Interesting Cold War apocalypse novel. What made the book stand out to me, in addition to its premise, was its depiction of the main character. He's unlikable from the start, and remains that way, but I still found myself rooting for him and respecting him as a survivor. His personal journey is fascinating and kept me turning the pages. It's a well-written novel also, with fine atmosphere. ( )

I almost didn't make it through the first chapter of this one, he protagonist is such an unlikable jerk, and the story seems not very promising, The guy doesn't get any more likable, but the story gets better, moving sometimes in fits and starts, jumping months, then years, sometimes a little jarringly, but it kept me interested to the end, which is an open-ended nightmare. Not the best of its kind but worth the two hours or so it takes to read it. ( )

A decent story, if you can ignore the narrator's weird ideas about women. ( )

The cover of the Dell paperback says "A Shocking, Realistic Novel of Tomorrow." Of course, paperbacks always said things like that, especially in 1952. But in this case the cover is right. This post-apocalyptic odyssey has more in common with Cormac McCarthy's The Road than you would expect. The US is sundered in two by an A-bomb + plague attack on the eastern US. The western half survives by shooting anyone who tries to cross the Mississippi from the eastern half. The book follows the development of Gary, who wakes from a major binge to find his world has ended, and traces the steps he takes to survive in the world that follows. While A-bomb apocalypses were rife in the fiction and movies of the 1950's, the A-bomb itself is very much incidental here. Plague, not radiation, drives the plot. Warning: the opening scene, where Gary awakes post-attack, is unconvincing, and, confusingly, repeated almost verbatim at the beginning of Chapter 6. Be patient. Once Gary stops observing and begins acting, the novel becomes sure-footed and very effective. ( )