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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
Excellent story of a group of people driven to desperation and violence after the world's wheat, grass, grain and crops become useless and society collapses as a result.
There is some dated language in it, and the full scope of the event is hidden behind the focus of one family, but the encounters in the book are very powerful and the characterisation is very effective.
There is some dated language in it, and the full scope of the event is hidden behind the focus of one family, but the encounters in the book are very powerful and the characterisation is very effective.
Hunh, apparently I don't have a tag for "post apocalyptic", although "during apocalyptic" might be more apropos. I do love books about this topic, and this one is novel both because of its age and because famine is the number one driver (not merely a side effect of something else). The debates about what Britain should do as the world crumbled were fascinating (and of course is echoed in every disaster debate going on now). Help the other regions collapsing? Stockpile food for Britain? (It's a British book.)
I just read about famine in World War 2 (i.e., [b:The Taste Of War: World War Two And The Battle For Food|10234229|The Taste Of War World War Two And The Battle For Food|Lizzie Collingham|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328048171s/10234229.jpg|15134179]), and had some background on Britain's experience with food rationing, which I'm sure was fresh in the author's mind when it was written. This may have helped make it so captivating. I mean, the gender dynamics didn't make me happy, and even the way the males negotiated power was sort of creepy, but that didn't make it any less interesting to read.
Worth it if this is the sort of thing you like.
I just read about famine in World War 2 (i.e., [b:The Taste Of War: World War Two And The Battle For Food|10234229|The Taste Of War World War Two And The Battle For Food|Lizzie Collingham|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328048171s/10234229.jpg|15134179]), and had some background on Britain's experience with food rationing, which I'm sure was fresh in the author's mind when it was written. This may have helped make it so captivating. I mean, the gender dynamics didn't make me happy, and even the way the males negotiated power was sort of creepy, but that didn't make it any less interesting to read.
Worth it if this is the sort of thing you like.
On the back cover of the version I own, there is a blurb from the Financial Times: "Gripping... of all fiction's apocalypses, this is one of the most haunting."
Gripping is the perfect word to describe this book. I would also add scary and horrifying.
The story follows the family of John Custance as they travel across England to try to make it to his brother's farm, after a virus ravages the world, ridding it of all forms of grass. This includes the entire family of Gramineae, all 10,000 species of grass, including major crop plants such as wheat, barley, oats, and rye. You can imagine the effects of something like this, basically leading to famine.
The story starts off as the virus begins its spread in Asian countries, not having reached the Western world. It's quite amusing, and like looking into a mirror, when you read how the various characters react to the events "over there," somewhere far away. When the virus finally makes its way over to the Western world, particularly Europe and England, that's when the depth of the problem reaches home - literally and otherwise, I guess.
I found this book enthralling because it takes a look at how humans might actually react in the face of such an apocalypse. I feel that books can and tend to be more savage, and thus, more realistic than what you might find in movies. Movies are usually trying to appeal to a broader audience, and often "need" to have non-bleak outlooks, whereas I don't think books suffer from the same confines. This is definitely true here.
I just couldn't put the book down. I ended up finishing the whole thing in the night, finally putting it down at 3:30am because I kept thinking, only a couple more pages! - until I finished the whole damn thing.
I bought and read this one thanks to Stephen, who has, as usual, a way better review than mine that you ought to take a look at. When I was in grade school or middle school, I read some of Christopher's other books, The White Mountain series. While I don't remember much in detail, I do recall liking them.
This is definitely a great book, and recommended for post-apocalypse genre fans. I think interest is rising in it again (originally written in the 1950s) and it's been republished. The version I have is new - a Penguin Modern Classic. There is an intro at the beginning of this version which is worth a read.
To end, quite an apt quote, especially in light of what's going on in the world today:
Gripping is the perfect word to describe this book. I would also add scary and horrifying.
The story follows the family of John Custance as they travel across England to try to make it to his brother's farm, after a virus ravages the world, ridding it of all forms of grass. This includes the entire family of Gramineae, all 10,000 species of grass, including major crop plants such as wheat, barley, oats, and rye. You can imagine the effects of something like this, basically leading to famine.
The story starts off as the virus begins its spread in Asian countries, not having reached the Western world. It's quite amusing, and like looking into a mirror, when you read how the various characters react to the events "over there," somewhere far away. When the virus finally makes its way over to the Western world, particularly Europe and England, that's when the depth of the problem reaches home - literally and otherwise, I guess.
