This is the Way the World Ends

SPOILERS. A down-the-rabbit-hole farce on the end of the world and after, it consists largely of people responsible for the conflagration being put on trial for it by people who were supposed to have been born, but never got the chance to. Didn't think I'd be able to get into it, but the writing is superb and much of it is hilarious. And I got totally sucker punched by the ending, which after all the laughter, manages to be heart-breaking. This is a writer in complete control of his craft, pulling out all the stops.

This satiric noir sci-fi novel is about a global nuclear holocaust from the point of view of the victims – i.e., the dead, who place the survivors on trial for having killed them. In spite of a plot that could be dreadfully sad, Morrow has a wicked sense of humor that will appeal to fans of Kurt Vonnegut and even Jonathan Swift.

One of the blurbs calls this book “a surrealistic, dark comedy” which I think captures its tone precisely. What I love so much about this book is that it hits the mark in so many ways.

I first read this many years ago, and found to my delight (or dismay!) that when I reread it last year, it didn’t seem dated at all. And when the trial finally yields the motive for the disaster, even as you laugh out loud show more you will want to stand up and shout in terror, “This could actually happen!!!” show less

Probably one of the more interesting nuclear holocaust books you'll ever read, James Morrow takes on the concept that post-apocalypse stories are always told from the survivor's point of you and introduces a nuclear wasteland in which the last surviving human is forced to stand trial by the souls of all those lives ended and prevented by nuclear annihilation. Morrow has a talent for bringing philosophical and theological into a very physical world for contemplation and review, and this book is no exception.

When the world ends it's neither the living nor the dead you have to worry about in this occasionally heavy-handed apocalyptic satire in which a group of men (just men?) accused of aiding and abetting Armageddon must face a most unusual jury. Or maybe it's just a bedtime story...

This is what I would call an avant-garde or surrealist approach to writing about the potential for a nuclear holocaust. It captures all the insanity of the cold war buildup of the nuclear arsenals of of Russia and the US during the 50s through the 80s and adds further to it by considering what a post-apocalyptic world might be like for those few who survive it. It truly is a combination of insanity and biting satire, a sort of Alice in Wonderland for the nuclear age.

In the first half of this book, the world is destroyed by fire. (In fact, the bombs drop in Chapter Five, a mere 50 pages in.) The first half of this book is fast-paced with new and different ideas thrown at you before you can grasp the one that came before. As an example, within the first few lines (excluding the Prologue which, along with Entr’acte and Epilogue, uses Nostradamus as the storyteller) we are introduced to personal protection devices – suits that will ensure the wearer survives a nuclear holocaust (spoiler alert: they don’t work). The ideas continue to hit fast and furious. And, it becomes quickly evident that a skilled writer is at work here. In particular, his description of the nuclear holocaust is disturbingly show more brilliant. It is all the horrors and fears you have seen in your mind brought to life on the page.

In the second half of the book the theme is ice. I cannot tell if it is on purpose, but this second half seems to occasionally slip into a more glacial pace. A few people are put on trial for the sins of the entire human race – the sin of destroying the world – and this trial goes on a bit much. Morrow has a point and he is going to make sure he makes it. But, once the trial is over, there are still more interesting things that will happen.

But let’s hammer home the main pint; Morrow is a talented writer. And, my comments about the slow pace of the second half aside, this is a very entertaining and thought-provoking book. Read it for the ideas, read it for the writing, read it for the way it makes you think, just read it. show less

Probably the best post-apocalyptic novel I've ever read. Without giving too much away, the ending left me devastated, but also ashamed that I hadn't seen it coming, hadn't seen the seriousness of the work for what it was. In other words, James Morrow had me wrapped around his finger the whole time.