The Pesthouse

Easy Read

Reads easy, interesting, but a little anti-climatic. I'd give it a 6.5 on a 1-10 scale

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Not a bad rainy day book but depressing

The books style is not bad and the writing good, and even the concept behind it interesting, but with a little knowledge of science and some faith in the human spirit this books story soon becomes unbelievable. The fact that there is so little knowledge of medicine and with folk lore and superstition as all the characters have to use in their daily lives it quickly becomes depressing. If a great disaster happened would we lose all medical knowledge? Would all learning and knowledge disappear? I hope not. But that is what has happened here.
All in all not a bad read but a depressing one.

'Dreamers do not want advice.'

Jim Crace takes more risks in his stories than most authors writing today. In THE PESTHOUSE he manages to create a love story with seeds in disease, death, futuristic semi-annihilation of America, and a reversal of the concept of immigration. And the primary reason he is able to succeed in his books (BEING DEAD, QUARANTINE, THE DEVIL'S LARDER, GENESIS, etc) is his uncanny gift of flowing poetic prose that can make even the most terrifying and horrendous sights and incidents an exciting literary experience. The time of this powerful novel is sometime in the future, a time when for some unstated reason the place called America has been reduced to 'junkle', the lands being destroyed by some form of disaster (? nuclear, defoliation, uncontrolled disease?) and all that remains of the once highly technologically advanced country is debris and starving people, all struggling to migrate to the East Coast (reverse pioneerism) to board a ship to Europe for the dreams of a better life. Disease and famine are rampant and one of the victims of the deadly disease 'flux' is Margaret, a plain woman approaching middle age without ever having a lover or caring partner: she is place in The Pesthouse on Butter Hill to die. At the same time two virile brothers, Jackson and Franklin, are migrating to the East Coast, but Franklin suffers a severe knee injury and is forced to let his brother go ahead without him. Franklin seeks refuge in the Pesthouse, finds Margaret near death, and despite the possibility of contagion, nurses her to health. As the completely shaved Margaret shows signs of improvement, the two agree to gather goods from Margaret's nearby hometown Ferrytown and begin the long journey to 'freedom and promise' on the East Coast. Ferrytown has succumbed to 'flux' and Franklin and Margaret burn the little village in an act of cremation of the inhabitants. Their trek East is disrupted by evil men who separate the two, enslaving Franklin and forcing Margaret to seek refuge with other terrified migrants, one of whom has a newborn grandchild whose father was captured into slavery with Franklin, and Margaret eventually becomes the little girl's guardian. There are extended stretches of incidents: Margaret and baby Bella take refuge in an Ark run by Baptists whose life is one without metals (the sign of the devil, read technological greed) but provide a socialist style living quarters for the winter months Franklin is chained into slavery on work crews, one of the jobs being to excavate the buried evil metals discarded by the Baptists. Come Spring and by accident Margaret and Franklin reunite and alter their goal of sailing to Europe to opt for turning West to create a life of what America once was. Some readers may tire of the recent number of books about post-devastation America (Cormac McCarthy's THE ROAD paints a similar concept), but Crace is able to make a rather grim novel one of very pure love. He also is able to conjure thoughts that make us look around our earth and visualize what could happen should we elect not to change our current course of global and human abuse. His story also gives a quiet but healthy pause for us to feel the other side of the immigration dilemma: the remaining people are struggling to leave their land of hardship for the Gilead of Europe. And overriding all other aspects of this exceptional novel is Jim Crace's grace with prose. Highly recommended. Grady Harp

The Pesthouse

British writer Jim Crace has always excelled in fables. In novels like i Quarantine /i (1997) and i Being Dead /i (1999), he shaped graceful, glorious tales which leaped fearlessly into big issues like life, art and death. Given his track record, expectations are high for i The Pesthouse /i , especially given the premise. This is set in a post-apocalyptic America, where society and the standard of living has regressed to a mediaeval age. Americans are migrating eastwards, drawn by the hope of a promised land across the sea. Franklin is one such migrant and he is joined on his journey and Margaret, a survivor of the 'flux'. i The Pesthouse /i is brimming with potential. The idea of an exhausted America the evocative reversal of the American ideal of 'Westward ho!' and the post 9/11 suggestiveness of an American society that has become closed and suspicious. Unfortunately, it feels tentative and meandering. The narrative feels unfocused. It begins with a montage which, though, vivid, feels scattershot. It is not until a few chapters in that you finally discover who the protagonists of the story are. Franklin and Margaret's journey is drawn out and episodic. It lacks the tension and cohesion of Cormac McCarthy's i The Road /i , another recent novel about a pair of travellers in a post-apocalyptic landscape. While the story flows steadily enough and Crace still displays beautiful turns of phrases in his characteristically sensual style, this lacks punch.

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