Oona Out of Order

In this debut novel, Montimore explores not only how dependent we are on time, but also how time restrains us and influences our decisions (large and small). She emphasizes the adage that “youth is wasted on the young”, provides the fantasy of an older person experiencing their body at a younger age, and explores the need for older people to maintain some of the liberty that is generally lost from their youth. Above all, Montimore seems to stress the necessity to do the best that we have with the life that we’re given, even when it turns out that that life isn’t “normal” by most standards and that, in those deviations from the norm, there are always benefits to offset the perceived losses.