World Made by Hand: A Novel
by James Howard Kunstler
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Book Reviews of World Made by Hand: A Novel
Book Review: World Made By Hand
Summary: 4 Stars
I was looking forward to Kunstler's latest mind child after reading "The Long Emergency" and I wasn't disappointed. This fiction book was a pretty good read for the entertainment value but perhaps more useful in getting a preview of the potential conditions that could exist with the collapse of the economy and oil industry. I couldn't help but compare it to the seminal book, "Earth Abides", a 1949 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by Berkeley English professor George R. Stewart, which told the story of the fall of civilization. I say without hesitation that Kunstler's book was more thoughtful and potentially accurate in describing the conditions that could be the norm in the future.
While some readers may anticipate quite a few of the problems in everyday life after the meltdown, as did I, there is room for several surprises. For example, it made sense to me that the production of marijuana and opium poppies in the remains of the USA would flourish given the collapse of the pharmaceutical industry. I also expected the book to focus on conditions and social problems during the collapse and maybe five years or so after, but instead the book timeline is roughly 10-20 years after the collapse. This allows the author to really focus on just how much of an impact the changes in the world will be and that impact is huge.
I didn't have too much in the way of WTF moments in the book except that the only people doing anything like irregular commercial broadcasts on radio (television is a distant memory) are rabid preachers spewing fire and brimstone for all the wickedness they see around them. Somehow though, considering the nature of this aberrant part of mankind, it doesn't seem impossible to believe.
Book Review: This is the Amish version of Mad Max
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been a fan of James Howard Kunstler's work for about a year now. He's always interesting in interviews and short non-fiction environmental work, so it's no surprise this book delivers a solid read.
One of the most refreshing things about this book is that it does two things that most eco-pocalypse books do not: it takes place on the East coast and it shows a religious basis for a community that is not rooted in recycled and lukewarm Native American spiritualism.
Seriously, every damn other book I've read about this stuff takes place in Northern Californian and assumes that without electricity, people are just going to naturally adopt an Earth based religion (The City Not Long After, Earth Abides, The Scarlet Plague, The Fifth Sacred Thing, and to a certain extent Ecotopia, all share elements of these two things).
For the record, I live in San Francisco, so I'm pretty okay with Nor Cal as a setting and a bunch of hippy stuff, I'm just thrilled to see something different.
I really enjoyed reading this book, even if the tone does sometimes slip into the smug and off putting Rhetoric of the Locavore movement(well parodied in an episode of South Park). Sure, people are going to probably be healthier and whatnot once the Industrial Age's carcass starts rotting, but can you really consider Metallica's Creeping Death to be the ultimate symbol of Industrial excess and Capitalist destruction (read the book and you will understand this question)?
After reading this book, I decided it's time to hoard some ammunition and learn a practical trade like blacksmithing. Well, to be honest, I had decided that long before, but this book stokes the flames of those desires.
Book Review: Kunstler gets a little wierd on us
Summary: 2 Stars
James Howard Kunstler, when he is on his "A" game, is a great writer. He can be provocative, irreverent, boisterous, yet hone in on largely obscure, but critically important truths at the same time.
"World Made by Hand" is not Kunstler's "A" effort. It is a novel and is Kunstler getting wierd, projecting perhaps his sexual fantasies of getting laid by other men's wives and widows, mixing it up with crazy religious cults out of hell, and killing to survive.
Killing to survive seems the most Kunstler-like concept out of the whole book. Who wants to hear about Alpha Male preachers leading itenerate flocks to funerals of strangers and taking over the religious services? I don't! Who wants to hear about middle aged men servicing their best friend's wife in order to keep morale up in a high stress environment? I don't. Who wants to hear almost everybody but the protagonist described as a flawed, inadequate loser? I don't! Who wants to learn the name of every herb and roadside flower that might be found in upstate New York, and the name of every folk tune that might be resurrected when radio and rock and roll is but a distant memory? I don't!
This book could be so much better if written by Kunstler at his best. Perhaps the pressure of creating a novel under some sort of deadline pressure forced Mr. Kunstler to get wierd in order to complete the book and he relied on his thesaurus and Farmer's Almanac for inspiration.
This book was a huge disappointment and I couldn't wait for it to end, despite desperately looking forward to it before my purchase.
Maybe the next effort will make up for this disaster.
Stan Moore
Petaluma, CA
Book Review: Thought Provoking and an Absorbing Story
Summary: 5 Stars
I almost didn't buy this book despite having bought all of Kunstler's non-fiction books, going back to his early books on architecture and urban design. "So... he's written a novel... hmmmm..."
Is he the next Faulkner? Well, no, but this was actually one of the best novels I've read in the last year or two. He has a real command of the basics: a good story and interesting, realistic characters. The literary savants swooned over Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" for reasons I don't get at all -- cardboard characters wandering around in an utterly unrealistic world where absolutely nothing grows (folks, if something ever manages to kill the ferns, which survived the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, there aren't going to be any people wandering around).
What I enjoyed about this book is that it paints a quite realistic picture of a future that is at least somewhat probable. It makes you think (and boy, when it comes to our energy future, there's lots to think about) and draws you in to a very absorbing world which reflects Kunstler's deep knowledge of the area in upstate NY where he lives. And you care about the people in the book because they seem very much like the people you run into every day (the protagonist is obviously very loosely autobiographical).
The book this reminded me of was Kim Stanley Robinson's wonderful "The Wild Shore," a more depressing book by far, but one that also focuses on the struggles of ordinary people to make the best of a very strange and changed world.
"Hand Made World" also made me think about the fact that other than being a good cook, pretty much every skill I have would be utterly useless in the world Kunstler describes.
Book Review: A Horrible Future, but Somehow I Like It
Summary: 4 Stars
I would suggest that anyone looking to read this book first check out "The Long Emergency," Kunstler's seminal non-fiction work on peak oil and it's ramifications for the US. "The Long Emergency" will provide crucial context for the imagined setting of "World Made by Hand."
I was leery at first of Kunstler's choice to novelize the post-cheap-oil world. But once I got into it, "World Made by Hand" proved to be a poignant, bittersweet treatment of the future that likely awaits us. His portrayal of the emergence of various group-types (religious, neo-feudal, quasi-criminal) as the dominant social form is convincing. The characters we meet are tragic, funny, frightening, and frightened. And the picture of everyday life, with the intense ratcheting-downwards of pace and luxury from today's standards, is at the same time scary and alluring. This is an apocalypse without total terror, because the collapse of high-energy petroleum society puts a damper on all activity, virtuous and evil alike. Kunstler vividly portrays the trade-offs inherent in our way of life. Sure, our current arrangements allow us to zip down to the big-box store for cheap patio furniture and salad-shooters (a favorite motif of Kunstler's), but what is the overall effect on our sense of place, community, craftmanship, and value? The future of "World Made by Hand" is tough, but there is a rising sense amongst the characters of what it means to live and work well, as opposed to just swimming in cheap doodads and reality shows.
I highly recommend picking up this book. Kunstler solidifies his role as the smartest, sanest, big-picture critic of our current arrangements.