The Witch of Hebron: A World Made by Hand Novel [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

James Howard Kunstler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 2010

Already a renowned social commentator and a best-selling novelist and nonfiction writer, James Howard Kunstler has recently attained even greater prominence in the global conversation about energy and the environment. In the sequel to his novel, World Made by Hand, Kunstler expands on his vision of a post-oil society with a new novel about an America in which the electricity has flickered off, the Internet is a distant memory, and the government is little more than a rumor. In the tiny hamlet of Union Grove, New York, travel is horse-drawn and farming is back at the center of life. But it’s no pastoral haven. Wars are fought over dwindling resources and illness is a constant presence. Bandits roam the countryside, preying on the weak. And a sinister cult threatens to shatter Union Grove’s fragile stability.

In a book that is both shocking yet eerily convincing, Kunstler seamlessly weaves hot-button issues such as the decline of oil and the perils of climate change into a compelling narrative of violence, religious hysteria, innocence lost, and love found.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The post-oil America Kunstler envisioned in A World Made by Hand (2008) proved intriguing enough to inspire a sequel, which, in turn, portends a longer series. Having established the parameters of a society bereft of government services, automobiles, public utilities, consumer goods, and computers, Kunstler writes with more finesse in this portrayal of a community of survivors in Upstate New York, an old-fashioned yarn of character-building confrontations between humans and the wild, outlaws and decent folks. Kunstler decries our refusal to face facts about our oil habit, dramatizes how quickly “the great thrumming engine of modernity” can be halted, and celebrates the benefits of living intimately with nature. But his social concerns never overburden the suspenseful, darkly amusing story, with its touches of the fantastic in the mode of Washington Irving, or undermine his seductive characters: plucky young Jasper, the doctor’s son; ludicrous bandit and psychopath Billy Bones; a sexy and accomplished witch; and the gruff leader of the bizarre and prosperous New Faith commune who possesses his own supernatural powers. Future installments will be eagerly anticipated. --Donna Seaman

Review

“In many ways [The Witch of Hebron] reminded me of Larry McMurty’s Lonesome Dove, set in the dystopian world of The Road. . . . By the middle of the book you are immersed in a richly imagined ‘world made by hand,’ eagerly devouring every page. . . . [Kunstler] has woven his nightmares into a vision or America after a complete economic, political, and cultural collapse.”—New York Journal of Books

"[A] suspenseful, darkly amusing story with touches of the fantastic in the mode of Washington Irving."--Booklist

"Kunstler's post-apocalyptic world is neither a merciless nightmare nor a starry-eyed return to some pastoral faux utopia; it's a hard existence dotted with adventure, revenge, mysticism, and those same human emotions that existed before the power went out."--Publishers Weekly

“Vividly drawn . . . [The Witch of Hebron] plays to Kunstler’s strength, which is his understanding of municipal infrastructure, so he can analyze the importance of what has been taken from people, how they cope, and just what is necessary for them to survive.”—Steve Goddard’s History Wire (online)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; First Edition edition (September 7, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802119611
• ISBN-13: 978-0802119612
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 1.1 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #475,494 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Howard Kunstler is probably best known as the author of "The Long Emergency" (The Atlantic Monthly Press 2005), and "The Geography of Nowhere" (Simon and Schuster, 1993). Two other non-fiction titles in that series are "Home From Nowhere" (Simon and Schuster, 1996), and "The City in Mind" (Simon and Schuster, 2002). He's also the author of many novels, including his tale of the post-oil American future, "World Made By Hand" (The Atlantic Monthly press, 2008). The sequel will be published in the fall of 2010. His shorter work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, Metropolis, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and many other periodicals.

James Howard Kunstler was born in New York City in 1948. He attended New York's High School of Music and art and SUNY Brockport (BA, Theater, 1971). He was a reporter for the Boston Phoenix, the Albany Knickerbocker News, and later an editor with Rolling Stone Magazine. In 1975 he dropped out of corporate journalism to write books, and settled in Saratoga Spring, New York, where he has lived ever since.

Kunstler's popular blog, Clusterf**k Nation, is published every Monday morning at www.kunstler.com and his weekly podcast, The KunstlerCast, is refreshed every Thursday.

Kunstler is also a serious professional painter. His work may be seen at www.kunstler.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 68 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Comment on scene of child performing an appendectomy August 28, 2010

By David Reese

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This long-awaited novel, the sequel to "World Made By Hand," is a riveting read. Mr. Kunstler has always been a fine writer, as manifest in his well-known nonfiction such as "The Geography of Nowhere" and "The Long Emergency." "The Witch of Hebron" is the culmination of Mr. Kunstler's craft as a writer and social critic. The text flows like sweet honey with a lyricism that is breathtaking.

