Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Bond Street Books (2007), Hardcover, 272 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. HTML:Once the safest, most prosperous place on earth, the United States has become sparsely populated and chaotically unstable. Across the country, families have traveled toward the one hope left: passage on a ship to Europe. As Franklin Lopez makes his way towards the ocean, he finds Margaret, a sick woman shunned to die in isolation. Tentatively, the two join forces, heading towards their future. With striking prose and a deep understanding of the American ethos, Jim Crace, one of our most consistently ambitious writers, creates in The Pesthouse a masterful tale of the human drive to endure.
Media reviews
Crace revels in putting his protagonists in rough spots and watching their survival instincts take over.
Where Crace’s first, Calvino-inspired novel, “Continent,” conjured an imaginary continent through the sheer poetry of language, “The Pesthouse” is blandly and perfunctorily narrated, as if in the debased speech of Dogpatch . . .
The book’s droll, mock-tall-tale tone soon grates: it
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isn’t clear whether Crace wants us to feel sympathy for his characters or laugh at them as fools who have brought their collective doom upon themselves. Show Less
So it wasn’t any affront to my delicate, jingoistic sensibilities that kept making me put down “The Pesthouse.” Days would pass before I picked it up again to learn Pigeon and Mags’s fate. I hoped things would work out for them, but I didn’t much need to know.
The Pesthouse finds the author not just on his own best form, but arguably on the best form any English writer has shown in the last couple of years.
User reviews
LibraryThing member AndrewBlackman
Poor Jim Crace. Almost every review I’ve read of this book compares it to Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and I’m going to do the same. Can’t help it. They’re both novels set in post-apocalyptic America with two people struggling to get to the coast, and they both came out at about the same
Whereas The Road is set within living memory of the mysterious disaster that destroyed civilisation, The Pesthouse is set long after. The cities and highways of our present world have mostly disappeared, and the few remaining ruins are complete mysteries to the future inhabitants. They look at the rusty hulks of sunken ships, for example, and think how stupid their ancestors must have been to try to sail something so heavy, which obviously sank before it left the shore.
It’s a story of return – the futuristic America is reminiscent of the America of the past, and everyone is now migrating east towards the hope of sailing to foreign lands, a reversal of the great westward migration of the 19th century. It’s also a love story, as Franklin and Margaret travel together, surviving separation and all kinds of travails to keep pushing east. With their families killed and with violence and depravity all around them, their love is about all they have to cling onto.
Perhaps the reason I didn’t love it as much as The Road was about the language. Cormac McCarthy used a beautifully spare style, and I found it really mesmerising. It was understated, allowing the horror of the situation to speak for itself. Here there is more description, more emotion in the language, and it leaves less to the imagination. Also the relationship between the boy and his father in The Road was touching and believable, whereas the relationship between Franklin and Margaret here feels a little predictable – you know as soon as they meet that they’re going to fall in love, and that even if they get separated in the vast expanse of America with no way to contact each other, they’ll miraculously find each other again.
I’m making it sound as if I didn’t like the book. That’s not true. I liked it well enough, but it just didn’t blow me away as The Road did (there, I mentioned it again!). I don’t regret reading it, but I wouldn’t strongly recommend it to others.
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time too. And to me, The Road was better. It was just a brilliant novel, one of the best I’ve read in years. The Pesthouse was good, but suffers from the comparison.Whereas The Road is set within living memory of the mysterious disaster that destroyed civilisation, The Pesthouse is set long after. The cities and highways of our present world have mostly disappeared, and the few remaining ruins are complete mysteries to the future inhabitants. They look at the rusty hulks of sunken ships, for example, and think how stupid their ancestors must have been to try to sail something so heavy, which obviously sank before it left the shore.
It’s a story of return – the futuristic America is reminiscent of the America of the past, and everyone is now migrating east towards the hope of sailing to foreign lands, a reversal of the great westward migration of the 19th century. It’s also a love story, as Franklin and Margaret travel together, surviving separation and all kinds of travails to keep pushing east. With their families killed and with violence and depravity all around them, their love is about all they have to cling onto.
