Quake

by Rudolph Wurlitzer

It is the late 1960s in Hollywood and the Big One has just struck - more than eight points on the Richter Scale. This novel is an account of how fear unravels people's emotions, how terror can be liberating and how people, even those in Hollywood, manage to survive.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Literature, Novels, American

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

The great-grandson of the man who founded the famous music company published his first novel, Nog in 1969. For most of the seventies Wurlitzer worked in Hollywood, writing screenplays. His 1971 play 2 Lane Blacktop was filmed by maverick producer Monte Hellman, starring Warren Oates with singer James Taylor and Beach Boy Dennis Wilson. In 1973 he wrote the screenplay for Sam Peckinpah's Western Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, starring Kris Kristofferson and Bob Dylan.

Reviews

[Jack Tripper]

1974 Bantam mass-market (149 pages). Thank you to Jordan West for the recommendation.

[Michael Dashkin · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I picked this up, I thought it would be a smart, amusing social satire of Hollywood or Southern California culture, circa late-1960s, using an earthquake as the occasion for the satire.

Instead, it's a grotesque, quite violent, and generally unamusing post-apocalyptic tale concerning the aftermath of a major quake in Los Angeles.

We follow the moment-by-moment experiences of the narrator as he witnesses the city and people around him unravelling, and as he himself unravels (toward the end of the book, his dialogue is limited to "aaahhhs" and "ooohhhhhs," believe it or not).

It's not a vague, hippy-dippy, dope-induced tale; it's actually written in a terse, hard-boiled style, that suits the story well. And Wurlitzer has a good grasp of that style.

It definitely has a compressed intensity. It's brief and can easily be read in a short afternoon, which is good because anyway it's really a nightmare that you don't want to linger over.

[Andy · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst books I've ever read.

[Jail Flanagain · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a totally amazing and horrifying look at the collapse of civilization. I get tired of all the Cormac McCarthy comparisons to Wurlitzer especially since Wurlitzer wrote his books some 20 years before McCarthy, but if a comparison is made between McCarthy's "The Road" and Wurlitzer's "Quake", it is has to be said that "Quake" is a far more authentic and interesting work.

[Joachim Boaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...

"Rudolph Wurlitzer’s Quake (1972) parades the traumatized victims of a near-future earthquake through a lust-filled black comedy. Wurlitzer deftly re-purposes the language of erotica for distinctly un-pornographic ends: the aimlessness of life transmutes into a priapic shuffle towards [...]"

[David Corvine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Allegorical representation of the spiritual and political idealism of the sixties counter-culture degenerating into a miasma of gratuitous sex, violence and drug taking? Or the literary equivalent of Hollywood B-movie disaster sensationalism? Either way ... an interesting and quick read.

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bloody psychotic nightmare diarrhea party. But not in a good way.

[Larry · Rating 1 out of 5]

The best thing about this book is its length. You can finish it in a couple of hours if you want to. Wurlitzer kept showing up in my Amazon recommendations so I gave this a go. Terrible prose and a lack of interesting descriptions made this a tedious couple of hours that led nowhere. Some commenters have compared this to McCarthy, but there is no comparison. McCarthy can write, Wurlitzer should have stuck to screenplays where descriptive powers don't matter.

[Andy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read about 40 pages and gave up. Seems like it was written in an all night dope haze, maybe I should have smoked a doobie first. Was expecting better from the guy behind Two-Lane Blacktop and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid films.

[Gk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a full-throttle, counterculture disaster novel set in post-earthquake California. I read it in a couple days, and loved every minute of it. Quake is by the author of NOG.

[Rick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disturbing, disturbed book about society disintegrating
in the aftermath of disaster, penned by the author
of one of my favorite novels, "Nog."

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rudy Wurlitzer goes batshit insane and shows us how quickly the world (specifically the upper crust of the world) will become a Boschian hellscape as soon as the 'big one' hits. This is seriously one of the grossest and most depraved books out there, partially because there is so little going on beyond that depravity. Does that sound of interest to you? Pick this up and read it in a sitting or two; everyone else stay as far away as possible.

[J. Fakename · Rating 3 out of 5]

A stream of conscious exploration through the insane post apocalyptic sex crazed factions that rise hours after early ‘70s Los Angeles is struck by an earthquake. I love the idea more than the book itself, too easy to get lost in with a narrator carrying us around town disappearing for stretches as he sticks to silently observing others.

Truly cannot imagine reading this while not smoking grass and listening to Funkadelic.

[Roger Mexico · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Not super well-written. Kinda of exploitative/pornographic. Also, definitely the wrong time to read a book about an “end of the world” kind of event.

[Zach Werbalowsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

His books are unlike any others but what is happening in them? Its like Escape from NY only a quake happened. Everything of his should just be a movie.

[Paul Wood · Rating 2 out of 5]

~150 pages of poorly written chaos.

[Steve Shilstone · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Big Quake hits L.A. in the late 1960s. Apocalypse ensues. Unnamed narrator, ever in the moment, never reflecting, staggers through the horrors of civilization ripped away.

[C. Lee Hodges · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don’t quote me but I’m getting that this, much like Altman’s MASH, is actually a novel about the Vietnam War.

[Vari Lemur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a Film Noir set in a dystopian L.A. About the most ominous piece of literature I ever ran across.

[Lewis Szymanski · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some hack wrote what he probably thinks is a postmodern masterpiece. It's not. Don't read this.

[Nick LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very visual and violent book. An unnamed and uncharacterized narrator wanders through a post-earthquake hellscape while society crumbles around him. But this was no average earthquake, it was the mythical "big one" that should be striking California at any moment now. There are scenes of graphic depravity and violence, and the narrator just stumbles through, his responses to said horrors gradually reduced to wordless "ooohs" and "unns." There are elements of Western here, some dashes of expressionism (in the vein of works like Naked Lunch), and some post-modern use of characterization and narrative development. Wurlitzer is a skilled writer, very clear, very evocative, and very efficient. My suspicion is that this novel was an allegorical prediction about the impending dissolution of society into chaos that many folks were feeling at the beginning of the 70s when this book was published. It's a good read but not for the faint of heart.
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tl;dr--Good read for folks craving a more "experimental" type of narrative, especially if you're just starting down that road. There's lots of anger and sadness in here, and if you're anything like me, sometimes that can be very cathartic to read.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book is awesome. Maybe it should be at least four stars but it is out of print...so I'd be a school of one. "Quake" is a hippie Lord of the Flies. The opening has the main character (who remains nameless through the book) humping a chick during an after shock to the quake of the century just to avoid reality of the situation. Humping on a diving board as people drown in the pool and burn in the hotel.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't help feeling that with more work and editing, that Quake could have been a 4 star book. Wurlitzer's meandering acid-trip style works really well in Nog, but not nearly as well in Quake. There are a lot of imaginative ideas and vivid imagery in Quake, but there is a lack of polish that left me unsatisfied. I also read Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" pretty recently, which is a much more cohesive post-apocalyptic book that balances boldly imaginative ideas with a simple but strong narrative.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun. Definitely suffers from that classic doesn't-really-give-a-fuck disaffected narrator, which I can't see how an author thinks he's going to get a reader to care if his narrator doesn't, but whatever. More of a piling-on of images that just ends where it ends versus a particular start-to-finish journey, which would have definitely made this book more enjoyable, given it a lot more purpose, buuuuut. Noiry, I guess.

[Dave DiCerbo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting take on how people might react to catastrophic natural disaster. Written (and set) in the early 70's, it refelect this turbulence of the time and place (LA)

[Jamar Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a great book and I highly recommend it for other people.