The opening pages are terrifying -- calm but relentless. A great read... ( )

This is an odd little backwards pioneer story. A few generations after the collapse of industrial civilization, Americans are heading for the east coast to try and get a berth to Europe. A man and woman meet in a pesthouse where she's been recovering from sickness and team up for the various adventures on their way. It was OK, but not compelling. ( )

This is an odd little backwards pioneer story. A few generations after the collapse of industrial civilization, Americans are heading for the east coast to try and get a berth to Europe. A man and woman meet in a pesthouse where she's been recovering from sickness and team up for the various adventures on their way. It was OK, but not compelling. ( )

A lot of the procedural details are inaccurate, which was distracting, but the story engaged me. ( )

I am a big fan of Jim Crace and treat his novels like a warm blanket, although his subjects are not always easy. I have had this one on the shelf for some time saving it for a time when his wonderful prose was just what I needed. In the Pesthouse he takes us to a regressing America, where 'People were becoming scarce. America was emptying.' This is a novel of a rural America, there are highwaymen and human dangers but little sense of wild animals. Occasionally a relic of the former industrial America is stumbled upon. He writes with poetic sentences that are never a 'difficult' read, they flow. Jim Crace's characters are characters you know, they are people who doubt themselves, who are awkward and lonely. He writes affectionately about these people and understands their stories. The novel has a sense of the wild west, a sense of the medieval and a sense of the future, it is an excellent read. ( )