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World Made by Hand: A Novel
In his previous book, celebrated social commentator James Howard Kunstler explored how the age of globalization and mankind's explosive progress over the last two hundred years was based on the availability of cheap fossil fuels. He observed that the terminal decline of oil production, combined with the perils of climate change, had the potential to put industrial civiliza...more
Paperback, 336 pages
Published
January 6th 2009
by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
(first published December 31st 2007)
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this book is the grandma moses of all 4 star reviews; it came to its fourth star very late into its existence. it is like my slow-simmer appreciation of winesburg, ohio, but this one took much longer than two stories, this one took 3/4 of the book to win me and (this part pending) keep me.
and yet i still don't have a handle on the tone of this book. most of the postapocalyptic stuff i have read all takes place immediately after the event - like - "oh, shit, now what??" this...more
and yet i still don't have a handle on the tone of this book. most of the postapocalyptic stuff i have read all takes place immediately after the event - like - "oh, shit, now what??" this...more
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I read Kunstler's The Long Emergency and was affected for months, but after reading World Made by Hand, I realize that Kunstler suffers from a profound lack of imagination for that which isn't immediately in his intellectual/emotional/philosophical grasp. I could hang with the premise of a small community in the very near future trying to remake themselves after converging apocalypses have nearly wiped their population out and cut them off from other towns, but there is no way I buy that the pe...more
this book kind of sucked.
the story may reference peak oil issues but it doesn't particularly demonstrate how a declining oil supply effects a culture.
the really bad part is the main character who is sad and everyone in the town is sad and then wakes up, goes on an adventure, kills a guy, sleeps with or is kissed by every married or widowed girl in town, enlivens a whole town, and makes friends with a strange insect-like cult (with no explanation as to why they house a gia...more
the story may reference peak oil issues but it doesn't particularly demonstrate how a declining oil supply effects a culture.
the really bad part is the main character who is sad and everyone in the town is sad and then wakes up, goes on an adventure, kills a guy, sleeps with or is kissed by every married or widowed girl in town, enlivens a whole town, and makes friends with a strange insect-like cult (with no explanation as to why they house a gia...more
Of the three post-Apocalyptic tales I've read - The Stand, The Road and this one - this is my favorite, and not just because it's set in a region near where I happen to live (Upstate NY). It's not as dire as the other two (not necessarily a good thing) but I found it more thought-provoking. What if we had no more oil, LA and DC were nuked, and subsequent plagues knocked out a significant portion of the population? The short answer is no one knows. The pessimist says "We're all five meals aw...more
I like the idea of this book maybe a bit more than the book itself. I feel as if the author could have thought much more deeply on the implications of a fuel-free economy in terms of every day life. I also disagree that the outcome would be as gloom and doom as this book. I was a bit frustrated 85% of the way through the book, feeling like I was following a bunch of cowboys around the wild west, but the end of the book got my heart racing and followed a good climax. Overall, pretty average w...more
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Meh.
I don't think this book even knows what it wanted to be. For the most part, it feels like a satire of post-apocalyptic fiction--flu meets nuclear bomb meets ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, or something--and suddenly upstate New York reverts to the 19th century. (More so than it already has.) None of the timelines add up to anything possible, but you quickly get to ignore that.
Except in between being satirical, it gets bizarrely dark and gruesome a couple of times, and also twists ...more
I don't think this book even knows what it wanted to be. For the most part, it feels like a satire of post-apocalyptic fiction--flu meets nuclear bomb meets ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, or something--and suddenly upstate New York reverts to the 19th century. (More so than it already has.) None of the timelines add up to anything possible, but you quickly get to ignore that.