Perhaps the reason I didn’t love it as much as The Road was about the language. Cormac McCarthy used a beautifully spare style, and I found it really mesmerising. It was understated, allowing the horror of the situation to speak for itself. Here there is more description, more emotion in the language, and it leaves less to the imagination. Also the relationship between the boy and his father in The Road was touching and believable, whereas the relationship between Franklin and Margaret here feels a little predictable – you know as soon as they meet that they’re going to fall in love, and that even if they get separated in the vast expanse of America with no way to contact each other, they’ll miraculously find each other again.
I’m making it sound as if I didn’t like the book. That’s not true. I liked it well enough, but it just didn’t blow me away as The Road did (there, I mentioned it again!). I don’t regret reading it, but I wouldn’t strongly recommend it to others.
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LibraryThing member stillatim
To be fair, this has the potential to get better. But I opted to stop reading. There are too many books.
How many books have I started and failed to finish in the last 5 years? 3. It's not terrible to be on that list (the others are highly respected), but this one... meh. It's not even awful, it's
How many books have I started and failed to finish in the last 5 years? 3. It's not terrible to be on that list (the others are highly respected), but this one... meh. It's not even awful, it's
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just dull. 60 pages in, I though to myself, you know what? "I could be reading The Road. I could be watching the Walking Dead. I might go do one of those things." And that was it for the pesthouse, its ineffectually 'poetic' language, its two dimensional characters, and its s......................l..........................o.............................................w tempo. I say that as someone who loves Henry James. Slow can be good. But not here. Show Less
LibraryThing member stillbeing
I was really disappointed by this book. Don't get me wrong, it was certainly readable, it just felt very lacking in substance. The premise was interesting enough to pique my interest - a journey across America now reduced to a new dark ages after some Apocalyptic event. But what this event happened
Also, the characters, people and places seemed very empty. I found it very hard to care about or get to know the two main protagonists, and all the other characters seemed terribly grey and ineffectual. I didn't feel as if learnt anything about the people, places or society in this new America, and everything felt very glossed over or convenient. The language was occasionally pretentious, as if trying to be profound or dramatic with long, often confusing, run on sentences that detracted rather than added to the prose and the plot felt like it kind of just "happened" rather than taking me on a journey. Essentially, this was boy-meets-girl, they lose each other, they find each other, the end. Shame what happened in between was so bland.
But this is sounding too much like a hatchet job; if you're looking for what is essentially a love story in a different setting, maybe this one's for you. For me, I like my post-apocalyptic literature a little more meatier.
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to be was never explained, and that really bugged me; war was hinted at, but there was no real history, no real backstory as to why all of a sudden all technology was abandoned and everyone was fleeing their miserable, peasant-like existence for Europe, and that made it all the less credible. Also, the characters, people and places seemed very empty. I found it very hard to care about or get to know the two main protagonists, and all the other characters seemed terribly grey and ineffectual. I didn't feel as if learnt anything about the people, places or society in this new America, and everything felt very glossed over or convenient. The language was occasionally pretentious, as if trying to be profound or dramatic with long, often confusing, run on sentences that detracted rather than added to the prose and the plot felt like it kind of just "happened" rather than taking me on a journey. Essentially, this was boy-meets-girl, they lose each other, they find each other, the end. Shame what happened in between was so bland.
But this is sounding too much like a hatchet job; if you're looking for what is essentially a love story in a different setting, maybe this one's for you. For me, I like my post-apocalyptic literature a little more meatier.
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LibraryThing member CasualFriday
In a post-apocalyptic America, two people set out for the coast in search of salvation...I always like to read at least two books like that every year!
In Crace's world, the apocalyptic event seemingly happened centuries ago. The earth is not destroyed, but human civilization, at least in America,
Crace's novel has much more action and much more color than The Road, if not the same depth. Crace does a superb job of creating his world. I really got immersed in the book, and I developed a great affection for Franklin and Margaret.
In Crace's world, the apocalyptic event seemingly happened centuries ago. The earth is not destroyed, but human civilization, at least in America,
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has reverted to something older than medieval. There is no technology, no literacy, no rule of law, let alone a central government. Franklin, a tall, gentle man, sets out on a dangerous journey to the coast in hope of setting sail for Europe, where life is reportedly better. He meets a woman, Margaret who is recovering from a deadly plague, and they decide to travel together. Crace's novel has much more action and much more color than The Road, if not the same depth. Crace does a superb job of creating his world. I really got immersed in the book, and I developed a great affection for Franklin and Margaret.
