On Earth as It Is on Television
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4.1 • 7 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
In Emily Jane’s rollicking debut, when spaceships arrive and then depart suddenly without a word, the certainty that we are not alone in the universe turns to intense uncertainty as to our place within it.
“Weird and sweet … like a 2020s White Noise: loud and colorful Americana with a sprinkle of apocalyptic doom.”—Edgar Cantero
“Heartfelt, witty, and secretly romantic … a delightful and poignant story about what it is to be human, and what we owe each other.” —Christina Lauren
Since long before the spaceships’ fleeting presence, Blaine has been content to go along with the whims of his supermom wife and half-feral, television-addicted children. But when the kids blithely ponder skinning people to see if they’re aliens, and his wife drags them all on a surprise road trip to Disney World, even steady Blaine begins to crack.
Half a continent away, Heather floats in a Malibu pool and watches the massive ships hover overhead. Maybe her life is finally going to start. For her, the arrival heralds a quest to understand herself, her accomplished (and oh-so-annoying) stepfamily, and why she feels so alone in a universe teeming with life.
Suddenly conscious and alert after twenty catatonic years, Oliver struggles to piece together his fragmented, disco-infused memories and make sense of his desire to follow a strange cat on a westward journey.
Embracing the strangeness that is life in the twenty-first century, On Earth as It Is on Television is a rollicking, heartfelt tale of first contact that practically leaps off the planet.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jane's cutesy debut takes the old sci-fi motif of first alien contact to a far-fetched new frontier. Mysterious spaceships briefly hover over Earth's big cities before disappearing without a trace, leaving humanity baffled. Three story lines humorously trace human and feline reactions in the fallout. Long-suffering husband Blaine bemusedly supports his wife, Anne, who he calls "superwoman"; two TV-addicted children; and their grumpy cat, Mr. Meow-Mitts, on a haphazard road trip to Disney World. Meanwhile, Oliver Smith, who's been in a coma for decades following a terrible car accident while trying to save his sister from an abusive stepfather, abruptly wakes and is adopted by a telepathic cat, Bouchard. And spoiled Malibu teen Heather chafes against the cheesy lifestyle her wealthy TV producer stepdad Jack P and his cat, Bastet, provide her. When the alien ships—piloted by meerkat-like beings who mistake Earth's cats for its dominant species—return, these humans gradually achieve a joint acceptance of otherness. Feline psychology plays a pivotal role in Jane's whimsical if somewhat heavy-handed admonition that even when humans seem strangest to one another, they have more in common than they think. It's fun, but over the top.
