World Made By Hand (Amy)
James Howard Kunstler
317 pages
I picked up World Made by Hand because I saw it mentioned somewhere (can’t remember where, sorry) and it sounded interesting. I was vaguely aware that it involves some social commentary but I didn’t want to get involved in it too much and risk learning so much that I spoiled the book for myself. The main reason it grabbed my interest is because it’s post-apocalyptic/speculative fiction.
In a former life Robert Earle was a software developer. Then one summer life changed. Bombs hit L.A. and Washington D.C., the electricity only comes on sporadically. Oil, gas and other supplies are unavailable. Epidemic illness sweeps the country, millions die and the population is drastically reduced. Trade and news from overseas becomes non-existent. It’s difficult to find out what’s going on in the next town, never mind the next state. The weather has also gone gone wacky either from environmental causes or from the bombs. No one is sure which.
Throw in a strange religious sect and a group of thugs who choose to live in a trailer park outside of town rather than work cooperatively with the townspeople and you have an interesting story.
I didn’t think that this book was heavy-handed. I noticed a lot of common sense stuff like:
1. Oil is a finite resource.
2. If bombs went off near large metropolis, people living nearby would be devastated
3. It’s a good idea to have the skills necessary to take care of your family. Gardening, baking, canning.
4. Epidemics can still happen even in this modern age of medicine.
I liked this book okay. Not as much as I thought I would but I still enjoyed reading it. There was a really weird section involving the religious sect that left me scratching my head. I just didn’t understand what was going on. Still, there are some interesting thoughts on how different segments of society might react to a lack of judicial system, limited supplies etc. that are worth pondering.
Think The Road by Cormac McCarthy only lighter and with a little of the Little House on the Prairie pioneering spirit thrown in and you have an idea of who would enjoy this book. (3/5)
I really like the cover. The idea reminds me a little of the non-fiction book by Alan Weisman, The World Without Us, which explains what would happen if people disappeared and the world was allowed to go “back to nature.”