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A review by howjessicareads
The Pesthouse by Jim Crace
3.0
This book is set in a futuristic post-apocalyptic type America, that is surprisingly reminiscent of frontier America in terms of technology and lifestyle. Franklin Lopez, traveling with his brother Jackson to the east coast, in hopes of boarding a ship to escape America, is injured, and thus becomes separated from his brother. He soon meets a woman named Margaret, confined to a pesthouse by an apparent outbreak of flux. Margaret and Franklin begin to travel together toward the east, meeting rogues, ruffians, religious extremists, scared average folks, and desperate people along the way. They are separated for a time, but come back together, joined by others along the way.
This book was ok, but didn't seem all that original. Maybe it's because I recently read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which also discusses traveling through post-apocalyptic America, or maybe it's just because it really felt like the book was more about a rather banal romance between an awkward man and a hesitant spinster than about humans struggling to survive in an apocalyptic world. Plus the frontier vibe kept throwing me off, I kept forgetting that this was supposedly in the future. And the narrator kept breaking out of voice to ask questions like "Why did Franklin do such and such?" or "How did Margaret respond to so and so?" which is always annoying to me.
This book was ok, but didn't seem all that original. Maybe it's because I recently read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which also discusses traveling through post-apocalyptic America, or maybe it's just because it really felt like the book was more about a rather banal romance between an awkward man and a hesitant spinster than about humans struggling to survive in an apocalyptic world. Plus the frontier vibe kept throwing me off, I kept forgetting that this was supposedly in the future. And the narrator kept breaking out of voice to ask questions like "Why did Franklin do such and such?" or "How did Margaret respond to so and so?" which is always annoying to me.