Except in between being satirical, it gets bizarrely dark and gruesome a couple of times, and also twists ...more
Reminded me of good old-fashioned post-collapse SF from the '50s and '60s. Sadly, the book is marred by Kunstler's weird conceit that once all the oil is gone, everyone will revert to sexism, start dressing in old-timey clothes, and talk like extras from a bad Tom Sawyer movie. If the book had a thicker layer of the fantastic, he might have pulled this off. But as it is, the 19th-century trappings just pull the reader out of the narrative again and again. Plenty of reviewers have commented on Ku...more
If you're reading these reviews you've heard all about the setting of this book so I won't repeat it but I will say that it really is the setting that makes this book. The author's vision of the future is interesting, thought provoking and unfortunately easy to imagine. I do wish he had gone further into telling us more about the lives of the survivors and the way they've come to live as it is very interesting. The downside of this book is in the story. The plot is somewhat flimsy and trite-...more
I'm three (short) chapters into this and seriously contemplating foregoing the rest of it. Long-winded descriptions of scenery - natural, back-to-the-land or looted and dessicated old building shells - and thin characterizations do not a compelling read make. The introduction of the character identified as the antagonist by the jacket flap has me thinking I know exactly where this is going and not at all sure that I want to spend the next several hundred pages along for the ride. I'll likely ...more
Wow, there are certainly some odd reviews of this book. I, on the other hand, loved this book:
In short, it's the story of a man dealing with the natural change within a post-apocalyptic community once the worst of it ends and some semblance of society tries to get going again. It's richly and realistically set, and addresses the real challenges and probable situations these people would find themselves in, and finds realistic solutions.
It's perhaps the most 'optimistic' vie...more
In short, it's the story of a man dealing with the natural change within a post-apocalyptic community once the worst of it ends and some semblance of society tries to get going again. It's richly and realistically set, and addresses the real challenges and probable situations these people would find themselves in, and finds realistic solutions.
It's perhaps the most 'optimistic' vie...more
This is the story of an America (and only an America, the rest of the world seems to have been unaffected) dragged kicking and screaming into the 19th century by two pretty small nukes and the Mexican flu. Yes, the country has changed irrevocably, and large numbers of people died, but apocalyptic? Not by the actual definition of the word, no.
To me, it presented a fairly feasible possible future when the oil finally runs out, but you need to be clear; this is the story of one very iso...more
To me, it presented a fairly feasible possible future when the oil finally runs out, but you need to be clear; this is the story of one very iso...more
This novel written by James Kunstler is his dystopian presentation of the post-oil world set in a northeastern U. S. village. Certain social structures like cheap clean energy, most of the food found on today's grocery shelves, automobiles and roads for them, and the rule of law which, according to Kunstler's book, "The Long Emergency" are a direct function of cheap energy and will change as the world becomes bereft of petroleum.
In this story, people avoided the large cities...more
In this story, people avoided the large cities...more
A mixed bag at best. The writing is compelling and Kunstler paints an overall believable picture of a post-disaster America. Unfortunately, the novel is plagued by a multitude of problems from the get-go.
The most immediate problem is that Kunstler has populated his novel with flat, unexciting characters. Only the narrator (Robert Earle) is given any sort of depth. The other citizens of Union Grove are utterly two-dimensional; even Brother Jobe, a very interesting character who ha...more
The most immediate problem is that Kunstler has populated his novel with flat, unexciting characters. Only the narrator (Robert Earle) is given any sort of depth. The other citizens of Union Grove are utterly two-dimensional; even Brother Jobe, a very interesting character who ha...more
It's not very often that a book grabs me on page one and won't let me put it down until I've devoured the whole thing. This one did that. This world is incredibly vivid and all-too-possible these days, and the smallest details (like the guy who has an almanac and will come around and set your mechanical clock for you, or the electricity coming on just long enough to provide a burst of radio preaching from who knows where) are often the most arresting. The narrator is a complex character whose vo...more
Kell
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
People who like Fantasy Western Apocalyptic genres
I really like these books. The paranormal subplots kind of threw me, though. I guess having only read his non-fiction work and his blog, I wasn't expecting a fantasy book.
The first time I read this book I was a little disappointed, I had just watched "Collapse" directed by Chris Smith. I wanted JHK to give me a blow by blow account of events we can expect and how to survive them. Instead, World Made By Hand shoves you a decade or so after all the "Long Emergncy"/te...more
The first time I read this book I was a little disappointed, I had just watched "Collapse" directed by Chris Smith. I wanted JHK to give me a blow by blow account of events we can expect and how to survive them. Instead, World Made By Hand shoves you a decade or so after all the "Long Emergncy"/te...more
A post-apocalyptic oil doomer book? What's not to like?!
