Pandemic Nihilism

Jan 2022
Hurdy Gurdy – Christopher Wilson – Faber & Faber, 2021
* *
Got this on a whim because I liked the title and it was, supposedly, a hilarious take on the current Covid situation. I can see what the author was aiming for - a young and naive monastic novice survives an outbreak of the Black Death and becomes convinced that he is a healer - but the constant nods and winks to the present day became tiresome, and the occasional funny line doesn’t leaven the underlying nihilistic message that humans are gullible idiots.