There's always time for a book -

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As I've mentioned before, I'm a fan of post-apocalyptic novels. How people would survive after a plane crash, nuclear holocaust or sudden unexplained failure of technology across the world was my bread and butter. So when I read positive reviews of Susan Pfeffer's Life as we know it, a story of the world slowly suffering the aftereffects of a moon knocked askew from an asteroid, I knew I had to read it.

The story is told through 16-year-old Miranda's diary, where she catalogues the slow disintegration of the world she knew. The slow breaking down of economic and social systems was well imagined and described. (Although I have to say that some of the things Miranda mentioned, like not having air conditioning - so survivable - and manual can openers, were just strange.) Her mother prepares the family well but the winter without snow ploughs, doctors or food supplies is inevitably hard. I liked how the relentless worsening of living conditions are interspersed with moments of happiness over things like sharing two fresh eggs or ice-skating on the local pond.

Often books told through diaries like this have a humorous tone, with plenty of sarcasm to alleviate the seriousness. I don't know if it was this expectation that sometimes made Miranda's straighforward and serious voice seem slightly distant to me. However, it also portrayed a picture of a girl with fairly middle of the road teenage concerns - exams, being treated unfairly by her mother, a date for the prom - which I guess would make it accessible to lots of readers.

Overall I enjoyed the book but also found it very freaky. I kept picturing how far away my friends and family are in Australia and feeling panicked. I started cursing my middle sister for moving one street away from the beach in Cairns, right where she'll get washed away by a tsunami. I compared my chances of surviving back in Brisbane (pluses include supermarkets and hills and nice warm weather, downsides include lack of land and too many people) with here (don't know anyone but lots of land for growing crops and lots of apparently edible squirrels and rabbits running around. And I even know how to catch rabbits, I saw it on TV the other night - you put nets over all their burrow entrances and then set your tame ferret down one to kill the rabbit and bring it back to you. So I just need a ferret and I'll be set!). But hey, I guess that's a testament to the Pfeffer's storytelling ability!

Tags: books, science fiction, young adult

	From: splanky	Date: October 21st, 2007 10:42 am (UTC)		(Link)

you put nets over all their burrow entrances and then set your tame ferret down one to kill the rabbit and bring it back to you

Nooo! You don't want your ferret to kill the rabbit! It will eat it and fall asleep and then you'll have to dig it out. You want your ferret to chase the bunnies into the net and follow them out.

Tips from a former ferret owner. I want you surviving the end of civilisation!

	From: emmaco	Date: October 21st, 2007 04:14 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Thank you for the valuable tip! My ferret and I will bear it in mind come the zombie apocalypse. The one I saw must have been a super trained rabbit retrieving ferret or something.

	From: splanky	Date: October 22nd, 2007 03:51 am (UTC)		(Link)

Hmmmm. Better try it both ways and report back. Before the internet dies and you can't get the word out!

And watch out for those zombie rabbits - they aren't very nutritious.

	From: checkers65477	Date: October 21st, 2007 10:54 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I liked the book a lot. The family's trip to the grocery store freaked me out, along with the description of when the asteroid hits the moon. Very powerful.

There were a couple of things that irked me. Miranda seemed SO average. I wonder if the author did this to make the reader able to identify with her better. You really could imagine these things happening to yourself. Also, the survival-of-the-fittest mentality bothered me. I have no idea how I'd react in circumstances like these, but I like to think I'd be more helpful and caring about others than they were. I objected to how Christians were portrayed in the book. It was pretty stereotypical.

sdn linked me to an interesting article on how the science in the book is flawed, and something like this could never happen:

http://www.mariannedyson.com/reviews/revLifeAsKnewIt.htm

	From: emmaco	Date: October 22nd, 2007 06:26 am (UTC)		(Link)

Yeah I personally thought more cooperation rather than each man for his own was a uncomfortable but I thought the mother was well portrayed in this sense, I can imagine mothers with children to feed ignoring the benefits of social assistance. I'd forgotten the best friend but yeah, very stereotypical Christian (plus boring).

Thanks for the link, I kind of suspected the whole asteroid thing and noticed the boiling rather than filtration of water thing too! I'm afraid it was still a freaky book - I liked how it showed how our food and energy etc come from places far away from us, which is something teenagers might not know about.

	From: liliwilkinson	Date: October 21st, 2007 11:37 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I found it quite terrifingly real as well. I actually found myself checking my pantry to see how much food I had left.

I had 3 irks though:

1. the best friend. she started off too crazy. I would have preferred to have seen her be a great friend and then been horrified at her descent into denial and madness. As it was, I didn't really care about her, cause she'd only ever been like that.

2. the cat. If you're LITERALLY starving to death, you are not still feeding the cat. You have eaten the cat food. You have eaten the cat. You are considering eating your little brother.

3. I kinda wanted someone important to die. Higher stakes and all. It all seemed a bit too happy ever after.

She's writing a sequel, set in new york. Called The Quick and the Dead.

	From: emmaco	Date: October 22nd, 2007 06:30 am (UTC)		(Link)

I don't know, I thought keeping the cat was the only human sort of aspect to the book. Everything else was "family first!"

The best friend was boring. I didn't really notice when she died.

I was also a bit puzzled at the speed at which that killer flu travelled - if everyone is huddling in their own houses surely it wouldn't have spread so fast? (But this still doesn't stop me thinking about killer flu in a world without asteroids/volcanos etc to worry about!)

	From: littlekoneko	Date: October 22nd, 2007 09:57 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Heh, I've always wanted to WRITE one of those types of books.

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