quackers reviewed on 5/18/2014 + 45 more book reviews

World Made by Hand paints a picture of a world where America has been thrown back centuries into the past. Electricity and gasoline engines are no longer available for the most part and Americans who were used to living in modern convenience now live as their ancestors did, struggling to keep healthy, fed and warm in a post-industrial, agrarian world where nothing is made by machine, everything is made by hand.

I feel like the book is quite realistic in its portrayal of what would happen in these circumstances. The story takes place many years after the critical events that changed society -- terrorism, war, loss of oil/trade with other countries, then widespread plague, famine and mass deaths. The result is that life returned to the way it was in the 1800s. If you can imagine what life was like for people then, it would probably bear a strong resemblance to the world in this book. Travel, news and communication from other places outside your community, food and goods shipped from other places--these are all things of the past for Robert, the main character. The pace of the book seemed slow, particularly for the first 1/3 of the book, mirroring the slow, tedious life described in the story.

This book made me think about how our lives are different from those of older generations and, after reading it, I actually appreciate more the modern conveniences of life today. That is not an easy thing for me-- I have fond memories of life in the 1960s and 70s before computers, cell phones, etc. I am even a little envious of the quiet, farm life my grandparents and great-grandparents had. In general, I usually wish for a return to simpler times rather than the other way around. Yet, life in this book seemed so depressing to me, I couldn't wait to go microwave a dinner, turn on the TV, and check my phone & email for messages.

Even though the world described in World Made by Hand is one that I personally have wished for at times, I didn't really care for this book. Why did the story seem so depressing to me? One reason is that Robert, the narrator, was constantly making comparisons between his past (our modern lifestyle) and life after the change. You read about isolation, loss of family and friends, and how difficult their lives are as they struggle to get by. These thoughts are contrasted by Robert's memories of the life he once had, when everyone worked specialized jobs (computer, sales, lawyer, etc) instead of daily manual labor, had access to food and goods from around the world, medicine and expert medical care, and so forth. There were a few points in the story where Robert's narrative touches on something positive--for instance, when he reflects on the beauty of a quiet day in the country--but these are rare breaks in the monotonous, depressing litany of his and everyone else's loss and want. The overall theme seems to be of inevitable decay.

As a person interested in homesteading and survival preparedness, this is far from the first time I have considered the difficulties of life without 24 hour grocery stores, cars, electricity, etc. It comes as no surprise that, without these things...yeah, life would be hard. And yet, maybe because of the realistic tone of the book, such a life has seldom seemed more dismal.

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