Oona Out of Order

March 9, 2020
In Montimore’s whimsical second novel (after Asleep from Day), a woman experiences the unsettling effects of time travel. In Brooklyn on New Year’s Eve, 1982, the day before college student Oona Lockhart’s 19th birthday, Oona is more interested in the rock band she has just joined, and particularly its guitarist, Dale. As the ball drops, Oona feels an odd sensation (“Escalating heat stirred within her as particles scrambled to escape and rearrange, but not now and not here”), and then finds herself in the body of her 51-year-old self in 2015, surprised to be living in a brownstone instead of the SoHo loft she’d imagined sharing with Dale. There, a personal assistant recites a message from Oona’s younger self explaining that she will be bouncing around in time through all the years of her life, hitting each only once, always making the change as the new year begins. As the years flash forward and back, Oona comes to life as a reckless club kid, a grieving older woman, and a wife who has no memory of her husband. Montimore sustains the concept by rooting the story in Oona’s relationships, employing sparkling humor as Oona struggles to make sense of each year’s new circumstances. This witty, fantastical exploration of life’s inevitable changes is surprising and touching.

Starred review from June 1, 2020

On the eve of her 19th birthday--which is also New Year's Eve--Oona is having the celebration of her life, madly in love, about to embark on a dream-come-true band tour. But when she awakes, she's jumped forward in time to 2015--landing in a huge house and watched over by her personal assistant, Kenzie, who must convince her (again) of what is actually happening. Shock and denial must settle into acceptance that every New Year will begin with her life out of order. Her only constants are her free-spirted mother, Madeleine, and Kenzie, who might prove to be Oona's most important link of all. Skilled, sensitive narrator Brittany Pressley nimbly ages every which way with Montimore's (Asleep from Day) chronologically challenged protagonist. Pressley is marvelous as discombobulated Oona, few-holds-barred but supportive Madeleine, and clever and sparkling Kenzie, but she's just as affecting with the rest of Montimore's vast cast--including too-close-to-perfect Dale, skeezy British wannabe chef Edward, smugly manipulative Francesca, and fiercely controlled adoptive mother Shivani. VERDICT This is thought-provoking, fantastically narrated entertainment for broad audiences.--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC

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