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US Mall 1 - World Made by Hand: A Novel
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List Price: $14.00
Our Price: $10.64
Your Save: $ 3.36 ( 24% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Grove Press
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780802144010
ISBN: 0802144012
Label: Grove Press
Manufacturer: Grove Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: 2009-01-06
Publisher: Grove Press
Studio: Grove Press
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Mediocre
Comment: This book has no compelling plot. A few characters are enjoyable but that's about it. Just a bunch of folks trying to survive after nuclear war. There are no laws, religious fanatics form cults, and food is scarce (since most people don't know how to farm).
The only thing I got out of this book is that I need to learn how to make candles or some other trade craft because my college degree isn't going to keep me warm after the apocalypse.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good but not great
Comment: I picked up World Made by Hand because I saw it mentioned somewhere (can't remember where, sorry) and it sounded interesting. I was vaguely aware that it involves some social commentary but I didn't want to get involved in it too much and risk learning so much that I spoiled the book for myself. The main reason it grabbed my interest is because it's post-apocalyptic/speculative fiction.
In a former life Robert Earle was a software developer. Then one summer life changed. Bombs hit L.A. and Washington D.C., the electricity only comes on sporadically. Oil, gas and other supplies are unavailable. Epidemic illness sweeps the country, millions die and the population is drastically reduced. Trade and news from overseas becomes non-existent. It's difficult to find out what's going on in the next town, never mind the next state. The weather has also gone gone wacky either from environmental causes or from the bombs. No one is sure which.
Throw in a strange religious sect and a group of thugs who choose to live in a trailer park outside of town rather than work cooperatively with the townspeople and you have an interesting story.
I didn't think that this book was heavy-handed. I noticed a lot of common sense stuff like:
1. Oil is a finite resource.
2. If bombs went off near large metropolis, people living nearby would be devastated
3. It's a good idea to have the skills necessary to take care of your family. Gardening, baking, canning.
4. Epidemics can still happen even in this modern age of medicine.
I liked this book okay. Not as much as I thought I would but I still enjoyed reading it. There was a really weird section involving the religious sect that left me scratching my head. I just didn't understand what was going on. Still, there are some interesting thoughts on how different segments of society might react to a lack of judicial system, limited supplies, etc. that are worth pondering.
Think The Road by Cormac McCarthy only lighter and with a little of the Little House on the Prairie pioneering spirit thrown in and you have an idea of who would enjoy this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not up to Kunstler's non-fiction books
Comment: I looked forward to reading this novel because I was such a fan of Kunstler's non-fiction books, "The Long Emergency" and "The Goegraphy of Nowhere." Although the book kept my interest, I was disappointed by all the loose ends. What was the point in the Queen Bee? What happened to his relationship with his best friend's wife when the new younger woman enters his life? How did Jobe escape from the jail cell? This last and the Queen Bee thing were like reading Stephen King, instead of reality based fiction.
I also was disappointed that an IT expert would so easily give up all computer technology. Wouldn't a person like that want to be sure this knowledge was not lost to the world? Why couldn't some computer technology be continued with solar power?
Why have the women all faded into the background? The part where the young woman not only begs to live with Robert as his housekeeper, but then offers her body to him, a much older man, seems like a male fantasy.
The premise is facinating and the novel forces consideration of how drasticly different lives could be without oil - including loss of communications, loss of government, and anarchy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A technological dark age?
Comment: I found "World Made by Hand" both fascinating and frustrating. It is a fascinating book as an artistic work describing a community of average people who did not understand the technology that made their lives possible, when that world came crashing down around them, and frustrating in that it was not necessary for things to fall that far down the rabbit hole.
It's pretty typical of the apocalyptic genre to destroy the world as we know it, and seldom, if ever, show how things could be boot-strapped back to some level of "normalcy." I've always been fascinated by the way things work, and am convinced that a small group of technologically inclined people could help their community attain a mid-19th century level of technology, if they had the tools available.
