Earth Abides

It's hard to believe that this book was written over 70 years ago. A lot of these old Classics don't stand up to today's standards and seem shallow. They often feel like 1950's America with a thin sheen of "science fiction" painted over them. This book is still so relevant it could easily have begun with COVID-19 wiping out the world's population. The story follows Ish, a typical middle class American white male, as he navigates a completely devastated post pandemic United States. We see how his little community, the Tribe, was founded and observe their evolution after the loss of the "Old Times". Much of the detailed descriptions of each year's events, at times, seemed mundane, but that was what ultimately made this book so good. There were no villains, no maniac led enemy settlements, no scientific miracles to preserve mankind as we know it. The only true moments of terror were when the group faced the threat of another disease. I kept waiting for the appearance of a savior community, some bastion of government or an intellectual safety deposit box. People talk about the existential threats humanity faces today. The world Stewart imagined is an original, logical outcome that we rarely see so realistically portrayed. The earth abides, but civilization just slowly fades away. In the end, this book was able to shatter my ridiculous faith, that somehow, no matter what, our society, our progress, our way of life will survive.