World Made by Hand: A Novel
by James Howard Kunstler
|
List Price: Our Price: $11.00 You Save: $13.00 (54%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $5.36 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of World Made by Hand: A Novel
Book Review: An interesting read
Summary: 4 Stars
I liked World Made By Hand. It wasn't great, but it was rather good and entertaining. I have to believe that Kuntsler is hoping for a movie deal, if he hasn't already signed one. He's a sharp cookie, Kuntsler, and I'm pretty sure he is financially readying himself for the onslaught that he predicts, and I agree, is coming.
This novel deals with life after the aftermath, many years down the road from when the "stuff" hits the fan, when oil is no longer available, and life in America is reduced to a shambles. No cars, no reliable electricity, only memories and desires. Kuntsler takes this setting and develops a story around it that he has already predicted in his "Long Emergency," and his discussions in "The End of Suburbia."
The novel plods along with some minor action, none of which is described in much detail, until very close to the end when all hell breaks loose and his visions of ugly violence are realized. Interestingly, Kuntsler allows his protagonist to be eeryingly stupid and drag is best friend along for the gruesome ride. Disappointedly, all of Robert Earle's actions in the climax of the story are stupid, as he knows better, he knows that the evil that awaits him, actually does await him, and how Kuntsler could believe that his man is so stupid is beyond me. Sure, he's trying to be righteous, but everything that precedes the climax tells us that Earle should know better. It's almost like Kuntsler wasn't quite sure how to bring off the violence that he knows is coming to us all, so he just shoves it at us. Any sane character would never have allowed himself to be put into the position that Robert Earle not only finds himself, but gleefully brings his best friend into, as well. And his actions following the climatic scene are less than good, as well. Perhaps Kuntsler wants us to believe that when the end of the world as we know it arrives, we will all be stupid, and we will follow up our stupidity by being a fool to our friends. I guess what troubles me most about this particular scene, is that, having been in at least some semblance of a similar situation, my companions and myself approached it with much, much trepidation and thoughtful planning, and we would never have allowed ourselves to be so stupidly and recklessly brought to our knees. Kuntsler must have never served in the military, or at best has some kind of idealistic vision of sane people, that in reality doesn't (or at least shouldn't) exist.
The resolution does serve as a sort of savior, however. It ends with a most interesting twist, and though I didn't see it coming, I was glad to see it. Unexplained things happen, and though I've always believed Kuntsler is a non-believer, our story ends with some belief, if not confusion. Interesting.
I recommend this book to not only those who know about Peak Oil and believe, but also to those who don't believe it, as you are the ones who truly need a wake-up.
Book Review: kunstler should stick to blogging & stuff
Summary: 3 Stars
this book... well, sucked. i got it from the library and actually read it all the way through... but not so much because i was intrigued as because i didn't feel it was fair to rag on it without reading it first.
i am a BIG fan of kunstler and i read his blog regularly. i have found his nonfiction books to be truly enlightening (as well as well-written and actually funny) and have passed them along to numerous friends. i have plagued mr. kunstler with fan email. i take all of his predictions and warnings to heart. kunstler is a great writer... of nonfiction.
i tried once before to read one of his novels but couldn't get more than a couple pages in. given the topic of this book i was much more determined. and it's the subject matter that is this novel's only redeemable characteristic. kunstler has made a valiant attempt at fleshing out an image of a post-carbon world, one we're extremely likely to be actually living in, in the near future. i have no doubt about that. nor do i have much doubt about the plausibility of what he describes.
i do have doubts regarding why he bothers writing fiction when he's so bad at it.
other reviewers have noted that his characterizations are shallow... and that his descriptions of women rarely make it past their physical features. my chief complaint is that the dialogue is terrible. it's unrealistic and it's used as a very obvious vehicle for giving the reader information about the world they're visiting. "say, earle - don't you ever miss the old times, back when we used to have electricity & cars & stuff? now things are so hard, and our womenfolk can't hardly bear children... i miss cold beer." i paraphrase... but this is generally how it goes.
besides the crappy dialogue, there's a rather bizarre story arc. the main adventure of the story is over with halfway through, and the rest is just a jumbled mess of nearly pornographic depictions of people at their worst, giving in to their basest natures. except for the main character, who remains an upright citizen and as a reward is able to score a really young, petite li'l bride. nothing is said about how he deals with the woman he was previously banging, who was older but she made a fine jug o' wine.
i'm relieved to be done reading this book - it's due back at the library today and it's not worth paying a fine on. i hope that kunstler returns to what he's best at - nonfiction - and writes more books about our impending doom in the non-fiction way. i'll keep reading his blog.
if you're curious to know what kind of world he's created in this book but don't want to bother reading it, just imagine "little house on the prairie" set in a world where instead of endless prairie there are lots of former strip malls and the older people have almost dream-like memories of living in a world with cars and plasma TVs. that's really all you need to know.
Book Review: The apocalypse as bittersweet
Summary: 3 Stars
There are significant flaws in Kunstler's World Made By Hand. That's the bad news. The good news, though, is that it's an incredibly seductive vision of the world after things have fallen apart. It takes an artist of great skill to make the apocalypse look attractive.
First, the bad news. Except for the protagonist Robert Earle and his buddy Loren Holder, none of the characters are really developed. This is especially true of poor Jane Ann, Loren's wife and Robert's mistress, and Britney, the young widow who eventually becomes Robert's live-in lover. But curiously, it's also true of Brother Jobe, the leader of the New Faith cult that comes into town. For that matter, the New Faithers as a whole are underdeveloped. Sometimes they seem ominous, sometimes innocent. What's the reader supposed to make of them?
