- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: New American Library; Reissue edition (27 Jun 1991)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0452265657
- ISBN-13: 978-0452265653
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 13.5 x 1.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 989,203 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
In "Good News," Edward Abbey's acclaimed underground classic, the West is wild again. American civilization as the twentieth century knew it has crumbled. In the great Southwest, a new breed or settler, white and Indians together, is creating a new way of life in the wilderness - a pastoral economy - with skills and savvy resurrected from the pre-industrial past. Meanwhile, in a last surviving bastion of urban life, the remnats of the power elite are girding their armed forces to reimpose the old order. This is a land of horses and motorcycles, high-tech weaponry and primitive courage, and the struggle for the American future is mounting in intensity. No quarter is asked or given, and the outcome hangs in perilous balance against a background of magnificent nature and eternal human verities.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Abbey's best work will always be his essays, but this novel is one of those "forgotten" dystopian classics that deserves much more attention. Forget Orwell's "1984." It's too European. Forget Levin's "This Perfect Day." It's too fantastic. Abbey has written the best post-apocalypse American novel to date. And his politics, as always, ring true. Up the rebels! An anarcho-classic!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What is amazing about Abbey is how much I buy into his worldview of nasty cities sucking the life out of people and the few free men going out into the country and living off the land. Abbey writes modern Westerns and this one takes place after the infrastructure of the world collapses. An amazingly fun read, I find myself at odds with...I love living in the city, I love traffic, pollution, car horns blaring and noisy upstairs neighbors. Yet I also for a brief time can completely get into Abbey's point of view and that alone makes this a great book.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
6 reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
A rare anarcho-classic!
12 Jun 1997
Format:Paperback
Abbey's best work will always be his essays, but this novel is one of those "forgotten" dystopian classics that deserves much more attention. Forget Orwell's "1984." It's too European. Forget Levin's "This Perfect Day." It's too fantastic. Abbey has written the best post-apocalypse American novel to date. And his politics, as always, ring true. Up the rebels! An anarcho-classic
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Is this the thesis Abbey wanted to write?
15 April 2009
Format:Paperback
Edward Abbey graduated from the University of New Mexico with a MS in philosophy. His 1959 thesis was titled "Anarchism and the Morality of Violence."
Clearly, many of his books are a reflection of these earlier musings. Good News is his sci-fi expression of anarchism.
In Good News, society has collapsed, particularly in areas that were inhabited by high densities of humans, such as Phoenix, that required extraordinary infusions of energy, particularly west of the 100th meridian. Without energy, there was no water delivery, storage, and irrigation. No modern agriculture. No city infrastructure maintenance. No mega-transportation system.
No centralized government.
Jack Burns is on a mission to be reunited with his son, who he hasn't seen or contacted for over two decades. He travels with his friend, Sam, a Native American with unique powers. He falls into a crowd of anarchists who are fighting against a quasi-military government ruled by "the Chief". The Chief accepts execution and torture as necessary to maintain order. The anarchists want to destroy all records of government.
Abbey has written, "Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners." This philosophy is expressed in Ayn Rand style in Good News.
According to Abbey, this potential future is very dark, and humanity collapses as the strong bully the weak. The back cover of this book states "With this boldly satirical imaginary world, Edward Abbey asks us to look around and take stock of what we value before it is too late." I would not categorize this book as "satirical." I would say that this book was Abbey's continued experimentation into ways to express his dissatisfaction with the status quo in the west. After all, "Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top."
And Abbey liked his stew.
Clearly, many of his books are a reflection of these earlier musings. Good News is his sci-fi expression of anarchism.
In Good News, society has collapsed, particularly in areas that were inhabited by high densities of humans, such as Phoenix, that required extraordinary infusions of energy, particularly west of the 100th meridian. Without energy, there was no water delivery, storage, and irrigation. No modern agriculture. No city infrastructure maintenance. No mega-transportation system.
No centralized government.
Jack Burns is on a mission to be reunited with his son, who he hasn't seen or contacted for over two decades. He travels with his friend, Sam, a Native American with unique powers. He falls into a crowd of anarchists who are fighting against a quasi-military government ruled by "the Chief". The Chief accepts execution and torture as necessary to maintain order. The anarchists want to destroy all records of government.
Abbey has written, "Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners." This philosophy is expressed in Ayn Rand style in Good News.
According to Abbey, this potential future is very dark, and humanity collapses as the strong bully the weak. The back cover of this book states "With this boldly satirical imaginary world, Edward Abbey asks us to look around and take stock of what we value before it is too late." I would not categorize this book as "satirical." I would say that this book was Abbey's continued experimentation into ways to express his dissatisfaction with the status quo in the west. After all, "Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top."
And Abbey liked his stew.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Forget '1984'
13 Mar 2001
Format:Paperback
This is not only one of Abbey's best novels but a great novel in its own right. As both a city and a country dweller I can not only relate but confirm much of his notion that cities are not nearly as healthy for a man's soul as the country is. In addition this is a great story about social decay and what it takes to over come the challanges that arise from such a situation. We have grown soft and forgetful of what our forefathers went through to create a country like ours and this book gives a realistic and easy to swallow insight into their frames of mind and their state of heart. This is the wild west and the futurama all mixed together with an iron fisted military group to boot. I still can't believe this was never made into a movie.
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