Dale's review
The Last Town on Earth: A Novel
by Thomas Mullen
Dale's review
The Last Town on Earth: A Novel by Thomas Mullen
Dale's review
rating:
This is the thirteenth book I read on my commute (though technically I also read a lot of it on a vacation train ride from DC to NYC). Unlucky thirteen, perhaps, because it's a well-written book but man is it depressing.
Last Town on Earth is a heavy bit of historical fiction written very recently but shedding light on life in the American northwest in the early 1900s, the days of World War I and the Great Influenza Pandemic. A small logging town decides to quarantine itself against outsiders in order to prevent any of its citizens from being infected with the flu. But of course, things go wrong and things get ugly.
As I said, it's very well-written and equally well-researched. The nascent labor movement, the rise of the U.S. as a military superpower, the accelerating changes of the twentieth century in every area from gender relations to modern medicine, all get attention and I did find all of that fascinating. It's just not a premise that lends itself to happy endings, and...more
Last Town on Earth is a heavy bit of historical fiction written very recently but shedding light on life in the American northwest in the early 1900s, the days of World War I and the Great Influenza Pandemic. A small logging town decides to quarantine itself against outsiders in order to prevent any of its citizens from being infected with the flu. But of course, things go wrong and things get ugly.
As I said, it's very well-written and equally well-researched. The nascent labor movement, the rise of the U.S. as a military superpower, the accelerating changes of the twentieth century in every area from gender relations to modern medicine, all get attention and I did find all of that fascinating. It's just not a premise that lends itself to happy endings, and...more
