There\u2019s only one book that I started and did not finish, and I regret that to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wonder how it all turned out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well not really, because it was nonfiction, about past and current events, but still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nonetheless, however, despite, irrespective \u2026 this latest book? Sucked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The salutations and praise heaped on its covers? Encouraging, yet wholly undeserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wait\u2014that\u2019s not entirely fair. Somebody liked it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, I\u2019m a big fan of apocalyptic fiction \u2026 fact, too, for that matter but the make-believe stuff is really interesting, mainly because I like seeing\/hearing\/reading others\u2019 ideas about the coming end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Morbid, p\u2019raps, but hear me out. Or not. Plenty of other stuff to read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This, tho\u2019? Not recommended, but you (Other Person You) should read it for yourself, reach your own conclusions, \u2018cuz this might be your thing. Or \u201cthang,\u201d as it t\u2019were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyhoo, Paul Tremblay\u2019s \u201cCabin at the End of the World\u201d is a little too smug, a bit too preachy, and overally unimpressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Too much of the author\u2019s perspective\/view seeps onto the pages, barring escape into the story.
Methinks the debt owed by the author to the reader for a good story remains unpaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interesting premise \u2026 manspouses and their foreign-adopted daughter (of course) go away to get away and four strangers with visions of the end posit an impossible choice to upend their lives. I like the metaphor for the shirts, but otherwise it was a big meh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
AND and, it espoused selfishness \u2026 fcuk the world, I gots mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, in a similar situation, Half (methinks) would have no problem making a choice, and neither would I. theKid might object, hope so anyway, but theKid wouldn\u2019t get a vote, because theKid is biased \u2026 likes Half and other half fairly equally, so there\u2019s that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tremblay\u2019s story offers a variation on the question: if you could go back to 1932 and kill Hitler, would you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The possibility might actually exist \u2026 ask Ponomarenko\u2014oh wait, he vanished. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But if science has solved the conundrum of time travel (I see you<\/em> Large Hadron Collider) can you imagine how jacked the present would be? All the mistakes, remixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kennedy not assassinated, but WW3 over Cuba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hitler never rises to power, but the Jews are still homeless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lincoln lives, but Reconstruction triggers a second Civil War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tesla\u2019s brilliance captures energy from the ether, fossil fuels are obsolete by the end of the 19th<\/sup> century, and we transverse the fifth dimension.\u00a0 But there would be trash on Mars.\u00a0 We\u2019ve already gotten started on that.\u00a0 Thanks a lot smug, resistantly-bald, speech-impeded, oily, musky affront African-American jerkweed.\u00a0 Ruined Twitter, and I wasn\u2019t even a fan.\u00a0 The heck is \u201cX\u201d?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ice Cube owned him, tho\u2019. That was funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyhoo, humanity has been, is, and will always be a dumpster fire of used sanitary napkins and furry cheese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And where there is apocalypse, there is hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not for that book, tho\u2019. No recommend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s only one book that I started and did not finish, and I regret that to this day. Wonder how it all turned out. Well not really, because it was nonfiction, about past and current events, but still. Nonetheless, however, despite, irrespective \u2026 this latest book? Sucked. The salutations and praise heaped on its covers? … <\/p>\n