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LibraryThing member m4marya
They say that you should never judge a book by its cover, but never mention the seduction of a great title. I have been lured in by many a lovely title only to have the content be merely adequate, as if the only thing they had was the title and the rest of the story was just an afterthought. I
The book told a simple story of two people who struggle to survive, struggle with love, and struggle with remaining true in a world where survival has altered what we as a people once were. It really is a tender tale with questions on what America used to be artfully mixed in. They marveled at destroyed cities, and pondered the use of unknown items. The characters were adults and had known only the destroyed world, yet no crazy, absurd mysticism had sprouted up and rules of polite society still existed. The bad is there, yet not the ugly and heavy handed evil that so many authors love to use when talking about how we as humans will decline. Our characters Margaret and Pigeon have their flaws, their vanities, their skills, and their stupidities, yet you fall in love with them as their mix of innocence and knowledge of the struggle to survive carries them across America.
The journey is a common theme in apocalypse novels. It has been done over and over, and I groaned just a bit when my characters set off to the unknown sea for a boat that would take them to a new America. Usually stories use this time to show just how destroyed the world is, and the characters almost always face more violence, more ugliness and more evil as they travel. The end of the journey is the end of the book, and we are all thankful that it is over. It is in a way a natural progression through a story, and it has been abused by many, many writers. Yet this story seemed valid to me. The agonies, struggles and beauties that were happened upon as they journeyed seemed to tell a truer tale then the oh so popular The Road to me. I felt as if I was following immigrants trying to make it to a new world. Their wonder and learning was not foolish, or overdone. The hardships faced were not raving lunatics or half mad cannibals.
I am glad that the harsh title did not turn me away. Inside I found a tale that answered the questions on what we could become if the big bad happened with optimism, bravery, a fair bit of luck, and a smidge of old fashioned romanticism.
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almost did not read Pesthouse because of its non-cozy title. One would think that for a girl who loves apocalypse non-cozy is a must, but no. Beauty, art and well crafted prose are still a requirement. The book told a simple story of two people who struggle to survive, struggle with love, and struggle with remaining true in a world where survival has altered what we as a people once were. It really is a tender tale with questions on what America used to be artfully mixed in. They marveled at destroyed cities, and pondered the use of unknown items. The characters were adults and had known only the destroyed world, yet no crazy, absurd mysticism had sprouted up and rules of polite society still existed. The bad is there, yet not the ugly and heavy handed evil that so many authors love to use when talking about how we as humans will decline. Our characters Margaret and Pigeon have their flaws, their vanities, their skills, and their stupidities, yet you fall in love with them as their mix of innocence and knowledge of the struggle to survive carries them across America.
The journey is a common theme in apocalypse novels. It has been done over and over, and I groaned just a bit when my characters set off to the unknown sea for a boat that would take them to a new America. Usually stories use this time to show just how destroyed the world is, and the characters almost always face more violence, more ugliness and more evil as they travel. The end of the journey is the end of the book, and we are all thankful that it is over. It is in a way a natural progression through a story, and it has been abused by many, many writers. Yet this story seemed valid to me. The agonies, struggles and beauties that were happened upon as they journeyed seemed to tell a truer tale then the oh so popular The Road to me. I felt as if I was following immigrants trying to make it to a new world. Their wonder and learning was not foolish, or overdone. The hardships faced were not raving lunatics or half mad cannibals.
I am glad that the harsh title did not turn me away. Inside I found a tale that answered the questions on what we could become if the big bad happened with optimism, bravery, a fair bit of luck, and a smidge of old fashioned romanticism.
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LibraryThing member djh_1962
A not uninteresting narrative told with Crace's customary gracefulness of style and characterisation. But timing of publication can sometimes be unkind (even with the same publishing house!) and so it proves here, since in comparison with McCarthy's The Road, a novel similar in genre and
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aspirations, it comes up short in every respect. Show Less
LibraryThing member lorielibrarian
North America thrown back to middle ages conditions, adventures of a young man and woman
LibraryThing member mikewomack
I heard about The Pesthouse on The Diane Rehm Show. I thought the author sounded really interesting and the plot fascinating. But it turns out that the story is about as strong as Diane’s voice. (Oh no he didn’t!) (Oh yes I did!)
