Discount Shopping Online :: Books World Made by Hand: A Novel : :

World Made by Hand: A Novel
by: James Howard Kunstler

List Price: $24.00

Amazon.com's Price: $16.32

You Save: $7.68 (32%)
Prices subject to change.

Used Price: $13.37
Collectible Price: $24.00
Third Party New Price: $13.37

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780871139788
ISBN: 0871139782
Label: Atlantic Monthly Press
Manufacturer: Atlantic Monthly Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: February 11, 2008
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Sales Rank: 8053
Studio: Atlantic Monthly Press

Related Items:

Editorial Review:

Product Description:

In the best-seller The Long Emergency, James Howard Kunstler explored how the terminal decline of oil production had the potential to put industrial civilization out of business. With World Made By Hand Kunstler makes an imaginative leap into the future, a few decades hence, and shows us what life may be like after these coming catastrophes—the end of oil, climate change, global pandemics, and resource wars—converge. For the townspeople of Union Grove, New York, the future is not what they thought it would be. Transportation is slow and dangerous, so food is grown locally at great expense of time and energy. And the outside world is largely unknown. There may be a president and he may be in Minneapolis now, but people aren’t sure. As the heat of summer intensifies, the residents struggle with the new way of life in a world of abandoned highways and empty houses, horses working the fields and rivers replenished with fish. A captivating, utterly realistic novel, World Made by Hand takes speculative fiction beyond the apocalypse and shows what happens when life gets extremely local.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Interesting premise; not the best novel
I really liked the premise and thought that Kunstler developed it in an interesting way. I like the idea of regaining our humanity and perspective through less technology, more direct human interaction, and a reengagement with nature. That said, I think Kunstler would have been better off making this into a short story instead of a full-length novel. I thought it got a little silly towards the end, and the catalogue of Robert Earle's sexual encounters seemed to pander a bit to our baser insticts. Also, the excursion to Albany struck me as unecessary filler. To sum up, I think the author raises interesting issues but it's not the best novel ever written. If you like the ideas presented in this book, you might also like Rod Dreher's nonfiction work, Crunch Cons.

Rating:

- A solid page turner. "Real?" "Accurate?", "Likely?". Possibly not. But fascinating.
I initially followed a link from a short review of the book at [...].

I found the book very hard to put down. It produced one of those rare, late night, "reading marathon on a work night", finishes, for me.

I haven't read his prior work, "The Long Emergency". But for me the book stands well as a story on it's own. To be honest, based on common descriptions of his prior non-fiction efforts, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book had very few speeches. He has a perspective on where the world is heading. But he didn't deliver long screeds or build inordinate numbers of straw-men trying to drive you to agree with his view.

I'm a guy. So I wasn't offended at the first-person masculine viewpoint and the lack of "strong" well-rounded women characters. Yup, it was "subtley" sexist from end to end. So is alot of classic historical fiction. But I don't that limitation prevent ... Read More

Rating:

- Fiction into more Fiction
In the Long Emergency Kunstler is a fiction writer who attempted to awaken Americans to an impending doomsday scenario in the energy world. Kunstler argues that nothing can make a difference and everything in a "big box America" is bad. If you like far left liberal authors who have no scientific basis then this guy is perfect. Here is a guy who predicted that $140 a barrel oil would never go down as it currently stands at $80. Now that he has been dead wrong about oil prices he has shifted his emphasis to ranting about the financial sector. The guy has no credibility as he shifts back from non-fiction to fiction and fiction to non-fiction in his books and other writings.

If the guy was just a fiction writer he would be in the mediocre category with World Made by Hand. If you have already read The Long Emergency and see how off Kunstler is you won't waste your time with the World Made by Hand. If you are considering ... Read More

Rating:

- Unfortunately.
I was actually looking very much forward to this one, having read the premise and some positive reviews. I'll have to go back and look at those reviews and see if any women wrote them. I'd be surprised, if so. Yes, this book sees a near distant future where the oil has dried up, some bombs have gone off here and there, there's no power and the infrastructure has collapsed. What's unfortunate is the lack of imagination on the part of the author, who has apparently never met a genuinely strong female in his life. All the female characters in this book are pathetic. His best friend's wife, who the main character is sleeping with, is on the verge of being unhinged. The woman he later takes in gives up during a fire in her home and doesn't even try to fight for the life of herself and her child. Other female characters are dimly lit feminine ideals, except for the absolutely absurd out of left field gigantic woman in the cult ... Read More

Discount Shopping Online Books and Publications

Books : World Made by Hand: A Novel
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Search the web for info about World Made by Hand: A Novel

Discount Shopping Online Books and Publications

Books : World Made by Hand: A NovelBooks and Publications Average Rating:

Search the web for info about World Made by Hand: A Novel

Books : World Made by Hand: A Novel
Books and Publications Average Rating: