Reviews and Comments

There are many reviews online for this novel, and they’re all true. All of them! The book is so much that one can say one thousand and one things about it and be correct. A masterpiece, a bloated wreck, amazing, insufferable, a meditation on revenge/paradoxes/jealousy, etc. I can only add my personal reading experience. Certainly your mileage will vary.



The erudition and vocabulary must be mentioned, because it is likely far beyond anything you have seen in a modern novel. At first it excited me, until I realized that Theroux doesn't use these elements to better the novel per se—he flings them at you, relentlessly, until you don't really care to look things up anymore. The novel is a unique mashup of structures and styles, nodding to authors both recent and thousands of years old. Familiarity with Latin and Greek roots will serve you well, though mostly the strange words are understandable in context.

He mocks the American South, Protestants, college students, college faculty...it's like being near a wildly funny person at a party, whom you eventually have to shy away from, because you realize that they're not just being silly—they really are full of anger, and hate most everyone and everything. I started to get a John Cleese-after-three-gimlets vibe. The views are reflected somewhat in the author’s own statements. In recent interviews, Theroux has denounced all feminist writing, modern words like "Twitter" or phrases like "there you go," and the current level of “political correctness.” Grumpy, acerbic, superior—yeah, you’re funny, but. Do we get anywhere just by hating everything?

It's clear from reading interviews that Theroux is rather complicated–very progressive on many issues, musty on many others. I eventually found trying to figure him out tiresome and imagine he is as complicated as this book. He is Catholic, and speaks often of grace, but I see a lot of church and little Christ in his statements. 

From a 2013 interview:



[interviewer] The self that emerges from your writings is, in many ways, an anachronistic one, even a reactionary one: devoutly Catholic, decidedly misogynistic if not misanthropic, elitist if not aristocratic, and highly opinionated. Would you say this is a fair deduction?

[Theroux]: […] “no man ever rose to any degree of perfection but through obstinacy and an inveterate resolution against the stream of mankind.” 



Well…no thanks.

I also found the many long sections of philosophizing rather dry. Theroux has his characters argue points by quoting hundreds (thousands?) of books, historical figures, etc. But it's all just extremely elaborate sandcastle building. St. John of Chrysotomato replied to Katerina the Darkest that Lord Tennyvinne believed Abu Salaami to be incorrect about the Spirits of Hate which enter a soul through the prayers of...and on and on. In a recent interview, Theroux has said that he is feeling that the world of the mind is becoming more real or satisfying to him than actual human interactions. Much in these sections feels like Theroux is creating these castles for himself to reside in, actually doing his living by researching and writing all of it, rather than working toward a Truth.

The love story that runs through the book is quite compelling and believable.

I have typed a lot because this book and author deserve it. A wild experience! Marvel you must; enjoy if you can. Or just drive on by.

This is a slim volume and only an intro to these topics, but a welcome addition to Utopian Socialism nonetheless. The main takeaways are in the summary—vegetarianism/veganism, renewables, rewilding, etc. are needed to keep global warming down and to preserve the maximum number of species, while also keeping humans happy and healthy. It advocates using state-of-the-art planning within a global socialist structure to give humans a range of options for achieving this.

The book takes healthy swings at Marxist Prometheanism, neoliberal market worship, Malthusian dystopiansm, and dangerous geoengineering gambits. I found the section on "in natura" economics fascinating and will read more on this, which is one of the main goals of the authors—to spark further learning on the topics herein.

The authors trace one of the more hopeful and plausible pathways humanity could take. More grounded than solar punk, more developed than cottagecore, and incomparably better than any dystopia. It presupposes a global socialist revolution of some sort, but it’s not the goal of the authors to tell us “how” to achieve this future, but rather to lay out some data and offer tools to help us plot a course.



There is an attendant game, which simulates the choices and challenges that any planner would face in trying to balance all of the inputs and outputs. Definitely play it! Be advised that the book is much more hopeful of a vibe; the game is quite difficult to win on the first try. Find it here: play.half.earth/



Thinking about the land use pressure applied by raising livestock made me commit to getting closer to vegetarianism. As soon as I closed the book I jumped up to research vegetarian recipes and started discussing personal egg and cheese quotas with my wife. So, good job authors!



4 stars—glad I read it, would happily recommend it to the right people, would read more by these authors and on these topics

An important book for those interested in very early American literature, the American Revolution, or New England & Mid-Atlantic history. For a reader not motivated by these concerns, the book will likely be interesting in part.

The phrase and sentence constructions seem perfectly understandable while also giving off the piquant aroma of the past. This book holds the earliest recorded instance of "Indian summer" and great, now-rare words like limitrophe, Pennamites, patibulary, cacoëthes, myrmidons, and more. Where we'd say "Cool your jets," a character here tells another to "Lower your top-gallants"!

In its particulars, the author presents a curious mix of reports on soil conditions, how Nantucketers bring in whales, stories of tricking bees into revealing their hives, religious musings, and the difficulties of keeping a farm going. Taken as a work in whole, the tone slides from optimistic to quite bitter.

Work hard on your farm, leave people alone, all will be great, the author believes at first. But all was not great. We read of the horror of slavery (specifically as experienced in the South), the terror of frontier life during warfare with Indians, and growing friction between royalists and revolutionaries. The first book ends in the author’s heartbreaking fantasy about running off to a friendly Indian tribe, mixing his and their cultures to the enjoyment of all, existing out of the conflict zone, out of time, it almost seems. The second book ends with an extremely bleak and sarcastic play about the new Americans abusing (to state it lightly) citizens with any Tory sympathies.

A book of broken hopes, naiveté dashed, and violence—between individuals, entire nations, and everything in-between.


3 stars—more glad I read it than not; would recommend to the right person but not generally.