Anyway, the story really doesn’t go anywhere and seems to get
Anyway, the story really doesn’t go anywhere and seems to get
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bogged down with narrative. I honestly can’t find anything remarkable about the book. At the same time, I can’t find anything remarkably terrible about it either. I guess I’d say that reading it was like being in zero gravity. (as if I have a clue what that’s really like.) Nothing pulled me one way or another. A very average story. Show Less
LibraryThing member claudiabowman
Atmospheric, upsetting story, told well. The degeneration of society is depicted in realistically disturbing way. It sometimes feels like a jump back in time instead of ahead some unknown number of years.
LibraryThing member longreader
An extremely engaging novel of a national disaster that has reduced the United States to a level of barbarism, with strong characterization and Crace's usual masterful style. Indomitable human spirit.
LibraryThing member ZachMontana
Terrible book. I listened to the book on tape version narrated by Michael Kramer whom I disliked immensely. The only reason I finished it was lack of other distractions on a long road trip. The story about a future America where machines have stopped and everyone has regressed to the the early
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1800s, but with lawlessness, is unimaginative and boring. Show Less
LibraryThing member martymojito
I found this book quite engaging. At first you think that the book is set in the 1800s, pioneers in the mid-West of America heading East for better fortune after an apocalypse of some sort. However the more we get into the story it seems that in fact we are some time in the future but America has
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gone back to basics, clothes, transport, living, even the dialect is 1800s. THe story is interesting enough but the parallels with The Road by Cormack McCarthy are very obvious. Both books revolve around a family unit escaping from an apocalyptic event across a grey landscape. The meet a group of bandits along the way, they travel along a road to the East to the sea, which is a symbol of hope. Only in both novels the main characters are disappointed when they reach the sea. It is not the gateway to a better life that they both expected. I had to check which novel was written first to see who might have influenced who (The Road was first, published in 2006). Still, I enjoyed The Pesthouse. A little simple, the plot takes a few big jumps along the way. I'm glad I read it and it kept me interested to the end. Show Less
LibraryThing member cathyskye
First Line: Everybody died at night.
In the fishing village along the riverbank-- a place called Ferrytown that likes to charge exorbitant fees to any stranger traveling through-- Margaret is showing definite signs of sickness. Her head is shaved, and she is taken to a small stone cottage where she
Crace swiftly sets the tone of his book and makes his readers uneasy in the prologue: "This used to be America, this river crossing in the ten-month stretch of land, this sea-to-sea. It used to be the safest place on earth." Franklin is young and impulsive, which soon leads to trouble. Margaret is older and used to staying beneath the radar. She is the more observant and adaptable one. As they pass the rusted-out hulks of factories and the weed-choked arteries of disused highways, Crace leads us further and further away from our traditional American values of progress, technology and industriousness.
It is an engrossing journey, but one that I never completely believed. Although I liked the characters of Margaret and Franklin, and I found Crace's view of an America forgotten by history to be quite interesting, I felt as though I were being held at a distance... as though I had the flux. If not for that No Man's Land between the characters and me, I would rate this book even higher. Unfortunately, this lover of dystopian fiction felt a bit quarantined.
In the fishing village along the riverbank-- a place called Ferrytown that likes to charge exorbitant fees to any stranger traveling through-- Margaret is showing definite signs of sickness. Her head is shaved, and she is taken to a small stone cottage where she
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is left to recover... or to die. She is found by a young man named Franklin, and together they begin a long journey through an America laid waste by this disease they call the flux. Margaret and Franklin will be traveling through an America reduced to medieval methods of living where everyone hopes to make it to the East Coast to pay for passage on a ship bound for Europe-- the Promised Land. The couple will have many adventures along the way.Crace swiftly sets the tone of his book and makes his readers uneasy in the prologue: "This used to be America, this river crossing in the ten-month stretch of land, this sea-to-sea. It used to be the safest place on earth." Franklin is young and impulsive, which soon leads to trouble. Margaret is older and used to staying beneath the radar. She is the more observant and adaptable one. As they pass the rusted-out hulks of factories and the weed-choked arteries of disused highways, Crace leads us further and further away from our traditional American values of progress, technology and industriousness.
It is an engrossing journey, but one that I never completely believed. Although I liked the characters of Margaret and Franklin, and I found Crace's view of an America forgotten by history to be quite interesting, I felt as though I were being held at a distance... as though I had the flux. If not for that No Man's Land between the characters and me, I would rate this book even higher. Unfortunately, this lover of dystopian fiction felt a bit quarantined.
