This was a really quick read and I actually read it for an English class.
It's a post apocalyptic story followin one survivor and the issues he needs to deal with and think about.
I'm usually not too keen on these types of stories but this one caught my attention because of the timelessness in regards to survival and ecology.

Stewart addresses questions like if you were one of the few survivors on earth what would be some of the things you would have to think about all the time.
What kinds of events would you have to endure.
Could you put aside everything you've been taught on how things should be regarding marital relationships and religion etc.
Also what kinds of repercussion would happen when man is no longer there to control things like rat investations etc. It goes into a very believable sequence of events for mother nature taken over when man is gone.
I don't want to give away too much but it was a very good book and a fast read. ( )

It is much better than a lot of books from its era, but there is still some noticeable sexism, racism and "intellectual-ism" in the book - in fact, the last half of the book is pretty much based on the fact that only the main character and one of his many children are smart enough to go beyond the mandatory day-to-day living tasks. Everyone one else is stupid.

Fundamental behaviors are overlooked - in 21 years they (meaning the main character because nobody else was smart enough to even want to) didn't start or enforce a "school" and then at year 22, regretted this. This is a problem because while it's clear that the author wanted to pass along a moral, realistically, the educating would have started from day one; the progenitor of the "new world" wouldn't have sat around for 22 years before realizing all of a sudden that he hadn't educated anyone.

It's better than some other dated apocalyptic tales (On the Beach or The Plague) but it leaves you too aware that it was written in 1949 by a university-educated urban white male. ( )

At the beginning of Earth Abides, Isherwood Williams, a graduate student alone in the wilderness and working on his thesis, is bitten by a poisonous snake. For several days, he drifts in and out of consciousness. When he is at last able to drag himself to civilization, he finds that a virus not unlike the common flu has mutated into a deadly strain, and the world is suddenly devoid of people. The rest of the book follows Isherwood as he discovers the strange freedom of the empty world, struggles to find other survivors, and works to rebuild civilization.

Earth Abides is a sweeping saga, stretching across decades and roaming across North America. Most of the story takes place from inside the head of its protagonist, at a range so close that it takes us several pages to learn his name, as he simply does not think of his name that often. Stewart infuses the story with concrete details and scientific observations, giving it a strong sense of authenticity. Caught up in and believing the action, we are completely absorbed in the efforts of Isherwood Williams to survive and thrive in this strange new world.

One trap lurking for any story, but particularly a science fiction story like this, is that of becoming quickly dated. Things change daily, and what is fascinating and new today will soon be old fashioned. Stewart has given his story a certain timelessness, at least so far, and I think he achieves this effect by incorporating very little medium-range technology. By this I mean that things are either seen close up, as in hands working with tools that change slowly, such as hammers, or are seen at a distance, such as the lights of San Francisco. In the middle distance, very little attention is paid to devices that evolve quickly, such as televisions, radios, and automobiles (other than the venerable Jeep). The result is that Earth Abides does not suffer from a feeling of being out of date, and it could easily be imagined to be a present-day story.

One interesting feature to me as a writer was the use of interstitial chapters called Quick Years between each of the three major sections. These bridge the time gaps between the primary sections of the book, recalling the primary events in the passing years through Isherwood’s eyes. This device lets the author tell a sweeping story while keeping the bulk of the detail in the activity at the turning points. On first glance, this sudden shift in gears seems likely to distance the reader, but Stewart handles the narrative so deftly that the reader finds the story as engaging viewed at this speed as when it is slowed down.

Ultimately, Earth Abides is a masterful work. The author gives us enough detail and character to connect deeply with the story, then stays out of the way, allowing the story to unfold with its own power. The result is a riveting and deeply moving tale about all of us, how strong and resilient we are, but also about how fragile we are, how tenuous our grip on the world is, and how little it needs us.

Do not miss this story. But do not, however, try to finish it without a generous supply of tissues. You will need them. ( )

I've been thinking a lot about Utopia lately (another LT review I need to do), and that led to thinking about dystopian fiction I've read, and that led to this famous SF novel I had never heard of until I was searching around Amazon one day.

I actually listened to the audio version, but I thought the cover from the old paperback was funny.

A lot of the reviews I've read of the book talk about how the main character - Isherwood Williams, or 'Ish' - is a rather odd duck, which is part of how he manages to survive and even thrive after the apocalypse. I think Stewart was reflecting on his own life to some degree, and as a rather studious sort myself, I could relate to Ish's predicament.

I think Stewart has the dead bodies basically disappear to keep the quiet, elegiac tone going. Ish needs the freedom to contemplate himself and what has happened. Climbing over, cleaning up, even avoiding all the bodies would get in the way of that.

The thing that bothered me most about this is Ish's lack of curiosity. He takes a cross-country trip to survey the state of things after the apocalypse, but he quickly returns to northern California and settles in. He doesn't care to explore the great cities much, and he doesn't travel to all the areas of the continental U.S. that might yield insights. Maybe he's a little too self-contained for me.

Eventually, he is drawn into the role of patriarch - reluctantly.

Overall, this is a very believable post-apocalypse novel written by a scholar, not a science fiction writer. That is part of its appeal. ( )

Written in the years just after WWII this great science fiction novel shows the destruction (or near destruction) of civilization, and the attempts by a group of survivors to survive and remake their world. It is a strangely optimistic book, although the optimism is very qualified. Unlike our own often very negative view of a post-holocaust world, this novel suggests that human being can, and will, try to organise some form of community. McCormac increadibly depressing The Road is a post-modern re-working of the same theme. It loved Earth Abides. ( )