Moreover, the novel begins to unravel toward the end, as if Kunstler had planned a book twice its size but halfway through ran out of steam and abruptly pulled the plug. The Queen Bee and identical deaths chapters are bizarrely out of place, without absolutely no textual anticipation or follow-up. (Likewise with the curiously irrelevant--yet its portency is clearly suggested--revelation that Robert is actually a Jew who has changed his name: what's that all about!?) An earlier reviewer insightfully remarked that the book's chapters could almost be read as individual vignettes.
So why read the book? Ah, that's where the good news comes in. Kunstler's world made by hand is one that is emerging after the world we now dwell in has collapsed. Terrorist attacks on both coasts, the end of fossil fuels and the lifestyle that went with them, devastating diseases spread in part by the warming of the planet, and a total breakdown of centralized government and communications, have all contributed to a new way of life that returns survivors to an earlier way of life. Communities are relatively self-supporting, isolated, and mechanical (made by hand). Folks learn genuine skills--carpentry, bee-keeping, sewing, music-making--instead of the bizarrely artificial ones we now think are indispensible--banking, accounting, travel agenting, real estating. Since there's no fuel, people walk or ride horses. Their slower pace of life reawakens them to the beauty of nature, the solace of silence, the rejuvenating effects of simplicity. Life in Kunstler's new world isn't easy, and the crash that took everything down was obviously pretty bad. But in the midst of the ruins, something important is being rediscovered.
How ironic, that the collapse of a society that wantonly glutted itself on nonrenewable resources might reveal a perennially renewable resource: human spirit, cooperation, compassion, and hope. But the bittersweetness of this realization is permanent, because the renewability of humanity, at least in Kunstler's novel, carries an enormous pricetag.
Book Review: Worth a read, but...
Summary: 3 Stars
Just finished this last night. Overall, I felt it was worth the read as far as decent post-apocalyptic stories go, but have to say I was also let down.
For starters, though this seems to be meant as a cautionary tale, if this is how it's going to be after the fall, sign me up. I know it's supposed to portray the loss of so many people and modern conveniences, but the author never really involved me enough in the story for me to care much about the losses. More emphasis seemed to be put on the good things. Perhaps that is due, as other reviewers have pointed out, to a lack of story and character building. I wasn't particularly moved.
I also have to agree with many other reviewers about the lack of strong women characters and the lack of a multicultural society. Women hold a much more equal and important role in current society than is portrayed in this novel. I don't think a collapse in society is going to erase that fact and in many ways I think it would be to the contrary.
There are two main things that bothered me about this book. Number one, I feel I now have an intimate knowledge of every single meal the main character ate during this saga. After the first couple descriptions, it would have been okay to just say they ate breakfast or dinner, etc. But no. Every meal is described in utmost detail. Wow, I don't think I eat that well NOW. It became very redundant and tiring.
Number two, I got tired of the reference to how "we can't do 'this' any more because we don't have 'that'." The main character constantly TOLD us what was missing from the old days. Rather than being lectured throughout the book, I would have rather been shown what was missing or different through good story telling.
I never became immersed in this story or the world presented by the author, though throughout, I badly wanted to be. I felt there was the basis for a great story here, but it was always held just beyond arms length away from me.
Like other reviewers, I was also confused by the supernatural references towards the end. Seemed really out of place considering the the rest of the story. The ending did seem quite rushed, as well.
Overall, I did enjoy the book and don't feel like I wasted my time, but at the same time I'm a bit disappointed. It kept my interest enough to finish it with no problem, but it wasn't so overly compelling that I couldn't put it down. I look forward to reading some of my favorite books over and over again. Would I ever read this one again? Probably not.
Oh... just one more thing: Totem poles?! Seriously?!
Book Review: The Dweebs Shall Inherit the Earth
Summary: 2 Stars
Kunstler has done great work in nonfiction, particularly with the possible political and practical ramifications for post-consumerist civilization in "The Long Emergency." Here he has explored the aftermath in the form of a novel, with underwhelming results. There are probably thousands of post-apocalyptic novels in the literary world, most notably in science fiction and horror, in which writers explore how regular folks would survive the collapse of modern civilization's conveniences and social support systems. If you've read even a tiny percentage of the novels in that sub-genre, you will find nothing compelling about Kunstler's vision. He doesn't even really explore the ramifications of his favorite nonfiction subjects like peak oil and climate change, and instead sets up this novel with poorly-defined terrorist attacks and epidemics that wipe out America beyond the borders of a small town in upstate New York.
With everyone besides genteel middle-aged upstaters conveniently out of the picture, the world Kunstler constructs in this novel is laughable. Formerly pampered upper middle-class office workers have transcended the practical necessities of carpentry and craftsmanship by completely regressing into social customs and belief systems from a bygone era. Other reviewers are correct in criticizing the status of women (servitude) and minorities (completely missing) in this fantasy world. Kunstler's society here is a strange mix of Amish village and hippie commune, built on the fantasies of 60 year-old former hippies who still can't understand why their utopia of hemp and free love didn't miraculously emerge back in 1969. Instead of a plausible dystopia based on Kunstler's solid nonfiction research, what we actually have here is a utopia for white upper-middle-class baby boomers (men only) wishing for the good old days that never were.
Meanwhile, the book is populated by hollow and stereotypical characters, with genteel prose that sometimes collapses into forced poignancy like the cringe-inducing "her hair was full of the spice of fresh grass and childbearing." Kunstler's prose often slows down with annoying lists of names, plants, and foods. The plotline remains fairly plausible until falling apart at the end, with an unexplained supernatural deus ex machina that doesn't remotely fit with the attempted realism of the rest of the book. It's as if Kunstler envisioned an 800-page epic but got bored and abruptly cut off the story, or his agent said he could make more money with a trilogy. Either way, Kunstler's nonfiction is much better, [~doomsdayer520~]