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LibraryThing member RachelPenso
This book was as much about the budding relationship between Franklin and Margaret as it was about their struggle to make it to the eastern coastline. It was an interesting read, although there are definitely better post-apocalyptic, plague-stricken America type books out there. I did like that
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even though the story occurs years and years in the future, when our buildings and roads are in ruins and factory made items are rare treasures, it feels like the past. The men all wear beards and the women all wear dresses, people travel on foot or by horse and cart, etc. Show Less
LibraryThing member jayavant
having thoroughly enjoyed two of Jim Crace's earlier books - Quarantine and Being Dead, I am now struggling with this book.
Quarantine was a wonderfully interesting and beautifully written account of a group of people in the Judean desert, participating in a fast, while an enigmatic figure (Christ
Being Dead is a "can't put it down" account of the death and bodily decay of two people on a beach. It combines personal narrative about their lives with intriguing and accurate descriptive prose about what is going on in their cells, their body chemicals, and the numerous scavengers that come to find them. I have never read a book quite like it.
But Pest House... hmmm.. so far (I just finished the 5th short chapter) it reads far too much like Cormac Mccarthy's "The Road". Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Pest House starts wuth two brothers, journeying along a road to some uncertain safe place...
I admit that books are one thing I have little patience with. If they don't get my attention by about page 10 I put them down. This is such a book. I doubt I will finish it.
Quarantine was a wonderfully interesting and beautifully written account of a group of people in the Judean desert, participating in a fast, while an enigmatic figure (Christ
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perhaps) is fasting nearby.Being Dead is a "can't put it down" account of the death and bodily decay of two people on a beach. It combines personal narrative about their lives with intriguing and accurate descriptive prose about what is going on in their cells, their body chemicals, and the numerous scavengers that come to find them. I have never read a book quite like it.
But Pest House... hmmm.. so far (I just finished the 5th short chapter) it reads far too much like Cormac Mccarthy's "The Road". Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Pest House starts wuth two brothers, journeying along a road to some uncertain safe place...
I admit that books are one thing I have little patience with. If they don't get my attention by about page 10 I put them down. This is such a book. I doubt I will finish it.
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LibraryThing member marcfitch
This book came out around the same time as The Road. Not to draw comparisons, but The Road is far better. I couldn't help thinking throughout the book that Crace, being a British novelist, couldn't quite grasp an America in the clutches of the apocalypse.
LibraryThing member satyridae
I didn't like this book for several reasons. I think the post-apocalyptic dystopian novel has been done much better (and with nearly identical plot) many times before. The author also kept me at arm's length from the characters, I think because of the formality of his prose. The book seemed
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mannered, self-conscious, and pedestrian all at once. I found the characters likable enough but not compelling. Show Less
LibraryThing member TerriBooks
America, generations after some sort of ecological(?) disaster is emptying out. The remnant people who are left are wandering, family by family, toward the east coast hoping for transport across the ocean. I found this a warmer and less hopeless book than "The Road" to which it is often compared. I
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enjoyed the strong female characters and the slow-developing relationship between Franklin and Margaret. My major complaint is that it seems incomplete -- I want to know the rest of their story, and I would have liked more exposition of the background of the story. Show Less
LibraryThing member cmwilson101
The Pesthouse by Jim Crace is the riveting tale of Margaret and Franklin, two strangers who meet up on a journey "East" to catch a ship away from a barren, devastated, and poor post-apocalyptic America. Margaret comes down with the flux, and is left to live or die in the Pesthouse, where Franklin
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meets up with her. Their relationship unfolds as the story unfolds, with them learning to trust and depend upon each other. Crace's writing is lyrical and poetic, and the relationship between the main characters is touching and authentic. America's devastated landscape takes back seat to the human drama that emerges during their journey. A thought provoking, gorgeously written story. Show Less
LibraryThing member chrisblocker
For the most part I don’t like giving bad reviews. Sure there are books that deserve it, books that are all the craze and might’ve been written by a middle schooler (Fifty Shades…, I’m looking at you). But then there are books that are “written well” but lack any semblance of plot,
The Pesthouse lacks everything a novel needs with the exception of well-orchestrated sentences. The story, what little bit of it there is, is told in the most clinical fashion; it was more like reading a psychologist’s report of the incidents than reading a novel. The characters were drab and unbelievable—they wouldn’t survive a day in this post-apocalyptic world. The dialogue was painful—why has the “end of the world” reverted the speech of people to Pioneer-speak? In short, I recognize that Jim Crace can write a sentence, but that doesn’t keep The Pesthouse from being extremely boring.
