I’ve now looked up other books by John Christopher originally published many years ago, and have discovered that his most well known series, a trilogy for young readers, The Tripods, has been re-issued recently. I suspect that as the Custance family discovers, civilization is stripped away pretty quickly when it really does come to kill – or be killed. But it did stay with me – and reading it now as not only a parent, but also a grandparent, I think very differently about how I might behave in order to protect my own family. How would we each behave if we could survive only by taking the life of another? When I first read this book I did not have children – I don’t know how I felt about survival, I simply read it for entertainment. The introduction, which I read after reading the novel and recommend you do the same, compares The Death of Grass to The Lord of the Flies. What follows is a difficult journey, involving horrific decisions taken to protect the families and those who join them along the way. When the fear of famine becomes alarming, John and his family, encouraged by a family friend, make the decision to leave London and head for the farm, knowing the valley can support other crops and is situated so that it can be protected against intruders. David inherited the farm while John became an engineer in London. We have two brothers, John and David Custance, who grew up visiting their grandfather’s farm in a secluded valley in northern England. Beginning in China and spreading to Europe and the British Isles there is soon a fear of famine as the virus rapidly kills the crops. Re-reading this book I was very struck by the similarity to The Rule of Thre3, and realize there are only so many variations on a theme – there is a threat to human life by something that has happened to the world, in this case a virus that has killed all plants in the grain family.
I discovered the John Christopher novel has been re-titled The Death of Grass and re-issued as a Penguin modern classic.
0 kommentar(er)
