The Harrows of Spring: A World Made by Hand Novel

by James Howard Kunstler

Overview

From the renowned social critic, energy expert, and bestselling author James Howard Kunstler, The Harrows of Spring concludes the quartet of his extraordinary World Made By Hand novels, set in an American future of economic and political collapse, where electricity, automobiles, and the familiar social structures of the “old times” are a misty memory.

In the little upstate New York town of Union Grove, springtime is a most difficult season, known as “the six weeks want,” when fresh food is scarce and winter stores have dwindled. Young Daniel Earle returns from his haunting travels around what is left of the United States intent on resurrecting the town newspaper. He is also recruited by the town trustees to help revive the Hudson River trade route shut down peevishly by the local grandee, planter Stephen Bullock. Meanwhile, a menacing gang of Social Justice Warriors styling themselves as agents of the Berkshire People’s Republic appear one evening camped on the outskirts of town. Their leaders are the imposing Amazonian beauty Flame Aurora Greengrass and the charismatic grifter Sylvester “Buddy” Goodfriend, progressive to a fault in their politics and determined to extract whatever tribute they can from the people of Union Grove.

Romance, politics, bunko, violence, and family tragedy swirl through the thrilling finale to Kunstler’s bestselling series. The Harrows of Spring is a powerful, heart-wrenching, and satisfying conclusion to this poignant history of the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802126818
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	07/11/2017
Series:	World Made by Hand Novels
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	527,764
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

James Howard Kunstler is the author of thirteen novels, including World Made by Hand, The Witch of Hebron, A History of the Future, and five nonfiction books, including The Long Emergency, Too Much Magic, and The Geography of Nowhere. He has participated in TED conferences and lectured at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, MIT, and many other colleges, and regularly appears before professional organizations across the country. He lives in upstate New York.

Editorial Reviews

08/22/2016
Kunstler returns to his fictional post-oil world in this sequel to World Made By Hand. This time he focuses on the inhabitants of Union Grove, N. Y., who have decided to live a simpler, agrarian way of life after civilization was destroyed by its own decadence. It is a constant struggle to pool resources and the novel begins with Union Grove in the scant season between winter and spring, "the six weeks want." Robert, the ad-hoc mayor, is supporting his girlfriend through her grief over her daughter's sudden death. The town doctor's existential crisis has morphed into drug and alcohol addiction. And one of the few well-supplied farmers has resorted to nailing dead bandits to trees to ward off future attacks. Supplies and morale are low when members of the self-proclaimed Berkshires People's Republic waltz into town, singing "This Land Is Your Land." Their talk of a socialist federation is revealed to be a protection racket: when not grandstanding about privilege and diversity, the "Berkies" kill cattle and burn down barns. They're assisted by a band of pillagers and a misanthropic sniper. These caricatures are too inelegant to be satire, and not pointed enough to be parody. Fans of Kunstler's work might enjoy the ongoing saga of Union Grove; new readers will find it hard to jump in. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Harrows of Spring:

“A deliberate and suspenseful tale spiked with suffering and violence, rough justice and love . . . A slyly folksy, caustically hilarious, unabashedly proselytizing, and affecting finale in a keenly provocative saga.”—Booklist

“The fourth and final volume in a series of visionary novels begun with cult-favorite, 70,000-copy-selling World Made by Hand. Things are stirring in Union Grove, an upstate New York town in a future that feels much like the 19th century.”—Library Journal

“The book’s reflection of America has a kind of fun-house mirror effect in producing scenes that echo a distant American past while speaking in a contemporary tongue . . . An entertaining . . . account of an American society reinventing itself in the wake of a terrorist attack.”—Kirkus Reviews

“To my mind, the mark of a great book is when a reader starts to savor each and every page as the end draws near . . . James Howard Kunstler achieves this greatness not only in The Harrows of Spring but in his entire ‘World Made by Hand’ series . . . I am going to miss this series of four books as much as any in recent memory . . . My reading life has been filled with many memorable books, but I do so envy any reader who gets to sit down with Kunstler’s series of books for the very first time.”—Fredericksburg.com

Praise for the World Made by Hand series:

“Far from a typical postapocalyptic novel. It caters neither to a pseudo-morbid nor faddishly slick vision of the future. Though grim with portent, it is ultimately, as Camus’s novel The Plague, an impassioned and invigorating tale whose ultimate message is one of hope, not despair.”—San Francisco Chronicle on World Made by Hand

