World Made by Hand: A Novel
by James Howard Kunstler
List Price:
Our Price: $3.84
You Save: $11.11 (74%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.50 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: James Howard KunstlerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-01-06
ISBN: 0802144012
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Grove Press
Book Reviews of World Made by Hand: A Novel
Book Review: "There is a profoundly discouraging message embedded here."
Summary: 5 Stars
World Made by Hand is a beautifully written novel about a very difficult time, post-Peak Oil. Some books hit you in the gut and force you to think; and this is one of them. You may go where you don't want to go--But it's quite a trip.
The book begins innocently enough. Two men are fishing in a stream near an old railroad bed. They are talking, enjoying each other's company. It is "sometime in the not-too-distant future." And thus does a story unfold over a couple of summer months. The only hint that something is amiss comes when the narrator states that he "couldn't remember a lovelier evening before or after our world changed."
The world changed? Then the two fishermen gather their belongings and walk back to town. They are walking, of course, because there are no motorized vehicles. In this world there is no oil. But the lack of oil is just the beginning of this summer's tale.
Welcome to Union Grove, Where there is No Oil.
No, this is not a story about how the world has "run out" of oil. In the big scheme of things, the world will never run out of oil. The Peak Oil concept means a lot of things to a lot of people.
The key idea of Peak Oil is that output of crude oil will reach some maximum level on a global scale. Then world oil output will decline over time. But in the future there will be oil -- plenty of it, perhaps -- in some parts of the world. And there will be very little oil, or none, in other parts of the world. And that's the problem.
Which gets to the point of James Kunstler's marvelous new book. In the "not-too-distant future" you won't find oil in the small, upstate town of Union Grove, New York. For Union Grove, the Oil Age is over. And in this futuristic setting, Kunstler plays out a prophecy that may be closer than you suspect.
Kunstler's novel falls within a genre called post-apocalyptic literature. The author's premise is that there will be an apocalypse. Bad things will befall mankind. Lots of people will die. And some people will survive. This is the survivors' story.
So in a literary sense, World Made by Hand is similar to some famous Cold War-era novels set in a post-nuclear-war world, such as On the Beach or Level 7. Kunstler is writing fiction about survival and survivors, describing what might happen.
A fictional world creates a new set of boundaries. Some things are not plausible in our "real" world. But good fiction makes possible events and reactions that might not otherwise occur. Within fiction, some events take on a new form of logic or plausibility.
But to be convincing, we have to trust the author or the narrator. With enough trust, we can accept a story based on the narrator's perspective. The narrator becomes our eyes and ears. So the narrator must come across as reliable.
In World Made by Hand, Kunstler's narrator "Robert" -- a former executive at a software company, turned carpenter -- mixes science and technology with well-established economic and political trends.
Overall, Kunstler paints a grim picture of the future. Oil or no, life goes on. It's even sweet. In some scenes this book tells a story that is funny. Yes, you are allowed to laugh as you read this book.
Let's discuss the grim part. What sort of apocalypse occurs? Well, Kunstler never just hits you in the face with it. Like a grand master, he plays his cards subtly. Kunstler offers you only enough information at any point for you to feel the chill winds of a terrible disaster.
Throughout the book, Kunstler tosses out clues. For example, Kunstler spells out how in the past, worldwide demand for oil far outstripped the available supply. So prices for oil began to skyrocket. People became desperate and did desperate things. Sound familiar?
Kunstler makes passing reference to a war in the Middle East. But he never goes into detail. He doesn't have to, really. The details are not critical to this story line. But you learn that during the war, things got out of hand.
On this last point, Kunstler is not just economical in his use of words. Indeed, he's downright parsimonious. But with just a quick bit of dialogue, Kunstler puts a chill into your spine, if not the fear of God in your heart.
Kunstler mentions in passing two horrific acts of terrorism. The bad guys (guess who?) managed to set off two nuclear weapons on U.S. soil, obliterating Los Angeles and Washington, DC. Within a short time national commerce broke down. Communications disintegrated. The economy crashed. The capital city of the U.S. moved to Minneapolis. Any semblance of control by a central government just vanished.
Within Kunstler's deft narrative, things in post-Peak Oil America just fell apart. The center did not hold. Food supplies dwindled. The power grid broke down. Health care stopped functioning. Roads and highways quickly become impassable due to lack of maintenance, as well as marauding bandits. People starved. Population centers contracted, most in a catastrophic fashion.
In World Made by Hand, Kunstler answers the question posed by Rodney King in 1992 during the Los Angeles riots. "Can't we all just get along?" Well, no. Not in an unraveling land of rapidly diminishing resources. It's the same continent, but a different world.
There is a profoundly discouraging message embedded here. For almost everyone in this post-apocalyptic future, life in the U.S. has become, as the saying goes, "a b*tch." And you know what happens next.
Review by a writer for Agora Financial, publisher of economic and financial analysis including Financial Reckoning Day Fallout: Surviving Today's Global Depression, The New Empire of Debt: The Rise and Fall of an Epic Financial Bubble, and I.O.U.S.A.: One Nation. Under Stress. In Debt.
Literary Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literary Books
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
Angelsby Marian Keyes
William Morrow; Published: 2002-05-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.12
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.81
Price in other shops:
The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptationby Paulo Coelho
Harper; Published: 2006-07-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops:
Boonville: A Novelby Robert Mailer Anderson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2003-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Carameloby Sandra Cisneros
HarperAudio; Published: 2002-10-01; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $4.60
Price in other shops:
Headhunterby Timothy Findley
PERENNIAL PUBLICATIONS; Paperback; Book
The Crimson Petal And The Whiteby Michel Faber
Harcourt, Inc./Harvest; Published: 2003; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Original Intent: The Courts, the Constitution, & Religionby David Barton
Wallbuilder Press; Published: 2008-08-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.59
Price in other shops:
Shut Downby W. R. Flynn
CreateSpace; Published: 2011-06-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.96
Price in other shops:
Holding Their Own: A Story of Survivalby Joe Nobody
PrepperPress.com; Published: 2011-11-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.95
All New Square Foot Gardeningby Mel Bartholomew
Cool Springs Press; Published: 2006-02-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.95
Price in other shops:
Letters and Papers from Prisonby Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Simon & Schuster; Touchstone; Published: 1997-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.65
Price in other shops:
The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Centuryby James Howard Kunstler
Grove Press; Published: 2006-03-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops:
The Witch of Hebron: A World Made by Hand Novelby James Howard Kunstler
Atlantic Monthly Press; Published: 2010-09-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.48
Price in other shops:
Secret Weapon: How Economic Terrorism Brought Down the U.S. Stock Market and Why It can Happen Againby Kevin D. Freeman
Regnery Publishing; Published: 2012-01-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.77
Price in other shops:
How Do You Kill 11 Million People?: Why the Truth Matters More Than You Thinkby Andy Andrews
Thomas Nelson; Published: 2012-01-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.55
Price in other shops:
One Second Afterby William R. Forstchen
Forge Books; Published: 2009-11-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.08
Price in other shops: