The Long Winter -- not the book I was expecting
First of all, I'm not talking about The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, which is my favorite of the Little House books. This is The Long Winter by John Christopher.
papersky talks about John Christopher as being one of the masters of the "cozy catastrophe," which I guess is like a cozy -- or should that cosy, since it's British? -- mystery, only with more death.
Anyway, The Long Winter, published in 1962, starts in an England where the sun has abruptly damped down and, as a result, the entire country has pretty much frozen over, with sea ice out five miles or so.
What I expected was a book about the people learning to keep calm and carry on -- huddling in groups for warmth, sharing food, stiff upper lip, and all that. Instead, what I got was a book about infidelity, running away to Nigeria, and the Nigerians invading England because, um, they could. Plus lots of visits by the race and sexism fairy.
I'm pretty sure I read the beginning of this book at one point, but I definitely didn't finish it, because the abandonment of England came as a surprise, even though it was foreshadowed on the first page. Possibly book met wall at the original reading. In any case, I can't really recommended this except as a historical piece, though it did possess the "I want to keep reading this" magic that kept me going until I finished it this time around.
papersky talks about John Christopher as being one of the masters of the "cozy catastrophe," which I guess is like a cozy -- or should that cosy, since it's British? -- mystery, only with more death.
Anyway, The Long Winter, published in 1962, starts in an England where the sun has abruptly damped down and, as a result, the entire country has pretty much frozen over, with sea ice out five miles or so.
What I expected was a book about the people learning to keep calm and carry on -- huddling in groups for warmth, sharing food, stiff upper lip, and all that. Instead, what I got was a book about infidelity, running away to Nigeria, and the Nigerians invading England because, um, they could. Plus lots of visits by the race and sexism fairy.
I'm pretty sure I read the beginning of this book at one point, but I definitely didn't finish it, because the abandonment of England came as a surprise, even though it was foreshadowed on the first page. Possibly book met wall at the original reading. In any case, I can't really recommended this except as a historical piece, though it did possess the "I want to keep reading this" magic that kept me going until I finished it this time around.