As a physician, there is one scene that particularly resonated with me: a boy, presumably a teenager though I don't believe his age is ever stated, performs an appendectomy under primitive circumstances in a remote farmhouse. Readers may believe that Kunstler has gone over-the-top with this scenario, that it could never happen in real life. Actually, this scene is completely authentic, compelling, and anatomically accurate to the smallest detail.

Could it ever happen, could a child observe surgeries performed by a parent nowadays, and sufficiently often to perform those surgeries by himself? Yes, it can and is happening. I know that for a fact because one of my colleagues often has his son in the operating room with him while operating at a major university hospital. I suspect the child's presence violates hospital rules but that doesn't stop the son from watching his father operate. The son will someday become a surgeon himself, exactly as the boy (Jasper) in Kunstler's imagined world.

There may be more verisimilitude to this scene than even Kunstler imagined when he wrote it.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Future of Trout September 8, 2010

By van eden

Format:Hardcover

It seems novelists aren't writing about the present as much. Perhaps because it takes such a long time to write a novel. Who wants to spend years writing a novel that's irrelevant by the time it's published. In the nineteenth century (think Tolstoy) novelists wrote about the past, because the present was too uneventful. In the twenty-first century writers look to the future because the present is too eventful. For us the present is last week.

The Witch of Hebron imagines a near future following a nuclear attack on Washington D.C. and Los Angeles that plunges American society back into the nineteenth century, where people have do for themselves. Set in the future it is all about the past. In this upside down world computer programmers are civic leaders, car dealers are religious leaders, butchers are heroic hermits. Characters are seen stoically adapting to an agrarian lifestyle with no electricity, no gas for their SUV's, no groceries not produced locally, no TV or radio, no convenience. If you want to get somewhere you have to walk or borrow a horse or mule.

If you find this notion of the future totally ominous, you would be wrong. The story is not about Jasper and his adventures on the road. The main character in this story is our planet slowly healing itself from the excesses of the Industrial Age. It is redolent with sensual and mythic detail. Trout schooling in clear streams. Songbirds singing in the greenery of healthy trees. The air is clean and sweet. And it is quiet. No TV. No traffic. No telephones. Cuisines are simple, aromatic and healthy. There is a strong sense of both solitude and community. Gradually, except for a few gratuitous scenes of rough justice, a feeling grows in the reader that this is not such a bad way to live.

This is an important novel. The country cannot be reminded too often that the age of fossil fuel is over, maybe not next week, but soon. This near future is not something to fear. It is something to await with open arms.

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding follow on, long awaited August 23, 2010

By J. Bartlett

Format:Hardcover

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on an advance copy of "The Witch of Hebron," James Kunstler's sequel to "A World made by Hand."

This has been long awaited. Tore through it over two sleepless nights.

As expected, Mr. Kunstler brings us another marvelous work of fiction and story telling, bringing to vivid life a period that could very well come to pass in our not so distant future.

Those who have read "The Long Emergency," with it's prophetic vision of a civilization that has gotten itself into a corner with its finite energy source, will know exactly what I'm talking about. In that work he detailed where we came from and where we're headed regards our petroleum addiction in a way that was technically detailed, but at the same time entertaining. Kunsler, whose use of edgy, irreverent humor, is the only one I have read on this subject that has pulled it off effectively.

Enter "A World made by Hand," and now it's sequel, "Witch of Hebron." These follow on works take the premise of "Long Emergency" and bring it to life as only fictional story telling can do. In this way they form an essential trilogy that combines both non-fiction and the "close your eyes and watch it unfold" of top shelf story telling.

These works transcend what we call the genre of post-apocalyptic fiction. They take a higher ground. They're based on a future that could be called post-apocalyptic, but at the same time plug straight into that main cable of N. Eastern tale started so long ago by James Finnimore Cooper.

It's easy to feel the chill of a Hudson River fall, hear the strains of music made by hand, see the vivid colors of maples and oaks shedding their foliage while people bring in their harvest the way it was done for centuries...by hand. It's not an easy life, but it also isn't polluted by poisoned food, soul crushing, box like existences awash in electronic, sensory assaults.

At the same time, throw in a dash of the great "mysterious" that has largely been crushed by our commute driven, digital and gas soaked world, as that part of of the human existence needs quiet and an uncluttered environments to breath.

Best read by candlelight, just in time for Halloween. (and clean enough to read out loud because James doesn't need the garish splash of smut so many others seem to require. He's a story teller, not a thrash metal band with a word processor.)

Get them in hard copy as you will read them again and beware of "Lending" them to friends. Like the night spirits, they have a habit of flitting away into the moonlight, never to be seen again.

Kudos to Atlantic Press, by the way, whose quality presentation make them worthy of a place on your bookshelf next to your classics.

The wait begins for number three...