A local community forum becomes a recluse's obsession through heartbreak
Community Board — Tara Conklin
Welcome to Reading Under the Radar, where every Tuesday you’ll receive a book recommendation right to your inbox that hasn’t hit any major lists or book clubs but definitely deserves to be read.
The best way to support this newsletter is to become a paid subscriber, but if that isn’t your thing and buying books is, consider sending me a book from my wishlist to review for an upcoming weekly recommendation.
Community Board by Tara Conklin
Content warnings included in the footnote of this newsletter.1
What It’s About
When Darcy’s carefully planned life is upended, she goes home. It’s not what she wanted, but after her husband leaves her for a ~more exciting~ woman (extreme sarcasm), she wants comfort and consistency in her hometown of Murbridge, Massachusetts. But when she gets there, nothing is the same.
Her parents, for one thing, aren’t even at the house, so Darcy finds herself living in her childhood home alone, jobless, spouseless, and directionless. There’s new people in town she doesn’t know, her high school ex-boyfriend’s mom keeps leaving Tupperware on her porch, and a weird drone seems to follow her everywhere she goes.
So Darcy does what a lot of us found/find ourselves doing amid the throes of change and depression: rotting on the couch and getting way too much takeout. (I’m telling on myself here, too.) And Darcy soon becomes obsessed with the Murbridge community message board, an online forum where neighbors complain about dog poop, look for missing pets, ask vague and existential questions, and try to take down others. It’s a lot.
As Darcy falls back into the community — reluctantly, but with a push from a new friend — she realizes she may have to leave the house after all, and that it may not be so bad.
Why You Should Read It
This book, in a way, is about nothing — in the way that Gilmore Girls is. It’s very Taylor-Doose-protests-rated-R-movies coded. Darcy slides into a Kirk role, as an eccentric weirdo who everyone loves and also who somehow has some strange jobs all around town. It’s kind of about nothing.
But at its heart, it’s also a story about a small town and its residents’ relationships with one another. In that way, it's about everyone's everyday life, how we treat our neighbors, and how we choose to make our mark on the world. It was much more poignant than I originally expected, and I found myself, a semi-directionless semi-adult, relating to everyone in the story, not just Darcy.
And of course, there are fun antics, like chasing pet birds down the street, breaking an elder out of a nursing home run by nuns, and a fight to keep a town Little Free Library. Just to name a few.
I celebrated independent bookstore day by . . . buying books of course! My local indie is huge and beautiful, and it always fills me with joy to spend time there. Did you celebrate? It’s my favorite holiday of the year!
Can’t get enough, or looking for a different recommendation? Browse the archives, or check out some popular past recommendations:
I also love hearing from readers! Let me know what kinds of books you’re looking for that you’d like to see featured, or send in your most recent five-star read (or two) and get a recommendation just for you. You might be featured in an upcoming newsletter! Reply to this email to get in touch!
Sponsor an issue of Reading Under the Radar! Add your own banner image or use text only, and link to your publication, product, or service. Fill out this form to inquire about sponsoring a newsletter and featuring your book or publication!
Content warnings include: divorce, affair, infertility and IVF discussion, cultural appropriation (from a villain character), homophobia (and associated hate crime; a brick with the word f*g is thrown through a window), death of spouse by cancer (in past, recounted story), local politics.
Really want to read this one. I think I tried and abandoned it? But I will try again.
I really enjoyed this and picked it as my book club pick. I listened on audiobook.