‘The Year of Fog’ is a revealing look at time and value in the eyes of a mom-to-be

The Holga, as Abby Mason knows it, is an imperfect camera. It has many layers, adding to the dreamlike distortions of an overall image. There are so many better cameras she could use. Yet, the Holga is the one she brings with her on one fateful, foggy morning as she takes her fiance’s precocious, brown-eyed daughter, Emma Balfour, to a San Franciscan beach. She takes a picture of Emma picking up sand dollars, and turns for half-a-minute to take pictures of a dead seal. When she turns back, Emma is gone.

Richmond’s novel, “The Year of Fog,” details Mason’s realization that she must look within herself in order to find the crucial detail that is key to finding Emma. Mason thinks back to the layers of film that lead up to the blurry image that is her life today. And so, she goes on a journey, both of the body and of the soul, in order to find the missing piece—whatever that may be.

This is one of the most profound books you will have the chance to read. And yet, you won’t realize it because it is deceptively simple.

It’s all about the package it’s dressed up in, really. Richmond doesn’t try to dress up anything with fancy or pretty wording. It’s just the truth. And therein lies the brilliance—sometimes, the simplest truths are the most complex in nature. Even the most noted psychological journal could not have taught what Richmond’s novel did, and yet, some of the most astounding revelations could pass by without much lead-up or fanfare.

“The Year of Fog” is an expertly, carefully-pieced-together account of one woman’s identity crisis. Mason’s story is truly a mirror reflected through the lens of a Holga. It is the beautifully real distortions of the story that slowly shed clarity on the nature of time and what it’s worth. Michelle Richmond’s words, clear and concise, clever and easy to identify with, herald a new era of literature—one where great and moving worlds can be uttered in a single sentence, where one need not be a scholar to be enlightened by her words.

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