Book: The End of October
I took a digital sabbath yesterday. I ended up doing three things.
Read The End of October by Lawrence WrightTook a napWatched three episodes of Breaking BadI feel so much better than I did at the end of the day Friday. After I finish this blog post, Iâm going to participate in the Emerge Family Virtual 5k.
The End of October was intense. Itâs the story of a modern day pandemic. Itâs fiction, but deeply researched. I have no idea how much was modified to suit the actual reality, but given the time frame for publishing most books, my guess is ânot that much.â
I was shocked by how close the ramp-up was to what has actually happened during the Covid crisis. The pandemic movies have similar ramp-ups, but other than Contagion have happy Hollywood endings. In contrast, many books do not. There is no happy ending in The End of October.
Wright did an amazing job of showing the collision of politics and science, economics and health, and top-down control vs. distributed collaboration. Some authors spend too much time âtelling.â Wright just used his story to show, and show, and show.
We are still early on in the Covid-19 pandemic â probably 25% of the way through Wrightâs book. The darkness in the last 75% is a fundamental warning for us in one way this can go. While Iâm ultimately optimistic, Iâm not at all comfortable with or confident in much of anything right now.
The End of October is a dose of heavy medicine for anyone who thinks âthis is no big dealâ or âthis is all overâ or âthis is heading on a good path that canât be derailed.â Iâm not suggesting any of these things are true or false, but rather recommending the book as perspective on the bad path that might be in front of us.
Itâs a beautiful day in Colorado. The animals are everywhere, enjoying spring. Amy and I are in our pajamas, experiencing a typical Sunday morning. But, we are aware that the overall context we are living in is very different than what we are used to.
My next book is The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History