World Made by Hand: A Novel
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Product Description
In the best-seller The Long Emergency, James Howard Kunstler explored how the terminal decline of oil production had the potential to put industrial civilization out of business. With World Made By Hand Kunstler makes an imaginative leap into the future, a few decades hence, and shows us what life may be like after these coming catastrophes—the end of oil, climate change, global pandemics, and resource wars—converge. For the townspeople of Union Grove, New York, the future is not what they thought it would be. Transportation is slow and dangerous, so food is grown locally at great expense of time and energy. And the outside world is largely unknown. There may be a president and he may be in Minneapolis now, but people aren’t sure. As the heat of summer intensifies, the residents struggle with the new way of life in a world of abandoned highways and empty houses, horses working the fields and rivers replenished with fish. A captivating, utterly realistic novel, World Made by Hand takes speculative fiction beyond the apocalypse and shows what happens when life gets extremely local.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is NOT a post-apocalyptic novel, as suggested by other reviewers, so if that's what you're looking for, you'll need to keep looking. Road Warrior it is not.
However, it does tell the story of an America (and only an America, the rest of the world seems to have been unaffected) dragged kicking and screaming into the 19th century by two pretty small nukes and the Mexican flu. Yes, the country has changed irrevocably, and large numbers of people died, but apocalyptic? Not by the actual definition of the word, no.
To me, it presented a fairly feasible possible future when the oil finally runs out, but you need to be clear; this is the story of one very isolated little hamlet of New York state. The community experiences nothing like the violence you could expect from the good old human race when left to their own devices though there are perfectly believable allusions to it in other areas. Corruption is rife, though, and that provides part of the plot. It's basically a story about how one very, very small community deals with various, sometimes dire, situations presented by other, local, very, very small communities. But, I think that's the point; globalisation (along with electricity, tyres, cars, junk food, the TV dinner) is gone. Their world has suddenly shrunk to about 80 miles in any direction. This is the story of that new small world.
It has a bit of an underwhelming ending where a few events were not adequately explained and which leaves a few characters wide open for further development, but that's not a bad thing because I like the characters and the way of life they've created. I'm actually quite keen to read the next one as I'd like to see how they're all getting on.
One thing it has made me want to do is learn a new skill. I work in I.T. which has to be the number one, post-oil superfluous industry (a fact to which the protagonist can painfully attest). Maybe I'll order a book on carpentry when I get the sequel, today.
However, it does tell the story of an America (and only an America, the rest of the world seems to have been unaffected) dragged kicking and screaming into the 19th century by two pretty small nukes and the Mexican flu. Yes, the country has changed irrevocably, and large numbers of people died, but apocalyptic? Not by the actual definition of the word, no.
To me, it presented a fairly feasible possible future when the oil finally runs out, but you need to be clear; this is the story of one very isolated little hamlet of New York state. The community experiences nothing like the violence you could expect from the good old human race when left to their own devices though there are perfectly believable allusions to it in other areas. Corruption is rife, though, and that provides part of the plot. It's basically a story about how one very, very small community deals with various, sometimes dire, situations presented by other, local, very, very small communities. But, I think that's the point; globalisation (along with electricity, tyres, cars, junk food, the TV dinner) is gone. Their world has suddenly shrunk to about 80 miles in any direction. This is the story of that new small world.
It has a bit of an underwhelming ending where a few events were not adequately explained and which leaves a few characters wide open for further development, but that's not a bad thing because I like the characters and the way of life they've created. I'm actually quite keen to read the next one as I'd like to see how they're all getting on.
One thing it has made me want to do is learn a new skill. I work in I.T. which has to be the number one, post-oil superfluous industry (a fact to which the protagonist can painfully attest). Maybe I'll order a book on carpentry when I get the sequel, today.
17 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A great story, told well & vividly. I enjoyed it greatly. Kunstler must have had fun writing it. Good guys get to vanquish the bad guys AND our hero gets the girl. Every old hippy's fantasy as we look into the impending apocalypse. But its still a good read & thought provoking too. More convincing than some of the hard hitting non fiction books on peak oil etc.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Mind-numbingly dull story of everyday folk.
There's nothing remarkable, new, or worthwhile in this tedious story. The setting of a post-economic-collapse USA may as well be any time in the 1800s, and any place on the planet, as the only references to the collapse are a few throwaway lines - so if the post-apolacypse genre is your thing, this certainly ain't it!
There's nothing remarkable, new, or worthwhile in this tedious story. The setting of a post-economic-collapse USA may as well be any time in the 1800s, and any place on the planet, as the only references to the collapse are a few throwaway lines - so if the post-apolacypse genre is your thing, this certainly ain't it!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A great insight into human behavour
If you have any imagination at all, and believe our consumer world can not go on like this forever, you may have wondered what the future might have in store for your off-spring. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mr. Chris Burras
Good writer but disappointing book
Good idea but long winded, pedestrian, and not terribly revelatory. More of a post apocalyptic novel than informative. Read more
Published on 13 Mar 2009 by Planetary Consultant
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