World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler

In the wake of global catastrophes that have destroyed industrial civilization, the inhabitants of Union Grove, a small New York town, do anything they can to get by, as they struggle to deal with a new way of life over the course of an eventful summer.

Ah... civilization has broken down... how do people manage? I love this plot device.

2.5 stars. I read it in less than a day and a half. Yet it didn't feel particularly well written and I never felt particularly attached to any of the characters. A good vacation read.

I gave up on this book without even making it half-way through, which is pretty rare for me.

Read this for the Luther Seminary book club. Some of us liked it and some of us hated it. The story did not go in any of the directions I expected, which was a good thing. I was impressed with how fully Kunstler had imagined the post-industrial-collapse world and with how the losses and difficulties popped up all through the story, so that I was constantly thinking, “Oh, I hadn't thought about THAT.” There wasn't much to the story itself, but those details made it interesting. I enjoyed it, but probably won't read the rest of the trilogy.