Earth Abides

Rating: 4 of 5

I did not actually “read” Earth Abides but rather listened to it as an audio book.

Earth Abides is a post apocalyptic novel where most people on planet earth are killed by a plague. Told as a first person narritive the main character Ish tells his life after the apocalypse starting from about age 23 to his death as an old man.

The Earth Abides is written in 1949. As such it feels a little dated at times. The book is fairly progressive around race - Ish’s “wife” turns out to be a black woman. But somewhat regressive around sex and class. Ish finds most people to be not very intelligent and women in Ish’s world are mostly for having and raising children. People with mental disability are treated with eugenics in Ish’s world.

I think though all this can be forgiven though. The book is a period piece and a first person’s narrative. If Ish wasn’t a flawed human then he wouldn’t be interesting. I think someone that would reject Earth Abides based on its dated stance on some social issues is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Its still a interesting and creative book.

My (odd maybe) gripes with Earth Abides is that it over plays the shelf duration of canned food. Having watched enough Steve1989MRE I can confidently say the canned food would not have lasted the 50+ years indicated in the story. I also don’t think the power and water would not have persisted nearly as long as the story indicates. I also know that gasoline will go bad in less then a year, so the length of time the cars survived was not at all accurate.

I think there’s a lot of accuracy problems with how the apocalypse will play out in Earth Abides. I think people with lots of time on their hands will spend more time rigging ingenious solutions to the energy problem. Humans have built water wheels and forges for thousands of years now why would they stop? I find this highly unlikely.

I also think Ish’s treatment of ecology is pretty inaccurate. The swarms of loins, rats and cattle seem highly unlikely. It would be more interesting for a modern ecologist to rewrite this part of the book.

Earth Abides remains a unique book though. Its fairly poetic and it has a depth to its style of writing that I found comforting. I think its a interesting re-imagining of the world after apocalypse and I recommend it. I’m giving it a 4 of 5 because of its iconic status. I also think reading older books like this can expand your perception to how people thought of things in that time which it was written. This makes it a time capsule which is interesting.