In this book, US society has reverted to a mostly pre-oil age. A middle eastern war, plus a few well-placed attacks on the US, has caused American government to fall. There's no large central government, no electricity, no fuel to run engines.
This book does a pretty good job of describing what day-to-day life might be like in those sorts of circumstances. The main character has to deal with lawlessness, strangers mov...more
In this book, US society has reverted to a mostly pre-oil age. A middle eastern war, plus a few well-placed attacks on the US, has caused American government to fall. There's no large central government, no electricity, no fuel to run engines.
This book does a pretty good job of describing what day-to-day life might be like in those sorts of circumstances. The main character has to deal with lawlessness, strangers mov...more
Though this book was long on dialogue and short on character development, I did end up enjoying it despite myself. Bits of it were clever, but there were certain scenes that seemed out of place, unless a sequel is forthcoming. For instance, when the New Faithers come to the community and buy the local high school building, Robert is given a tour by Brother Jobe (leader of the New Faith community). He is allowed to meet...what the heck did they call her...Great Mother (Mary Beth Ivanhoe)? Who app...more
James Kunstler sets out a near future in which 1) the offshore oil doesn't flow anymore 2) unnamed events have conspired to remove much of what passes as government 3) people are coping, somewhat. It is set in upstate New York in the little town of Union Grove.
The first part moves slowly, I thought, as Kunstler spends a lot of words telling of the changes that result to our happy-motoring society when the fuel is no longer freely available. He and many others have set out why our present ...more
The first part moves slowly, I thought, as Kunstler spends a lot of words telling of the changes that result to our happy-motoring society when the fuel is no longer freely available. He and many others have set out why our present ...more
I gave this book five stars not because it was well written- it wasn't - nor because the story was cohesive - it wasn't - but because the amount of thinking and discussion it generated was astonishing.
It takes place in the near future, after enough awful events in the world have resulted in the collapse of government, community infrastructure, and widespread communication. There's only intermittent electricity, no cars (because no gas, and no manufacturing of any kind), no wheat due t...more
It takes place in the near future, after enough awful events in the world have resulted in the collapse of government, community infrastructure, and widespread communication. There's only intermittent electricity, no cars (because no gas, and no manufacturing of any kind), no wheat due t...more
A post-apocalypse story that's not too heavy on the gloom.
The government has disintegrated and the lights have flickered out. Kunstler only alludes to the cause, which seems to be an amalgam of climate change and global battles over resources (mainly oil).
Parts of the country are as lawless and grim as Cormac McCarthy described in The Road, but other areas, like Union Grove, NY, are rustic and communal. World Made by Hand explores the tension between these two elements.
...more
The government has disintegrated and the lights have flickered out. Kunstler only alludes to the cause, which seems to be an amalgam of climate change and global battles over resources (mainly oil).
Parts of the country are as lawless and grim as Cormac McCarthy described in The Road, but other areas, like Union Grove, NY, are rustic and communal. World Made by Hand explores the tension between these two elements.
...more
Yet another book where I was lured in by a good review/blurb, this one from NPR. Yet another disappointment.
The premise is very interesting. Set in a small town in upstate New York after apocalyptic events that have essentially disbanded the government and deprived everyone of oil and electricity, the lives of the townsfolk are disrupted one summer by a series of events.
The plot was interesting enough - right up until the end, where it got weird and then abruptly ended,...more
The premise is very interesting. Set in a small town in upstate New York after apocalyptic events that have essentially disbanded the government and deprived everyone of oil and electricity, the lives of the townsfolk are disrupted one summer by a series of events.