“The verisimilitude of Kunstler’s world leads me to think the future is Union Grove. Thirty years from now, it will be interesting to see if that little town seems excessively sad, richly luxurious or spot on. But for now, I’m hedging my bets. Where I Live, one block east of ground zero, I’ve started keeping a compost bin and am thinking about adding a micro wind generator. Two blocks south, the damaged former Deutsche Bank building comes down floor by floor. To the north, the Freedom Tower has just emerged aboveground and may one day be full of investment bankers. Recently, though, I’ve started looking at that plot through Kunstler’s eyes. It gets good sunlight, and it occurs to me it would make a hell of a bean field.”—The New York Times Book Review on World Made by Hand

“Chronicles the aftereffects of the collapse of our technological society in the near future . . . Kunstler’s storytelling talents are in evidence here. …Kunstler has punctuated the nightmarish scenario of his novel with . . . poignant moments where hope and despair vie for dominance of the human spirit.”—The Seattle Times on World Made by Hand

“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 on The Witch of Hebron

“Kunstler offers a sharply cautionary tale, conjuring up bizarre characters who would be right at home in the scariest haunted houses. . . . Kunstler excels at writing lyric passages about nature . . . His acute pessimism about the future coexists with his faith in the human instinct to survive and adapt . . . [and] he demonstrates that the human penchant for storytelling is unlikely ever to become extinct so long as a single human being has breath enough to speak and strength enough to write.”—America Magazine on The Witch of Hebron

"What's after Armageddon? No government, no laws, no infrastructure, no oil, no industry....and sometimes a sense of relief. In James Howard Kunstler's richly imagined World Made by Hand, the bone-weary denizens of Union Grove (with its echo of Our Town's Grover's Corners) cope with everything from mercenary thugs to religious extremists, yet manage to plant a few seeds of human decency that bear fruit."— O Magazine on World Made by Hand

“One pitfall in painting a convincing picture of the future is forgetting all the small ways in which life would differ if big changes swept in. Kunstler avoids it, and his catalog of such finer points is a subtle, continuing pleasure.”—The Boston Globe on World Made by Hand

From the Publisher

02/15/2016
Noted for his work on the energy crisis—he's given many TED Talks and was profiled in The New Yorker—Kunstler offers the fourth and final volume in a series of visionary novels begun with cult-favorite, 70,000-copy-selling World Made by Hand. In Union Grove, an upstate New York town in a future that feels like the 19th century, representatives of a crusading antiestablishment group arrive even as a local plantation owner closes down the all-important Hudson River trade route.

Library Journal

2016-05-24
This fourth and final installment of Kunstler's speculative World Made by Hand series envisions a post-apocalyptic America struggling to put itself back together through a fractious convergence of political, ideological, and religious forces.As spring approaches, the upstate New York town of Union Grove is facing its usual shortage of food, what with the trade route to Albany having been blocked by all-powerful, feudal-minded landowner Stephen Bullock. And there are even more crucial needs, such as a vaccine to save the 8-year-old daughter of town mayor Robert Earle's girlfriend from tetanus (his wife died of encephalitis)—and more sperm-bearers to repopulate the area. Such is the shortage of men that physically endowed movement leader Flame Aurora Greengrass picks up Elam, a none-too-bright war veteran, in a bar. (Her father, Glen Ethan Greengrass, one-time public radio personality, founded the superliberal, all-inclusive, anti-establishment Berkshire People's Republic.) Though marauding gangs lurk outside of town, ready to do in innocent people—not to mention innocent cows—there is relatively little violence here. Attention is paid to yeoman efforts by Robert's son Daniel to start a newspaper, with Karen Grolsch, the "duck boss" at a local farm, as his aspiring reporter. The book's reflection of America has a kind of fun-house mirror effect in producing scenes that echo a distant American past while speaking in a contemporary tongue. "The USA is toast," utters one nonbeliever. There are plentiful pop cultural references—including The Big Lebowski, Pete Seeger, and Meet the Press. "We don't have any use for Jesus," says Flame. "We're not in the twelfth century."Having another go at concepts and themes he explored in previous books, Kunstler delivers an entertaining if not overly captivating account of an American society reinventing itself in the wake of a terrorist attack.

Kirkus Reviews