I found this book enthralling because it takes a look at how humans might actually react in the face of such an apocalypse. I feel that books can and tend to be more savage, and thus, more realistic than what you might find in movies. Movies are usually trying to appeal to a broader audience, and often "need" to have non-bleak outlooks, whereas I don't think books suffer from the same confines. This is definitely true here.
I just couldn't put the book down. I ended up finishing the whole thing in the night, finally putting it down at 3:30am because I kept thinking, only a couple more pages! - until I finished the whole damn thing.
I bought and read this one thanks to Stephen, who has, as usual, a way better review than mine that you ought to take a look at. When I was in grade school or middle school, I read some of Christopher's other books, The White Mountain series. While I don't remember much in detail, I do recall liking them.
This is definitely a great book, and recommended for post-apocalypse genre fans. I think interest is rising in it again (originally written in the 1950s) and it's been republished. The version I have is new - a Penguin Modern Classic. There is an intro at the beginning of this version which is worth a read.
To end, quite an apt quote, especially in light of what's going on in the world today:
In a way, I think I feel it would be more right for the virus to win, anyway. For years now, we've treated the land as though it were a piggy-bank, to be raided. And the land, after all, is life itself.
Well, this was just great. An absolute romp of a novel that starts slowly then thunders all the way to the end. The story of a virus that affects crops, grain, grass, etc devastating the Chinese landscape first but then gradually spreading across the globe.
To begin with Western countries send assistance to China and all looks hopeful as scientists promote a new, seemingly effective solution. But then, with what seems like little time to spare, the science fails and the snowball of global famine begins to gain momentum. Roger, a confident, bold and occasionally oafish man, has a job in the government and warns his friend John that terrible times may be around the corner. Sure enough, he hears tales of a government plan to nuke cities to reduce the inevitable chaos and death which the famines will ultimately cause. John and Roger get their wives and children (plus a few other stragglers, including the rather marvellous (and creepy) gun shop owner Pirrie and his young wife Millicent) and head for John's brother's farm in the Lake District. Within days, civilisation collapses and John discovers that he must (and can) murder with ease (especially after an incident involving his daughter). Along the way, they meet other survivors, looters, rapists, families seeking refuge. They lose their vehicles and must traipse across Yorkshire (as a Yorkshireman this was a fun part of the book), all the while embracing this new world, a world of violence and death. John, previously a rather meek and introspective man, becomes a ruthless and effective leader with the excellent Pirrie as his obedient and deadly lieutenant.
The book is so much fun to read. It flies along at a pace. Christopher does a great job showing John's transformation, his Breaking Bad-esque experience of becoming a cold-blooded man strangely suited to this new world. Roger, previously loud and extroverted, quickly submits to his new leader like everyone else and (more than anyone) recognises John's swift adoption of his new role as chief in a world that has, almost over night, become thoroughly unforgiving and bleak. The book is fantastic and throws cold water over you until you can't help but shiver.
To begin with Western countries send assistance to China and all looks hopeful as scientists promote a new, seemingly effective solution. But then, with what seems like little time to spare, the science fails and the snowball of global famine begins to gain momentum. Roger, a confident, bold and occasionally oafish man, has a job in the government and warns his friend John that terrible times may be around the corner. Sure enough, he hears tales of a government plan to nuke cities to reduce the inevitable chaos and death which the famines will ultimately cause. John and Roger get their wives and children (plus a few other stragglers, including the rather marvellous (and creepy) gun shop owner Pirrie and his young wife Millicent) and head for John's brother's farm in the Lake District. Within days, civilisation collapses and John discovers that he must (and can) murder with ease (especially after an incident involving his daughter). Along the way, they meet other survivors, looters, rapists, families seeking refuge. They lose their vehicles and must traipse across Yorkshire (as a Yorkshireman this was a fun part of the book), all the while embracing this new world, a world of violence and death. John, previously a rather meek and introspective man, becomes a ruthless and effective leader with the excellent Pirrie as his obedient and deadly lieutenant.
The book is so much fun to read. It flies along at a pace. Christopher does a great job showing John's transformation, his Breaking Bad-esque experience of becoming a cold-blooded man strangely suited to this new world. Roger, previously loud and extroverted, quickly submits to his new leader like everyone else and (more than anyone) recognises John's swift adoption of his new role as chief in a world that has, almost over night, become thoroughly unforgiving and bleak. The book is fantastic and throws cold water over you until you can't help but shiver.
Olivia said: 'We should like you to come with us, my dear. We are going to a safe place up in the hills. It wouldn't be safe for you to stay here.'
The girl said: 'My mother -- I heard her screaming, and then she stopped.'
'She's dead,' Olivia said. 'Your father, too. There's nothing to stay here for.'
