Review of Kunstler's World Made by Hand

xerces · Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:57 pm Post subject: World made by hand

I'm in the middle of reading Kunstler's new novel. This book is seriously addictive, warlords, religious zealots, plagues, cities getting nuked...all rolled into one plot. It makes me want to go out there and buy farmland and antibiotics...like right now!!!
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stu2745 · Coal Joined: May 29, 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Berkshire, UK

I have nearly finished it.

It's the first "fiction" book I have read where I have found myself making notes!

ohanian · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Oct 17, 2004 Posts: 1082

But is it a doomer porn?

xerces · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 10:26 am Post subject: Re: World made by hand

I finished the book late last night.....WOW!!!

Kunstler apparently has a gift for describing highly realistic scenarios. The ivy-league educated wannabe aristocrat, the trailer trash warlord, the religious fanatic......you could've picked out these people for any medium sized town in America. You could pick out people like this even on a forum like this one or LATOC.

The other thing that really struck me was his descriptions of specific places in cities. He keeps mentioning places where I have recently been to. For example, the Romanesque train station in Albany, I ate lunch on the building's steps last august. The Asia Society in NYC, I was just there last week checking out the ladies. This book has simply hit too close to home, and now I'm having trouble sleeping at night.
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gnm · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 10:43 am Post subject: Re: World made by hand

So while hes busy detailing stuff in NY does he cover anything west of the Mississippi?

-G
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xerces · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 12:20 pm Post subject: Re: World made by hand

killJOY · Fission Joined: Feb 21, 2005 Posts: 2471 Location: ^NNE^

He's laughing all the way to the bank
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Revi · Fusion Joined: Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 3235 Location: Maine

This book, like Last Light, really paints a picture about 20 years in the future. The people in the book can't get very far from home, so there isn't much about places they can't get to any more.

I read it in 2 days.

Possibly the best peak oil book I've read so far.

I'd reccomend it to people who can't stand a bunch of charts and graphs.

It would make a heck of a movie.
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stu2745 · Coal Joined: May 29, 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Berkshire, UK

"He's laughing all the way to the bank"... good!

JHK was on BBC Newsnight in January '06 talking sense while the other morons on the show talked sh1t. That was my introduction to PO, thankyou James for that and all the other stuff you do (just in case you read this).

While reading the book I had to keep telling myself I wasn't reading a western from the 19th century.

I looked up some of the locations in the book on GoogleEarth, sad eh Laughing

xerces · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 4:18 pm Post subject: Re: World made by hand

Revi · Fusion Joined: Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 3235 Location: Maine

What town do you think he was thinking of as the setting for the book, Xerces? I was thinking it might have been Schuylerville, but I'm not sure. It was definitely not Saratoga, as it was over on the east side of the Hudson. What towns are on the Battenkill?

It's a beautiful area around there. I wouldn't mind being around there post peak.

Here's the area I am talking about. I'll bet it was Cambridge, NY that is Union Grove in the book:

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?city=Cambridge+&state=ny&zoom=5
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Lighthouse · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Mar 02, 2006 Posts: 1458

xerces · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 9:30 pm Post subject: Re: World made by hand

No, but that particular area in upstate NY seems to already be half-way there culturally. I'm saying that in the sense of people's conservative mannerisms and world view. So it's not far fetched to believe that the societies described in the book could form after 10 to 15 years of relative geographical isolation.
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xerces · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 9:40 pm Post subject: Re: World made by hand

PhebaAndThePilgrim · Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 9:18 pm Post subject: Re: World made by hand

Good day from Pheba, from the farm:
Sorry folks, but I did not like this book. I breezed through this short novel in just one evening. I found the writing simple. The descriptions were pat and seemed like they were copied from a "writing for Dummies" book.
For starters, having "terrorists" nuke two American cities fits right into chapter 3 of Kunstler's "Long Emergency". The last thing this country needs is more fear mongering "evildoers", "terrorists" propaganda being spoon-fed to them through shoddy fantasy novels like "World Made By Hand".
I easily saw that Kunstler envisioned himself in the role of the town mayor. Our hero defeats the bad guys, saves a woman and child from a burning building, helps the religious right set up camp, and then helps install running water in the town. What next? Raising the dead? walking on water?
Everybody gets along so beautifully. Life is perfect. Food is perfect.
Our hero has sex with a lusty 47 year old every week. And, being the perfect hero figure, he only does this because he feels sorry for her. Her husband, yes she is married, is not up to the task.
What a bunch of silly nonsense.
Of course, later on, he ends up with a perfect new family. The woman he saved from the burning building moves in with him.
Even the two bad guy groups in the book, the trailer trash truck drivers, and the religious fanatics, are good guys in disguise.
This is the most unrealistic cornucopian dream like post apocalyptic fantasy I have ever read.
How wonderful that both the small town dentist and the doctor survived the combined effects of Peak Oil, a killer virus, nuclear explosions, and assorted other hardships.
"World Made By Hand" is Kunstler's personal dream vision of his perfect world.
This is not the best peak oil book I have ever read. This is not even a good novel. Mercifully, "World Made By Hand" is short. That is the only good thing I can say about it.
My husband could not finish the book. He had to put it down.
We are farmers, and most of his assertions about growing food were not accurate and some were just plain silly.
I paid $24.95 for the book. Fortunately I purchased it from a co-op that supports anti-war efforts, including a peace march this weekend. Unfortunately I could have bought a much better book for 24.95. I reccomend getting this drivel from the library if you really want to zip through it.
Pheba.