About book The World Ends In Hickory Hollow (2007)
This novella was surprisingly great! I'm not usually one interested in Texas literature set in rural communities but this one drew me because it is post-apocolyptic. But, the end of the world idea just isn't that significant in this novella. Instead, the apocolypse could serve as a metaphor for any life-changing event that effects a community. In this case, the community is rural and very self-reliant. So, when the end of the world comes, this first family doesn't even know it has come - until some time has passed. And, then, they do what they've always done. They farm and they adjust. Now, there are some major adjustments that they do have to make, including making their own fuel-alcohol, but the point is that they are able to do it! They rebuild their communities and confront a variety of problems that present themselves along the way. But, this book is more that too. It confronts prejudices, values, politics, etc. For teenagers, and anyone else, a great read because....Country Boy Can Survive. Teens who are so overindulged and tend to have everything provided for would benefit from seeing what young children are capable of when they are needed by their communities. I often wondered what libertarian socialism would like (seems oxymoronic, doesn't it)? This novella gives us a sense of the power of democratic community on a small scale. But, it's not Tea Party...though that philosophy is represented too...it's just different. Awesome read!
I read this book after reading “Earth Abides” and thank goodness, because this book removed the lingering nasty taste that “Earth Abides” left me with! This is a similar post-apocalyptic story, but there the similarity ends. Instead of passively living off the remains of 20th century technological civilization, the characters in “Hickory Hollow” create a sustainable agrarian life with as much of that technology that they can keep working. And when they don’t know how to do something, they learn how by reading and researching the issue! There’s no descent into stone-age “simplicity” in this book.Generally well-written, with interesting, appealing characters, and a genuine exploration of the realities of life in a small communal group without the benefits of a larger civilization. I highly recommend this.
Do You like book The World Ends In Hickory Hollow (2007)?
I really enjoyed this book. Read it in one day. On the front and rear covers it is compared to "Earth Abides." I disagree on one major point--in "...Hickory Hollow" the characters make an effort not to depend on anything they can not make or repair themselves. In "Earth Abides," they are still eating out of cans and the main character has to trick the kids into learning how to use a bow and arrow. In short, the characters in "Earth Abides" are pretty lazy and content with going back to the stone age, whereas the characters in "...Hickory Hollow" make endless efforts to survive: gardening, making fuel, converting engines, collecting mules and horses.Either way, I enjoyed both immensely.
—Angela
There have been books in the past where I had to put them down because the tension was constant and I couldn't catch a breath. This book has the opposite problem: even in the most tense moments of conflict, I felt already assured that the good folks were going to pull through just fine on account of their know-how and tendin' to each other. I wanted to like it a lot more than I did -- I have a pretty awful craving for post-apocalyptic rebuilding narratives -- but I kept getting hung up on the thickness of the down-home old-country-folks-knew-best theme....I am also a little creeped out by the fact that the novel's villains are (view spoiler)[a multi-generational family of prostitute women who live in filth down by the river, and who are repeatedly characterized as too stupid, bestial, and savage to really count as human. Really? Impoverished alcoholic prostitutes vs. The Gosh-Darn Wholesome Extended Family? (hide spoiler)]
—Laylah
A short, easy read but so compelling, I couldn't put it down. The world as we know it, ends, leaving small groups of survivors, this one in Texas. They band together, help eachother with survival and surviving. When another band of people, called the Ungers, begin to attack home by home, they have to do everything they can to preserve the life they have made, making decisions they never had to face in the old world.Kind of like "Lost", except instead of some beautiful, mysterious island, they're in east Texas :>))
—Karen