Having said that, I have to admit that practical "know how" is becoming increasingly more rare, and the world described in this novel is more likely than a vibrant self-reliant community.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Briarpatch Reader
Comment: An average novel gets an average review. I bought this book mostly based on the 5 star ratings. I don't find it anything but an average read. Greatly dissapointed.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Mediocre
Comment: This book has no compelling plot. A few characters are enjoyable but that's about it. Just a bunch of folks trying to survive after nuclear war. There are no laws, religious fanatics form cults, and food is scarce (since most people don't know how to farm).
The only thing I got out of this book is that I need to learn how to make candles or some other trade craft because my college degree isn't going to keep me warm after the apocalypse.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good but not great
Comment: I picked up World Made by Hand because I saw it mentioned somewhere (can't remember where, sorry) and it sounded interesting. I was vaguely aware that it involves some social commentary but I didn't want to get involved in it too much and risk learning so much that I spoiled the book for myself. The main reason it grabbed my interest is because it's post-apocalyptic/speculative fiction.
In a former life Robert Earle was a software developer. Then one summer life changed. Bombs hit L.A. and Washington D.C., the electricity only comes on sporadically. Oil, gas and other supplies are unavailable. Epidemic illness sweeps the country, millions die and the population is drastically reduced. Trade and news from overseas becomes non-existent. It's difficult to find out what's going on in the next town, never mind the next state. The weather has also gone gone wacky either from environmental causes or from the bombs. No one is sure which.
Throw in a strange religious sect and a group of thugs who choose to live in a trailer park outside of town rather than work cooperatively with the townspeople and you have an interesting story.
I didn't think that this book was heavy-handed. I noticed a lot of common sense stuff like:
1. Oil is a finite resource.
2. If bombs went off near large metropolis, people living nearby would be devastated
3. It's a good idea to have the skills necessary to take care of your family. Gardening, baking, canning.
4. Epidemics can still happen even in this modern age of medicine.
I liked this book okay. Not as much as I thought I would but I still enjoyed reading it. There was a really weird section involving the religious sect that left me scratching my head. I just didn't understand what was going on. Still, there are some interesting thoughts on how different segments of society might react to a lack of judicial system, limited supplies, etc. that are worth pondering.
Think The Road by Cormac McCarthy only lighter and with a little of the Little House on the Prairie pioneering spirit thrown in and you have an idea of who would enjoy this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not up to Kunstler's non-fiction books
Comment: I looked forward to reading this novel because I was such a fan of Kunstler's non-fiction books, "The Long Emergency" and "The Goegraphy of Nowhere." Although the book kept my interest, I was disappointed by all the loose ends. What was the point in the Queen Bee? What happened to his relationship with his best friend's wife when the new younger woman enters his life? How did Jobe escape from the jail cell? This last and the Queen Bee thing were like reading Stephen King, instead of reality based fiction.
I also was disappointed that an IT expert would so easily give up all computer technology. Wouldn't a person like that want to be sure this knowledge was not lost to the world? Why couldn't some computer technology be continued with solar power?
Why have the women all faded into the background? The part where the young woman not only begs to live with Robert as his housekeeper, but then offers her body to him, a much older man, seems like a male fantasy.
The premise is facinating and the novel forces consideration of how drasticly different lives could be without oil - including loss of communications, loss of government, and anarchy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A technological dark age?
Comment: I found "World Made by Hand" both fascinating and frustrating. It is a fascinating book as an artistic work describing a community of average people who did not understand the technology that made their lives possible, when that world came crashing down around them, and frustrating in that it was not necessary for things to fall that far down the rabbit hole.
It's pretty typical of the apocalyptic genre to destroy the world as we know it, and seldom, if ever, show how things could be boot-strapped back to some level of "normalcy." I've always been fascinated by the way things work, and am convinced that a small group of technologically inclined people could help their community attain a mid-19th century level of technology, if they had the tools available.
Having said that, I have to admit that practical "know how" is becoming increasingly more rare, and the world described in this novel is more likely than a vibrant self-reliant community.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Briarpatch Reader
Comment: An average novel gets an average review. I bought this book mostly based on the 5 star ratings. I don't find it anything but an average read. Greatly dissapointed.
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