Sigrid Nunez’s latest novel, Salvation City, revolves around a deadly flu pandemic that kills millions in the U.S. and around the world. Cole, a teenager whose parents die in the plague, finds himself adopted by a fundamentalist religious couple. Cole, also a plague victim, recovers with some memory problems. As Cole tries to adjust to his new parents and a whole new post-plague world, the past starts to exert its power as his memory slowly returns. I found Salvation City reminiscent of post-nuclear holocaust novels of the 1950s. This book could also have been marketed as a Young Adult novel. GRADE: B
Well, after reading her last one I am certainly willing to give this one a try, and I like the idea of the post-apocalytic setting.
SALVATION CITY isn’t as grim as THE ROAD, Jeff. But the pandemic wrecks havoc across the world especially in the U.S.
I think I need a break from these books however well-written. A PRAYER FOR THE DYING by Stewart O’Nan is my favorite and boy, was that sad.
SALVATION CITY isn’t sad, Patti. But confronting the aftermath of a world-wide epidemic involves plenty drama.
I took a break from post-pandemic, post nuclear, post-world disaster books about 40 years ago and am happy to let that continue. I liked some of them then – A Canticle for Leibowicz, Ellison’s short story “A Boy and HIs Dog” – except for the ending, so maybe I didn’t like that one after all. On the Beach, etc. but it’s a trope that bores me any more and this, with the fundamentalist angle sounds especially grim and unpleasant. It’s not that I want nothing but happy-happy-joy-joy, but grim, dark, pain-filled, suffering-laden books full of doom and despair don’t interest me.
These things go in cycles, Rick. SALVATION CITY could have been written in the 1950s with A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ. I’m seeing more and more post-catastrophe fiction being published now.
My favorite is still King’s THE STAND.
THE STAND has to be in the Top Ten of POST-DISASTER novels, Jeff.