The plot was interesting enough - right up until the end, where it got weird and then abruptly ended,...more
This book surprised me. At first, I was pleasantly surprised by the pastoral setting in this post-peak oil world. It's a unique treatment of the dystopian concept that was pretty engaging for the first half of the book--and fully believable. It's not difficult to imagine that in a world where central government, transportation & the energy industry has collapsed, we'd have no choice but to go back to the land. That they seem to have reverted back to the language patterns of the frontier times a...more
This book is set in life after the current way of life (as we know it in America now) ends due to vaguely described events that included "bombs" in LA and DC and a war in the Middle East. Electricity is scarce, most technology has become irrelevant and the community in which the story is set is effectively reverting to an agricultural way of life. What I liked about this book was the positive, hopeful approach. Yes, it has elements of serious violence and corruption - but that does ...more
It aint (sic) fine literature, its a page-turner. Small chapters and an easy story make this book fly by. What makes it interesting to read, however, is the idea of having to start all over again... but this time with the comparison of what things used to be like. Everything is a bit anachronistic, post-pre-modern I guess you could call it. You can see the roots of our modern conveniences, how the layers built up over years, improvements taking us one step further away from the basic knowledge o...more
I live in upstate New York. I'm not very familiar with Washington County, the primary setting of this book, but I am familiar with downtown Albany and the surrounding suburbs. I was pleasantly surprised by the accuracy in his geography of the area and references to state government until he spelled Duanesburg wrong (he spelled it Duanesberg), which really upset me because that's my hometown. I know that this may sound trivial, but if a local author is going to use his home region as the setting ...more
Dystopia. While reading this, I was also reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's "On the Banks of Plum Creek" to my daughter. I read the whole Little House series as a young girl and revisiting it as a grown up has been REALLY interesting... I am endlessly fascinated by everything that Pa knows how to do ie don't bring the furniture with you on that cross country move cause you can just make new beds and chairs when you get to your new sod house, along with making the house! Point being, in ...more
Thoroughly enjoyed the read, though the end felt rushed. It basically ended like "...and that's what I did that summer. The End." Overall the story felt like Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome meets Little House in the Big Woods. There were some very tense moments, and everything felt vividly alive. The odd characters who cropped up here and there, such as the crazy woman who serves them plates of mud, and glasses of dirty water, claiming them to be "stew and strawberry wine", wer...more
Sarah
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
fans of post-apocalyptic fiction
Shelves:
2010
What is it about the end of the world as we know it that reverts women back into homemakers, capable of little more than washing, cooking, handicrafts and child-rearing - and in need of a big, strong man to protect them? Is it because a return to a more primitive form of society brings with it a return to more primitive gender roles? Or is it because most post-apocalyptic stories are written by men?
As the narrator of James Howard Kunstler's "A World Made By Hand" says, "...more
As the narrator of James Howard Kunstler's "A World Made By Hand" says, "...more
Patrick Gibson
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommended to Patrick by:
Fresh Air (again)
Shelves:
lasciate-ogne-speranza-voi-ch-intra
“nattering nabobs of negativism”
The bombs have gone off. The electrical grid is gone and with it, the internet. Computers are useless. Without oil production farming on a massive scale has ended. The big box stores have been looted and Wal-Mart is no more. The world has been hurtled from the 21st to the 18th century. No iPhones, no HD television, no newspapers and no big cities.
After a series devastating flu epidemics the population of the planet as been reduced by two...more
The bombs have gone off. The electrical grid is gone and with it, the internet. Computers are useless. Without oil production farming on a massive scale has ended. The big box stores have been looted and Wal-Mart is no more. The world has been hurtled from the 21st to the 18th century. No iPhones, no HD television, no newspapers and no big cities.
After a series devastating flu epidemics the population of the planet as been reduced by two...more
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| Geezeo Book Club: World Made By Hand | 17 | 4 | Jan 22, 2012 04:31pm |
James Howard Kunstler (born 1948) is an American author, social critic, and blogger who is perhaps best known for his book The Geography of Nowhere, a history of suburbia and urban development in the United States. He is prominently featured in the peak oil documentary, The End of Suburbia, widely circulated on the internet. In his most recent non-fiction book, The Long Emergency (2005), he argues...more
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