The End of October, Lawrence Wright, author, Mark Bramhall, narrator
Henry Parsons is a scientist at a medical conference. He is asked to investigate the strange outbreak of a fast-spreading virus, with a very high and consequential mortality rate, in a gay internment camp in Indonesia. He must find out if it can spread into the community at large, if it comes from outside a lab, is a biological weapon, or is the result of an accidental lab release. He will investigate and find out if it is spread human to human or from animal, fish or insect, etc., to other humans as it jumped from a particular species. Is it manmade, does it occur naturally in science, does it affect all victims in the same way? Do some survive, and if so why? Instead of returning home to his wife Jill, and children Helen and Teddy, he answers the call of scientist when she asks him to look into these deaths that have been so quietly and easily dismissed, in order to protect the fragile economy of Indonesia.
What follows is a tale of espionage, social conflict, as well as personal and government corruption, that is sometimes over the top, as Henry travels the globe to pursue his research into a devastating virus that is endangering the entire world. He is depicted as a man with a physical disability who somehow manages to overcome and survive many disasters like bombings in Saudi Arabia, quarantines in Indonesia and the logistics of getting around when transportation stops. He manages to travel safely, though others more fit and able, cannot. Fossil fuel and electric power is non-existent for most, and the internet and cell service no longer operate, still, he manages to function and survive. Orphans are living on the street, gangs proliferate and the government and military, while still operating, are in a shambles. Many things will have to be rebuilt from the bottom up.
The book is thoroughly researched with the history of previous pandemics and catastrophes well-covered. For example, lost civilizations and the extinction of dinosaurs, are some of the things that are documented. Those who were involved in saving nations and people, studying enigmas and providing solutions are most definitely real and worth following up for more information. In addition to discussing the use of vaccines and other scientific treatments, he includes the dangerous side effects, not only of the drugs but of the research on them.
The book highlights the conditions that make pandemics arise, the frequency with which they arise, the reaction to them and the study of them and their causes. Is it a new virus or an old one, a known or unknown pathogen? Scientists often look with a cold eye at subjects which deeply and negatively affect society, in their need to do research. They ignore the possible death and destruction that might follow the outbreak of an unknown disease or novel virus resulting from their experiments and desire to study or create them. The author also includes an espionage angle in this book, along with the human one, that looks to protect society with vaccines and medications, indicating that our enemies may be engaging in biological research aimed at limiting the earth’s population or gaining ascendancy on the world stage. People, governments and corporations are all capable of engaging in greed, selfishness and cruelty to promote their own corrupt behavior and dreams of world leadership and control. Negative consequences are often dismissed by those involved, since those engaging in these disdainful behaviors, by definition, are often exempt from the results of their criminality and barbaric designs. They always have a failsafe option.
So, as the author describes how those in charge of dealing with an unexpected and large outbreak of an unknown disease, capable of killing millions, if not wiping out the entire population, engage in behavior to delay a response because of optics or how it might affect the economy or tourism of their countries, we the readers watch as the world descends into chaos and the social structure begins to unravel. Ensuing collapses of governments, bodies piling up in the morgue, hospitals being overrun, do not concern them. They do not think of the what happens when all we depend upon in society begins to fail. People will die or panic, no one will work, no one will provide food, supermarkets will cease to service us, power grids will fail, starvation will ensue, as well as other diseases since medication, doctors, hospitals and other caregivers will disappear, as well banks and other industries that provide the services we depend upon to survive. Schools will close, millions will die leaving their children alone and uncared for, and society will regress.
This novel is written with an eye to the future, and is also about the consequences of the actions of unscrupulous scientists, politicians and corporate leaders, at the expense of ordinary people who do not fare as well. I don’t believe that the author realized, at the time he began writing, just how prescient his novel would be; now, however, in the world we have all experienced, since its publication, he, and we his readers, are well aware of how right on target his book seemed to be. However there are some ideas that I found to be questionable.
Wright seems to subtly place the blame for any debacle associated with the pandemic on the right side of the political spectrum. He refers to the Washington Post and the idea that regular people like those working for that publication, suffered more, and did not survive as well as the elites. Several negative views about Jews are also presented in the book. Why the attention to Jews, and also Christians, surviving his imagined pandemic at the expense of others. Was it meant to be political in nature? His view of Islam seems to be largely peaceful with the Koran featured as one of the few things Henry still possesses, in the end. Since I am a Jew, I felt uncomfortable with the implication of some of the narrative. He includes a Russian Jewish woman, Tildy, who dreams of the assassination of Russia’s leader or even its citizens, as she imagines the country’s destruction. When our own real and recent pandemic is analyzed, and the consequences are examined, we will see that the blame for much of the negative results of how we fared, may actually be placed squarely on the broad shoulders of those that supported policies regarding vaccine mandates, school closings and the shutting down of economies entirely, ideas pushed by certain politicians, certain corporations and by messages from scientists, each of them possibly out only for themselves regarding profit and fame. I hope we have a more positive outcome than the one in the book, if we have to face another pandemic.