July 4, 2021 · 8:57 pm
Notes from an Apocalypse: A Private Journey to the Finish of the World and Again by Mark O’Connell follows his Wellcome Prize-winning exploration of transhumanism To Be a Machine with one other guide in regards to the future, this time trying on the methods during which folks put together for ecological and societal collapse. O’Connell travels to South Dakota to go to underground survival bunkers, attends a Mars conference in California, visits New Zealand to seek out out why it’s the favoured location for billionaires to trip out the tip of the world, and goes to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone during which the post-apocalyptic scene of the world’s worst nuclear catastrophe has change into a well-liked vacationer attraction in recent times.
Within the paperback version, O’Connell notes in a brand new foreword that the timing of the hardback publication in April 2020 was “impeccable”. However, it does imply that sure components learn a bit in a different way from how they might have accomplished and not using a international pandemic. For instance, the actions of the “preppers” who stockpile provides to reside on within the occasion of a doable worst-case state of affairs now appear loads much less excessive lately. O’Connell’s writing is dense and cerebral and ‘Notes from an Apocalypse’ incorporates as a lot meals for thought as his first guide, albeit with a fair bigger dose of hysteria in regards to the future this time spherical.
Revealed this month, Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason is likely one of the novels at present producing probably the most buzz within the UK this summer season. Martha Friel has lately turned 40 and her eight-year marriage to Patrick has simply ended. The novel seems again on her life, rising up with a dysfunctional prolonged household, adopted by a short-lived first marriage to Jonathan. She has struggled with psychological sickness since she was 17, however Mason intentionally doesn’t identify the precise situation Martha is finally identified with, and notes within the afterword that it’s a fictional sickness in any case, thus stopping the reader from making assumptions or holding sure biases about her behaviour. Martha has a really dry sense of humour and Mason balances the sunshine and shade of her perspective very nicely with out trivialising her well being. ‘Sorrow and Bliss’ may very well be a powerful contender on this 12 months’s Booker Prize longlist which shall be introduced later this month. Many because of Weidenfeld & Nicolson for sending me a assessment copy by way of NetGalley.
I have a tendency to hunt out journey writing set in distant places – some favourites over the previous few years embody Names For the Sea by Sarah Moss on her 12 months residing in Iceland, Bleaker Home by Nell Stevens about her keep within the Falkland Islands whereas making an attempt to jot down a novel and Empire Antarctica by Gavin Francis which is an account of life as a base-camp physician on the British Antarctic Survey’s Halley analysis station on the Caird Coast. Probably the most area of interest but although might be The Not-Fairly States of America by Doug Mack which paperwork the creator’s travels to the 5 American territories and commonwealths: the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico. Earlier than studying this guide, I knew just about nothing about them. Reassuringly, neither did Mack till he set off on a 30,000 mile journey to discover them himself. He explains how these locations ended up as US territories moderately than states, and highlights what this implies in follow for folks residing there, corresponding to how American Samoans are recognised as American nationals however not residents that means they can not vote in presidential elections. The historic background finally ends up outweighing the precise journey in some components, however total that is nonetheless a fascinating and enlightening piece of non-fiction.
