A Hundred Little Pieces on the End of the World
Written with clarity, tenacity, humor, and warmth, A Hundred Little Pieces on the End of the World attempts to find tolerable ethical positions in the face of barely tolerable events--and the real possibility of an intolerable future. It is a compelling, surprising, disturbing, and highly literate work of reportage and contemplation. It is both a collection of gentle-spirited wisdom and a rumination on ruin, as if distilled in equal measure from the spirits of Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It and Cormac McCarthy's The Road.
Through these ten essays, each further broken into ten smaller pieces, Rember examines the practical and ethical dilemmas of climate change, population, resource depletion, and mass extinction. At the same time, he never forgets those improbable connections between human beings that lead to moments of joy, empathy, and grace.
Thought-provoking, reflective, and forthright.'--Jeremy Garber, bookseller at Powell's, Portland, in Literary Hub
Rember delivers his bad news with a dose of dark humor. . . . Rember's predictions of what the collapse will look like are never comforting, but always funny.'--Nick Fuller Googins, Colorado Review
John Rember's new book spans his upbringing in the wilderness of Idaho's Sawtooth Valley, his work as a professor of literature and ski instructor, and his return to the valley refuge where he bears witness to a world in fall with a wry wit, sharp observation, and a style that meets the urgency of our times.'--The Dark Mountain Project
Rember's sometimes dark, sometimes humorous book of reflections dispenses hard-earned wisdom on a world in crisis.'--Publishers Weekly
John Rember's A Hundred Little Pieces on the End of the World is a savage attack on complacency and idleness. If you want to be grabbed by the collar and told to pay attention, be better, think harder, Rember's the guy for you.'--Matt Sutherland, Foreword Reviews
A brilliantly written, deeply thoughtful, and even humorous book about a very dark topic. I hope civilization will last long enough for it to be published for all to enjoy and contemplate.'--Paul R. Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb
The writer's job description runs to three words: tell the truth. John Rember is a writer. He tells, unflinchingly, the truth about our looming civilizational collapse. He allows us no illusions, no evasions, no sentimentalities. Rember lives in central Idaho among survivalists who stock their bunkers with ammo and cheese. He has preferred a different form of preparation, storing his mind with logic, wisdom, humility, and compassion--provisions he offers his readers in prose of exemplary lucidity and force.'--William Deresiewicz, author of Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life
Most books explaining why the world is about to end are not fun to read. They tend to earnest pretension, self-righteous diatribe. John Rember has written a book that is not only entertaining and fun to read, but it matters. His observations are original and surprising. He writes with a scalpel. Buy it, read it. You'll be a better person.'--Tim Sandlin, author of Skipped Parts: A Novel and Honey Don't
John Rember is the author of Sudden Death, Over Time; Coyote in the Mountains and Other Stories; Cheerleaders from Gomorrah: Tales from the Lycra Archipelago; and Traplines: Coming Home to Sawtooth Valley. He and his wife, Julie, live in the Sawtooth Valley of Idaho.
Foreword
The Way We Live Now
A Few Rocks from the Box
When Darkness Casts a Hard and Pitiless Light
American History Backward
Vietnam as Simulacrum
Is Civilization Too Dumb to Live?
Eating with Peter Singer
Resort Life
The Unconscious and the Dead
The Way We Live Now, Again
Acknowledgments