The best thing about this book is the cover of the hardback edition. I love this cover. Love it. It’s simple, but so elegant. The texture of the cover is unique, a very dull, old-fashioned paper with raised glossy print. The typeface is clear, demanding but not overpowering. The black and white imagery stands out in its simplicity. It is a wonderful book to hold and to gaze at; unfortunately, I wish I would’ve left it on my shelf unread, because despite its beauty, I now know of the great dissatisfaction that resides between its handsome covers.
Beautiful Cover Intriguing Synopsis ≠ Guaranteed Enjoyable Read
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character development, conflict, setting, joy, pain, life. I hate to group this sort of book with those I previously mentioned, but the truth is, this “well written book” is as difficult to read as the one that should be packing material. The Pesthouse lacks everything a novel needs with the exception of well-orchestrated sentences. The story, what little bit of it there is, is told in the most clinical fashion; it was more like reading a psychologist’s report of the incidents than reading a novel. The characters were drab and unbelievable—they wouldn’t survive a day in this post-apocalyptic world. The dialogue was painful—why has the “end of the world” reverted the speech of people to Pioneer-speak? In short, I recognize that Jim Crace can write a sentence, but that doesn’t keep The Pesthouse from being extremely boring.
The best thing about this book is the cover of the hardback edition. I love this cover. Love it. It’s simple, but so elegant. The texture of the cover is unique, a very dull, old-fashioned paper with raised glossy print. The typeface is clear, demanding but not overpowering. The black and white imagery stands out in its simplicity. It is a wonderful book to hold and to gaze at; unfortunately, I wish I would’ve left it on my shelf unread, because despite its beauty, I now know of the great dissatisfaction that resides between its handsome covers.
Beautiful Cover Intriguing Synopsis ≠ Guaranteed Enjoyable Read
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LibraryThing member palaverofbirds
I liked the writing just fine but I thought the plot was such a stereotypical post-apocalyptic novel that it left me with no special feelings.
LibraryThing member gdill
I read the first few chapters and simply couldn't understand the author's vernacular. Therefore, I had a hard time getting into the story and couldn't finish it. To be fair, I give this a 3-star rating (It's OK). It's not a bad story, but it doesn't appear to be exciting either. If you are not use
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to Crace's unique style of writing you will likely have a difficult time understanding The Pesthouse like I did. Show Less
LibraryThing member ChuckNorton
Crace's novel The Pesthouse is a love story set against the backdrop of an America centuries in the future, long after some calamity has wiped away our technological culture and the nation-state known as the United States. What ancestral memory remains is shroulded in legend and myth. America has
Amidst this grim setting, two young people, a woman named Margaret, consigned to a pesthouse as she suffers from a malady resembling the plague, and a younger man named Franklin, separated from his brother in their journey to the Atlantic coast and the ships bound for Europe, meet and become companiions and platonic lovers. Franklin and Margaret are torn apart when they are set upon by a band of thieves and slavers. After a hard winter, they are reunited. Margaret has "adopted" a baby girl left in her custody, another love story.
They learn a hard truth upon reaching the coast and then turn back to build new lives as a family in the interior of America. Despite the violence and squalor Crace depicts in the novel, there are also passages of lyrical beauty describing the land, moments of tenderness and sweet humor among the family, and episodes in which compassion and empathy prevail over the savagery of a land of hardness and danger. This wild and harsh America of the future is still a land that can inspire hope in those restless adventurers willing to push out toward the horizon.
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become a thinly-populated land ravaged by disease and prowled by bands of brutal men in search of plunder, whether in material form such as valuable metal objects or in human form as women to be raped and young men to be enslaved. Amidst this grim setting, two young people, a woman named Margaret, consigned to a pesthouse as she suffers from a malady resembling the plague, and a younger man named Franklin, separated from his brother in their journey to the Atlantic coast and the ships bound for Europe, meet and become companiions and platonic lovers. Franklin and Margaret are torn apart when they are set upon by a band of thieves and slavers. After a hard winter, they are reunited. Margaret has "adopted" a baby girl left in her custody, another love story.
