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The I Index

What Just Happened: Notes on a Long Year

Maybe someday

45

/100

I Index Overall Rating

Readers

40/100

Critics

50/100

Scholars

N/A

Author:

Charles Finch

Publisher:

Knopf

Date:

November 9, 2021

A writer and literary critic's diary of the year 2020, beginning with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and spanning the protests for racial justice and the chaos of the U.S. presidential election.-

What The Reviewers Say

Christine Brunkhorst,
The Star Tribune
... the journal you meant to write but were too busy dashing through self-checkout lanes or curled in the fetal position in front of Netflix to get anything down. Thankfully, Finch did. His keen-eyed account is vivid and witty. It will make you laugh despite the horrors.
Harvey Freedenberg,
BookPage
We're fortunate that one as gifted and insightful as Los Angeles-based novelist and critic Charles Finch chose to preserve his recollections in the eloquent, fierce What Just Happened.
Sophia Nguyen,
The Washington Post
... early pages skillfully evoke their moment’s spiky, overstimulated atmosphere—especially the new, frightening friction of such everyday routines as grocery shopping or picking up a prescription. From there, the book unfolds chronologically, its concerns cheerfully quotidian, following Finch’s personal sense of what seemed noteworthy that day.
Donna Seaman,
Booklist
Finch’s precise and stunning day-by-day chronicle of the COVID-19 pandemic brings back all the shock and bewilderment, fear and outrage, grim humor and stark revelations.