Earth Abides

Isherwood Williams gets bitten by a snake while camping and after he recovers and returns to civilization he discovers that a mysterious disease has killed off most of the population. As a result civilization collapses. It is a quiet book, a steady accumulation of observations of the breakdown of civilization, the encroachment of the natural world into that void and, after gathering some survivors around him to form a community, the challenge of how to preserve the spark of civilization for future generations. It is essentially a treatise on earth science, anthropology, sociology, etc., disguised as a novel, but artfully done by the author. The ruminations of Isherwood Williams in the course of the book would relevant topics of discussion today (if we can switch the channel from American Idol for a moment) in light of the current economic collapse, resource depletion, and environmental instability. But then , Soylent Green taste like chicken, or so I'm told.

Well written and compelling story. Though it was written in 1949, there is little to give that fact away.

The novel has short descriptions of what is happening on the planet – to the animals, plants, land and waterways – interespersed throughout that are fascinating. However, rarely have a I read a novel in which the world view of the author as reflected in the thoughts, words and deeds of the protagonist (a rather unlikeable man) is so remarkably dated. Nevertheless, a quick and thought-provoking read.

Excellent realistic attention to details, but so slow, uneventful and boring!

Unpopular opinion, but I really didn’t like this book. Ish is an absolutely insufferable protagonist and I couldn’t connect with him or any of the other members of The Tribe. Every time I thought something interesting was actually going to happen, it doesn’t or it’s skipped over. Ish’s self-importance and how he looks down on everyone around him drove me insane.

I was THRILLED when a glimmer of conflict came but that was also quickly washed away. The final section was the most interesting to me, but it couldn’t salvage the majority of the trudge through the most boring post apocalyptic story I have ever encountered. And I LOVE the post apocalyptic genre. From The Postman to The Stand, Mad Max to the Fallout franchise, I love it all.

I hated how Ish would think, “Gee, I should really do something about (insert x problem here),” and then proceed to NOT do anything about it. I’d rather read a book about Jack or the black family Ish contemplated turning into slaves than about the narcissist “god”.

The only good thing to come out of this book was that it apparently inspired Stephen King to write one of my all time favorite books ever, The Stand.

Oh Ish ❤️

“They will commit me to the earth, [...] Yet I also commit them to the earth. There is nothing else by which men live. Men go and come, but earth abides.”

For the last five or six years I have been making my way through the things that inspired Neil Druckmann when writing The Last of Us series of games. Some I had already seen/read such as The Count of Monte Cristo (not apocalyptic but thematically relevant) or the 2006 film Children of Men. Some I had heard of and have since read (ie. The Road) and others I hadn't heard of before. Earth Abides, a 1949 novel by George R. Stewart, was amongst the latter.

The novel follows Isherwood “Ish” Williams (the tlou fan in me was already pleased) an ecologist who emerges from working on his graduate thesis in isolation to discover civilisation has collapsed after much of humanity has succumbed to a plague. What follows is an exploration of an earth without humans; not only what it looks like across Ish's life as the survivors cope, but also how without the influence of civilisation the remaining plants, animal and nature are free to adapt and flourish.

Ish travels coast to coast, California to New York City and back, eventually building a community of survivors and struggles reconciling ideas of the old world with the new. What things that were once so important remain so? What does it mean for Ish to be, in the end, the Last American?

Needless to say, I loved this book. Haunting, evocative, but despite it all containing a ribbon of optimism, it's one I'll look forward to reading again in the future.

“...if they looked down upon the earth that night, what did they see? Then we must say that they saw no change. Though smoke from stacks and chimneys and campfires no longer rose to dim the atmosphere, yet still smoke rose from volcanos and from forest-fires. Seen even from the moon, the planet that night must have shown only with its accustomed splendor—no brighter, no dimmer.”

The further you get into the story, the better it gets. I've never read such a convincing depiction of the way time can slip by as one ages. Bear in mind that it was written in 1949, and is shaded by the gender ideas and roles of the time.

Instead of a real review, I've decided to post random comments from and about the story.

Economics professor: “The trouble you are expecting never happens; it's always something that sneaks up the other way.”

Coyote loping along the highway in daylight: “Strange how soon it had known the world had changed, and that it could take new freedoms.”

“Drink-blackness. Drink-blackness.” New will to live. To observe.

People who are left: alcoholic, running teenage girl, territorial man with woman

“His weakness had become his strength.” Not social. Able to endure lack of conversation.

Dog. “Found himself building a wall against more attachments which must end only with death.”

National Monument Cliff Dwellers Superintendent's home already starting to deteriorate - eventually like cliff dwellers' homes

“Men come and go, but earth abides.”

Absolutely beautiful.

I'd read some years ago that Earth Abides was Stephen King's inspiration for The Stand. Considering the novel follows the collapse of civilization after a virus kills 99% of the American population, inspiration might be an understatement.

I found it to be profoundly moving. I may be in the minority, I've read some very harsh reviews of it. The book was written in 1947 and it shows, both in misogynistic tendencies and one racist episode. Let's call that the Dumbo Outlier and be done with it. The scope of Earth Abides is broad, and there's little in the way of cohesive plot. Less a novel than a memoir of man observing the death and rebirth of society.