when Polly reaches her destination--sprawling, crumbling, unknowable--that she realizes the devastating decision she's made ("it was irreversible, and only comprehensible after it was done"). Told from Polly's point of view, the novel oscillates between the present and future--a jarring juxtaposition that's equally touching and heartbreaking. While Polly's future is unrecognizable, there are a few depressing tenants that remain: all-consuming capitalism, sexual violence, and extreme wealth inequality are a few. The novel's unsettling tone ensures the reader remains as confused as Polly. Where the United States of America had been, there is now the United States and America. A land divided by borders, wealth, and something far more precious: normalcy. Lim's writing shines brightest when she's ruminating on time, memory, and love: "No matter what happens, the past has a permanence. The past is safe," and "Eventually this white noise of optimism would completely fuzz over her memories of their minutiae: their laughter, musk, tics, gripes, singing, skin."A beautiful debut exploring how time, love, and sacrifice are never what they seem to be.

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Starred review from May 28, 2018
Lim’s stellar follow-up to 2007’s The Same Woman concerns Polly Nader, who signs an agreement to travel through time from 1981 to 1993 to save her boyfriend. During a road trip in 1981, Buffalo residents Polly and Frank are stuck in Texas as state borders are closed to prevent a virulent strain of flu from spreading. Due to time-travel limitations, doctors are unable to travel back far enough to prevent the pandemic’s onset, but people are being recruited by the company TimeRaiser to help rebuild the future. After Frank is infected by the virus, the two decide to separate; Polly strikes a 32-month deal to work for TimeRaiser and plans to reunite with Frank upon arrival. Bonded workers spend their time doing jobs like riding exercise bikes for hours in order to power resorts and are disparagingly referred to as journeymen in a future where the country has been divided into the United States and America. Polly is in the latter (composed mainly of resorts for the wealthy), but Buffalo—where Polly assumes Frank is—is in the former. Polly’s lowly status and lack of funds keep her from knowing if Frank is even alive, and she isn’t allowed to leave America for the United States until her contract is up. She endures betrayals and despair as she tries to break free of her servitude and make the potentially hopeless journey to find Frank. Lim’s enthralling novel succeeds on every level: as a love story, an imaginative thriller, and a dystopian narrative. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM Partners.