'You killed them,' the girl said. She looked at John. 'He killed them.'
Olivia said: 'Yes. They had food and we didn't. People fight over food now. We won, and they lost.'
This is a thoughtful read “post” COVID. The setup for this book is that a virus first renders all rice plants sickly and diseased. The West looks on with detached pity as the East suffers under famine. The virus then mutates and all grass suffers the same fate. Western civilization takes drastic action to circumvent famine and that’s where the bulk of the novel takes place. This book is at its core a study of just how quickly we’d lose our social graces in dire straights. It’s really well done. Some of the beginning dialog feels hopelessly dated and stilted but the book is 70 years old.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really liked this. Barbarism is fucking crazy and I was shocked at the change up some of these characters had.
This story didn’t take me long to read at all, I was really into it. I felt the dialogue was very witty but sometimes things were too heavily implied and not clearly stated. I think I actually liked that about it (because i didnt get triggered and have to go lie down) but I did have to go back and reread a few times to understand what actually happened vs what they’re chatting about.
This story didn’t take me long to read at all, I was really into it. I felt the dialogue was very witty but sometimes things were too heavily implied and not clearly stated. I think I actually liked that about it (because i didnt get triggered and have to go lie down) but I did have to go back and reread a few times to understand what actually happened vs what they’re chatting about.
(Realistically a 3.5 but Goodreads only believes in absolutes and not in the more mathematically reliable decimal system, also unlike the superior Letterboxd if you don't give something a number rating here it will assume I hated it and won't let it's algorithm know what I like and all that. It doesn't matter)
An often confronting, sometimes frustrating book that places the reader in the shoes of the conservative male power fantasy while offering enough obvious criticism of it that it becomes a very interesting read let down by its positioning of female characters as nothing more than pawns to move the story ahead; one may argue this just works to emphasize the former point, but robbing all female characters of agency and using violence against them as a motivator for male 'heroism' will never sit well, especially when the book is positioning itself to show the spiraling down of 'normal' men and not the in built fantasies of conservatives.
There's great world building here, and seeing the apocalypse unfold through the eyes of people too distanced for it to feel true and too selfish to try and avert once it becomes true, feels eerily prescient for the situation we all found ourselves in over the last few years and it is these initial chapters that seem the most powerful of the entire text; as the story progresses, Christopher can't help but fall for action scenes and heroic cliche that undercut the message of human degeneration.
I love the concept of the virus and it's a wonder it's not been approached more, but the escalation doesn't feel natural- I sometimes felt he was making a pointed remark about how the right wing 'civilized man' would be the first to abandon his fellow men but this is subverted by the ending and it ultimately leaves the positioning and the politics too muddied to be clear. Christopher seems to want to make a point, several infact, but never quite seems sure what the points are. Add in the shock-value violence presented against women throughout the text and you have something that reads well, is enticing but is let down by its love for heroic cliche and the authors own bipartisanship in regards to solidly attacking any given system.
An often confronting, sometimes frustrating book that places the reader in the shoes of the conservative male power fantasy while offering enough obvious criticism of it that it becomes a very interesting read let down by its positioning of female characters as nothing more than pawns to move the story ahead; one may argue this just works to emphasize the former point, but robbing all female characters of agency and using violence against them as a motivator for male 'heroism' will never sit well, especially when the book is positioning itself to show the spiraling down of 'normal' men and not the in built fantasies of conservatives.
There's great world building here, and seeing the apocalypse unfold through the eyes of people too distanced for it to feel true and too selfish to try and avert once it becomes true, feels eerily prescient for the situation we all found ourselves in over the last few years and it is these initial chapters that seem the most powerful of the entire text; as the story progresses, Christopher can't help but fall for action scenes and heroic cliche that undercut the message of human degeneration.
I love the concept of the virus and it's a wonder it's not been approached more, but the escalation doesn't feel natural- I sometimes felt he was making a pointed remark about how the right wing 'civilized man' would be the first to abandon his fellow men but this is subverted by the ending and it ultimately leaves the positioning and the politics too muddied to be clear. Christopher seems to want to make a point, several infact, but never quite seems sure what the points are. Add in the shock-value violence presented against women throughout the text and you have something that reads well, is enticing but is let down by its love for heroic cliche and the authors own bipartisanship in regards to solidly attacking any given system.
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is a neat little post-apocalyptic novel that centres around the human response to a virus that kills off all forms of grass. While the swiftness with which society reverts to savagery strikes me as perhaps a little off, there is great power in the descriptions of man's culpability for the disaster. Indeed, this one is a very prescient book. Recommended.