Powerless

Last night, Laeth sent me an epub of his latest novel, Powerless. I haven't started reading it yet, but I know in a general way what it's about. In the author's May 5 post "about a shift," he explained that it was inspired by a day last year when "the power went out for the entire iberian peninsula for ten hours" -- so the title most literally refers to being without electrical power, but this setting is "used to tell stories about human powerlessness against the randomness of life." Particularly, the novel focuses on "failure to communicate," with the failure of electrical communications systems mirroring failures of a more social or spiritual nature: People "can’t use their phones to call, but also can’t talk properly to the people next to them."

During my lunch break today, I was about to start reading Powerless, but I decided that I really ought to finish at least one or two of the other books I'm currently reading before starting a new one. So instead of starting Laeth's book, I continued with Remarkably Bright Creatures. On p. 75, I read this:

Cameron's phone battery blinks red, nearly drained. He digs in the bottom of his duffel for his charging cord, but it's sitting on Katie's nightstand. He can practically see it there. Left behind, leaving him literally powerless.

Katie is Cameron's former live-in girlfriend, who has just kicked him out. The issue was communication, or the lack thereof.