And yet young people like these doctors were willing to stand in the way of the most fatal force that nature has to offer.”, Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Science Fiction (2020). The "hero" was a complete idiot. All through the book there was this question of did the Russians cause this epidemic. Hello readers -- I rarely give 5 stars to a fiction book but this one completely blew me away! "Oh, we are living a dystopian reality!" This book was not better than the others I have read, but it’s huge advantage is it’s timeliness. “If you paid any attention to the role of disease in human affairs, you’d know the danger we’re in. Keep in mind this was written before Covid, and the parallels are beyond astonishing. They remind me of when I read a lot of Robin Cook, Michael Crichton, etc. Neither man understands the difference between a vaccine and treatment or has the slightest comprehension of biological science. Roxane Gay found this novel problematic & poorly written, but as it happens, I couldn’t get through Bad Feminist despite being one myself because she comes off as having such a giant chip on her shoulder she reminds me of my obese abused & spiteful mother too much, so like, whatever, Roxane. I am writing this review in New York City in March, under a state of emergency, as the National Guard is cordoning off parts of New Rochelle, and the city’s streets and subways are emptying of people. I received the manuscript to review in early February, before the coronavirus triggered a world panic. A page-turner that has the earmarks of an instant bestseller. Makes one wonder why the U.S. wasn’t more prepared if all this inform. What makes Lawrence Wright’s “The End of October” exceptional is the same quality that elevated Defoe’s work: deep, thorough research. And yet, the story remains plausible. Through the undeveloped plot and lightweight characters, he illustrates how a pandemic can start a domino effect and then how society goes to hell in a hand basket. I was overcome with so many emotions as I read this and I think it is one that every sentient being on the planet cannot afford to miss this year. Wright’s latest novel will provide you with the history of both. Want to know even more about viruses and pandemics? Disease was more arbitrary than terrorism. Most advance copies of books include a letter from the editor or publicist explaining what's so great about the book. I'll stop there, no spoilers. Wright does not spare the reader. I’ve read a lot of escaped-killer-virus books, but I never thought I would be living inside one. It packs a punch and will resonate with many readers as its characters go through the worry and anxiety of a flu-like virus that possibly begins in Indonesia. I read the first quarter and then skimmed to the end. This book was fast paced and entertaining and the author obviously did a lot of research before writing it. . The End of October is the perfect novel for a long airplane flight or a beach chair. This book was fast paced and entertaining and the author obviously did a lot of research before writing it. See all 15 questions about The End of October…, The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus, Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance, Proustitute (somewhat here, somewhat there), Lisa (not getting friends updates) Vegan, Question 8 - Kongoli vs. Spanish Flu (1918), 27 New Dystopian Novels for Your Post-Apocalyptic Reading List. The End of October opens in Geneva on some unspecified date (the book’s biggest flaw is the lack of an actual timeline building toward “the end of October”). Wright is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Looming Tower” and other nonfiction books, and here he applies the magisterial force of his reporting skills into spinning a novel of pestilence, war and social collapse that, given the current pandemic, cuts exceedingly close to the bone. The End of October is a one-of-a-kind thriller steeped in real-life political and scientific implications, filled with the insight that has been the hallmark of Wright’s acclaimed nonfiction and the full-tilt narrative suspense that only the best fiction can offer. Like “Plague Year,” much of the book not only reads like nonfiction, it is nonfiction: Wright weaves into the book accounts of historical epidemics, descriptions of Russian cyber- and biowarfare capabilities, the story of the 1803 attempt to save the New World from smallpox, and other curious nonfiction set pieces. Who could have guessed that the world would be suffering from a major pandemic at just the time that Wright’s book was published? . The End of October is the perfect novel for a long airplane flight or a beach chair. As long as the novel sticks to the pandemic plot-line, the book is excellent. An eerily prescient novel about a devastating virus that begins in Asia before going global . You've heard it, you may have even said it. A page-turner that has the earmarks of an instant bestseller." Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. I’ve read a lot of escaped-killer-virus books, but I never thought I would be living inside one. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2020 - Fiction - 400 pages. This one includes a letter from the author that starts: Let's give credit where credit is due. . We don’t have the time or resources now to do anything other than fight this disease. Henry, in my reading mind I pictured Fauci, is the man in charge, trying to find a cure. “The End of October” anticipated much of what is happening here and now. 4.5 rounded down, since I’m sparing with 5-star ratings. I found the ending puzzling. Lawrence Wright. Lawrence Wright’s second novel, “The End of October,” is one of these. . PUBLISHERS WEEKLY MAR 9, 2020 the end of october by Lawrence Wright ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 12, 2020 As a lethal virus of unknown origin ravages huge swaths of the planet, legendary American disease fighter Henry Parsons heads up increasingly hopeless attempts to control it. To say that it is prescient and timely is an understatement. Oh man, this could have easily been one of my favorite books of the year. There is a subplot, one as frightening if not more so, the shutdown if everything we count on to make our country run. The main plotline centers on an epidemiologist, his family and his Odysseus-like return home from the biological battleground. … As much as possible, we need to urge people to shelter in place.” He goes on to list what should be done: “borders closed, sports and entertainment facilities shuttered, nonemergency cases discharged from hospitals, schools closed, public meetings postponed.”. The ending was abrupt and frankly I don't know what the conclusion was. He won the Pulitzer for non-fiction for his examination of Al-Qaed. 3.5 Scared the bejesus out of me. The propulsive plot is counterweighted with rigorous, gracefully presented context … Some sections are excruciatingly detailed and then other times the story seems to skip over major events. There are, however, significant differences between the real and fictional pandemics. But it wasn’t to be. 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