The City, Not Long After

I recently read Station Eleven and (unlike most of the time when I read post-apocalpytic books) was sorry when I reached to the end, because i wanted to read more. I'm so happy to have found The City, Not Long After, because it gave me the continuation of the tough, but cautioiusly optimistic and occasionally beautiful post-apocapytic world that I wanted. (The CIty, Not Long After came out 30 years before Station Eleven, and they are certainly distinguishable, but they make for great spiritual - and to some degree - aesthetic and philosophical companions.) The City, Not Long After doesn't dwell as much on what life was like before the society-ending pandemic (which actually helps preserve the timeless feeling of the novel - it feels like it could have been written any time in the past 50 years.) Where it spends most of its time - delightfully - is describing the ways that artists and free thinkers seized the opportunities provided by the dismantling of society and the raw materials left abandoned in the city to create art. So many apocalpytic novels focus just on violence or the mechanics of survival, that it's always gratifying and inspiring to read a story that presents the idea that no only could people be FINE afer an apocalpyse (read: not descended into cannibalism and tyranny) but actually find ways to thrive in an altered world. The City, Not Long After doesn't shy away from violence and loss, but it presents a compelling story that maybe violence and loss and mere survival wouldn't be the only features of a post-apocalpytic world. Maybe humans could not only find a way to live in peaceful community, but even engage in projects as grandiose and joyfully pointless as repaining the Golden Gate Bridge blue. Granted, this novel is, of course, literally a fantasy - Murphy deftly weaves in ghosts, angels, and almost-but-not-quite-talking animals - but one that nevertheless feels richly and plausbly imagined. in a world that has now experienced/is experiencing a global pandemic, this book is a fairy tale that acted as a balm (even if a temporary one) to my worst fears for the future. Highly recommend.