They learn a hard truth upon reaching the coast and then turn back to build new lives as a family in the interior of America. Despite the violence and squalor Crace depicts in the novel, there are also passages of lyrical beauty describing the land, moments of tenderness and sweet humor among the family, and episodes in which compassion and empathy prevail over the savagery of a land of hardness and danger. This wild and harsh America of the future is still a land that can inspire hope in those restless adventurers willing to push out toward the horizon.
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LibraryThing member keithkv
Very Cormac McCarthy-esque. His prose is spare but with great intent. Although not as crushingly depressing as The Road, the book nonetheless filled me with sadness and longing, which was likely the point of this fictional tale of post-apocalyptic America.
LibraryThing member edwinbcn
The pesthouse is Jim Crace's seventh novel, published in 2007. It is another novel, among many, of a distopian future, in which people are desperate to leave the United States. The books contains many story elements from similar novels in the genre, and immediately calls Cormac McCarthy's novel The
In fact, the realization that the novel is set in the future comes very late in the book, as the hatred of iron cannot be otherwise explained. The pesthouse is very well-written, and particularly the first chapter, ominous and dark, is extremely well conceived and executed. It is borne of a magnificent idea, and perfectly executed, and seems to be a core element in the work of Crace in its dark pondering of death. Subsequent chapters are also extremely well-written, and th novel as a whole is very enjoyable to read.
It seems a bit odd that such a distopian novel about America is written by a British author, and at a deeper level this does seem significant. Unlike The Road, The pesthouse is not all bleak and pessimistic. Various story elements seem to draw on the typical American experience, such as the frontier exerpience, aptly reversed in people trekking to the East, in almost equal circumstances as the famous expansion to the West. The religious sekt which harbours and shelters refugees like an ark, and the procedures to come on board are about as strict as boarding an airplane to the US in our own days. Finally, refugees leaving the shores in ships to Europe is another odd reversal of the actual history of the United States.
Various parts of the novel are convincing and interesting to read. Perhaps among the distopian novels, The pesthouse is the most beautiful and ultimately the most optimistic, as the novel opens a vista to some form of hope, albeit feeble. The novel does not disclose what disaster caused the country to fall back into a much more primitive stage of civilization, but, as in the episode of Margaret's stay in the pesthouse, the novel seems to suggest that a prolonged period of waiting and patience may bring better times to the continent, the pesthouse of the title becoming a metaphor for the future of America.
The pesthouse is very well-written, and presents a beautiful story in very dire circumstances.
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Road to mind. However, The pesthouse is not as horrific and offers more of an idyll.In fact, the realization that the novel is set in the future comes very late in the book, as the hatred of iron cannot be otherwise explained. The pesthouse is very well-written, and particularly the first chapter, ominous and dark, is extremely well conceived and executed. It is borne of a magnificent idea, and perfectly executed, and seems to be a core element in the work of Crace in its dark pondering of death. Subsequent chapters are also extremely well-written, and th novel as a whole is very enjoyable to read.
It seems a bit odd that such a distopian novel about America is written by a British author, and at a deeper level this does seem significant. Unlike The Road, The pesthouse is not all bleak and pessimistic. Various story elements seem to draw on the typical American experience, such as the frontier exerpience, aptly reversed in people trekking to the East, in almost equal circumstances as the famous expansion to the West. The religious sekt which harbours and shelters refugees like an ark, and the procedures to come on board are about as strict as boarding an airplane to the US in our own days. Finally, refugees leaving the shores in ships to Europe is another odd reversal of the actual history of the United States.
Various parts of the novel are convincing and interesting to read. Perhaps among the distopian novels, The pesthouse is the most beautiful and ultimately the most optimistic, as the novel opens a vista to some form of hope, albeit feeble. The novel does not disclose what disaster caused the country to fall back into a much more primitive stage of civilization, but, as in the episode of Margaret's stay in the pesthouse, the novel seems to suggest that a prolonged period of waiting and patience may bring better times to the continent, the pesthouse of the title becoming a metaphor for the future of America.
The pesthouse is very well-written, and presents a beautiful story in very dire circumstances.
Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Notable Books List (Fiction — 2008)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2007-03-16
Physical description
272 p.; 9.55 inches
ISBN
0385662637 / 9780385662635