Earth Abides

Is it the end of the world?  Certainly feels like it when “Ish” (short for Isherwood) Williams, a graduate student at UC Berkeley, gets bitten by a rattlesnake and goes in and out of consciousness.  Enter a sci-fi (post-apocalyptic) story by George Stewart titled Earth Abides.  When Ish awakes he realizes something is different, the world has been affected by some disease and he is one of a very few people left alive.  Ish travels around the US – NYC, Midwest, and back to California, looking for something in the civilization, he finds a dog, who also escapes the disease.  He eventually does find a few people, including a woman, Em, who eventually chooses to become his wife and start a family.  As they live together, Ish and Em witness the decline of many of the other animals/other living organisms (ants everywhere, then rats everywhere, and then both disappear).  It is the “survival of the fittest” until civilization almost ends as we know it, BUT… then slowly the earth rebounds.  Em and Ish have children and then others return to their community, and life begins again.  Ish becomes the “civic-minded” citizen realizing things like education, conservation, and teaching people to be kind to one another plays a role in this society, but others do not have the same background and commitment that he demonstrates to others.  Ish places his hope in his son Joey, who seemingly has the commitment his father teaches him.  There are two more parts of the story focusing on the future of civilization and the rebuilding of the community, both during the later phases of Ish’s life.  The book provides a view of life as cyclical and never-ending.  There is also the idea that people are flawed, an almost religious (Christian) view of the “human” aspect of who we are, never perfect, and always seeking to be better.  This was one of the pre-cursors to today’s sci-fi thrillers, a psychological thriller of sorts.  I enjoyed the intrigue presented by Stewart. I connected with Ish and the challenges he faced and how he used his past education as a means to better others.  Worth the time reading this late 1949 story.  Not as much action and drama compared to today’s sci-fi, but reads really well.