The long loud silence

The cover of the Dell paperback says "A Shocking, Realistic Novel of Tomorrow." Of course, paperbacks always said things like that, especially in 1952. But in this case the cover is right. This post-apocalyptic odyssey has more in common with Cormac McCarthy's The Road than you would expect. The US is sundered in two by an A-bomb + plague attack on the eastern US. The western half survives by shooting anyone who tries to cross the Mississippi from the eastern half. The book follows the development of Gary, who wakes from a major binge to find his world has ended, and traces the steps he takes to survive in the world that follows. While A-bomb apocalypses were rife in the fiction and movies of the 1950's, the A-bomb itself is very much show more incidental here. Plague, not radiation, drives the plot. Warning: the opening scene, where Gary awakes post-attack, is unconvincing, and, confusingly, repeated almost verbatim at the beginning of Chapter 6. Be patient. Once Gary stops observing and begins acting, the novel becomes sure-footed and very effective. show less

Interesting Cold War apocalypse novel. What made the book stand out to me, in addition to its premise, was its depiction of the main character. He's unlikable from the start, and remains that way, but I still found myself rooting for him and respecting him as a survivor. His personal journey is fascinating and kept me turning the pages. It's a well-written novel also, with fine atmosphere.

I almost didn't make it through the first chapter of this one, he protagonist is such an unlikable jerk, and the story seems not very promising, The guy doesn't get any more likable, but the story gets better, moving sometimes in fits and starts, jumping months, then years, sometimes a little jarringly, but it kept me interested to the end, which is an open-ended nightmare. Not the best of its kind but worth the two hours or so it takes to read it.

This is a edited/shotened version of the review that is on my Blog. For The Full review please visit it.
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Introduction
Ever since reading ‘The Year of the Quiet Sun’ last year i’ve been looking forward to reading Wilson Tuckers 1953 post apocalyptic work ‘The Long Loud Silence’. The Long Loud Silence is another case of a book that should really be in print that isn’t. It is the sort of book that you would think was in the SF Masterworks collection.

The Plot
The book opens up when Corporal Russel Gary wakes up with a hangover to discover America has been bombed. He is on the wrong side of the Mississippi, there has been a show more quarantine placed along the line of the river with the East side being ‘contaminated’ by radiation or plague. The story is that of survival and loneliness and Gary’s quest to get to the safe zone. Tucker Wilson pulls no punches in his writing. In the beginning Gary is not a likeable person which we discover quickly.

As the book develops through a mixture of loneliness and optimism we feel the little humanity being sucked out of people. Don’t expect any strong female characters, the women in this grim world are commodities and foils for the characters. That’s just how this world is. Gary travels down the Mississippi sometimes looking for ways to cross and at other times just surviving. As the population dies off all that remains is those that have pushed the envelope to survive. At one point Gary comes into contact with a family who have managed to survive and keep some semblance of humanity, rather than fully embracing this all he does is work out how he can exploit the situation

In Conclusion

This book is pretty grim as you can tell, post World War II with memories of that war you can feel in the writing. The war in Europe and the Pacific hang-over this book. I like Tucker’s writing style and prose as it doesn’t distract from the ongoing narrative. After having read the Year of the Quiet Sun I can see the thread from this book to that. The narrative conveys the mixture of loneliness and desperation well and unlike some other books in the Post-Apocalyptic genre it doesn’t hit you around the head with ideas. In a similar tone to The year of the Quiet Sun it slowly pulls you into those feelings.

I don’t like to overthink or make too many conclusions about a narrative because of when the book was written, I like the story and characters to pull me into their world no matter when they were written and well written books should be able to do that. What I'm impressed with considering it was written in the 1950’s is that it’s a book with an unlikeable and very disagreeable character, and has references to Cannibalism (in the U.K Version). Polyamory is overall dark and depressing. The straightforward way the prose is and the way the story creeps up on you make this well worth a read. I know this is only the third Wilson Tucker I’ve read, the others being The Tear of the Quiet Sun and Time Masters, but I really like the way he finishes his books. The long Loud Silence like his other work has an interesting and thought provoking ending to it. I would be very interested to read the updated version from 1969.

I look forward to reading more of Wilson Tucker's work.

Full Review on my Blog, link at top show less

A decent story, if you can ignore the narrator's weird ideas about women.