I used to say I knew Jimmy Kunstler when he still had a sense of humor, way back in the day, say late ’70’s, early ’80’s, when his first couple of books were in the category of slapstick comedy. His outlook on humanity was always a bit dour and certainly sardonic, but he used to really crack me up. Then came a long period where he took his social tirades to a point where he became a noted speaker on the perils of peak oil and the evils of suburban sprawl. He made a great living on his soapbox, and via the success of his nonfiction books such as The Long Emergency, and The Geography of Nowhere. Not only do I admire both his writing and speaking success and even agree with most of what he was saying, but all sense of humor seemed lost in his persona as a caustic critic of American culture and lifestyle. The few times I met him in person over the past decade or so, he seemed on a nonstop crusade, never out of character as environmental evangelist.<\/p>\n

Having said that, I can report that the book he wrote in 2008, “World Made By Hand,”
\nnot only blew me away as a cautionary tale, loaded with post-apocalyptic detail, but made me laugh out loud 4 or 5 times in the final 50 pages, even as the story turned grimmer and grimmer. The comic relief was welcome, and surprisingly led to a redemptive, almost upbeat ending. I was pleasantly surprised, and thoroughly engrossed while devouring it over a day and a half in mid-June.<\/p>\n

To local folks, especially those familiar with Greenwich in Washington County (called Union Mills in the novel), and river towns south along the Hudson from there, the book
\nis infused with actual, accurate road descriptions and topographic specifics that may not mean as much to out-of-towners. In an age where cars and trucks and gasoline-fueled vehicles are all but extinct, horse travel, and a lot of walking, is the norm again, as back in the 1800’s. One of the major plot-lines centers around a 3-day trip from Greenwich to Albany along Route 4 through Mechanicville and Waterford, and back– which would be a jaunt of a couple hours in the automotive age we are still, so far, a part of….<\/p>\n

I will not attempt to re-play the plot here, and am not normally a book reviewer, nor do I aspire to be. In fact,though my wife is a prolific reader, the current frenzy of the real estate market coming back to life has left me little time to indulge in novels of any kind in my spare time. But I feel that Saratoga locals and visitors alike should know who Jimmy Kunstler is, and that he has lived hereabouts since the 1970’s– having owned homes in Saratoga Springs, and also resided in Schuylerville and Greenfield at different times in the past two decades.  Used to be I would see him riding his gear-less old-school Schwinn bicycle out Clinton Street to Daniels Road over to Braim, seemingly grunting and sweating not only for cardio exercise, but to emphasize his commitment to disavowing our addiction to car travel, and gas consumption.  <\/p>\n

The fact that struck me about a book with a post-crisis, survivalist theme published in 2008 is that, while global warming seems still an imminent threat, along with the constant spectre of nuclear annihilation, the idea of “peak oil” might seem an overblown worry after the discovery of the Bakken oil fields and other sources under American soil.  Five years later, for better or worse, our dependence on Saudi Arabia and Venezuela may be diminishing, but perhaps this just prolongs the serious fossil-fuel addiction Kunstler has been railing against for 20 years now, and only exacerbates the global warming process which seems to have turned all our weather patterns turbulent.  Perhaps Kunstler’s vision as portrayed in this book is not so much a prophecy as an epic, almost Chaucerian warning about the fragile state of our culture, and it’s a great read in any case.<\/p>\n

                                                                    *<\/p>\n

A word about where I found this cool hardcover tome– I have to deliver company checks to CB Prime Headquarters on Green Island down near Troy on occasion, and instead of taking the Northway in both directions, like to come up through Cohoes on the return trip and see the huge waterfalls near where the famous Cohoes Mastadon was found– at a point on the Hudson River just below where the Mohawk River flows full-bore from the west into the north\/south channel of the mighty Hudson.  The only thing wrong with that route is in driving northwest along the river bed out of Cohoes toward Crescent, with the skanky, overwhelming methane-emissions of the Colonie landfill on your left. (The irony is, in Kunstler’s book of the “future” landfills are actually important places– desperate recycling of discarded goods, metal and wood products especially– as supply depots, as in a third-world country.  But I hadn’t picked up the book yet, so didn’t know that at this point.)<\/p>\n

From there I crossed the Mohawk at Crescent,north up Route 9 through the heart of a suburban belt that would make Kunstler rage, there is little other than consumer-culture franchises and eateries and gas stations, till I reached this plaza up a few miles on the left, across from Snyder’s Restaurant, just above Route 146.   The store called Eastline Books is a place I had always wanted to stop into, but in our gas-fueled chariots we ofter whizz past interesting places, and say “Next time, maybe…”  One day in mid-June, not pressed for time, I spent a luscious half-hour perusing the shelves…a mixture of old and new books in a comfortable little space created by writer\/lawyer\/nurse\/entrepreneur Robyn Ringler, who unfortunately was not there the day I stopped by.  This is exactly the kind of place that has been crowded out of existence by big-box stores– e.g. Border’s and Barnes & Noble which also are now disappearing (other than the-soon-to-open-in-Saratoga Northshire Books!!).  If anyone regionally reading this would, like to see these kinds of places continue to thrive, stop in to Eastline Books, or your own local version of such, and spend some money.  As with buying locally-grown food,you’ll feel better to pick-up your “Culture” and mental stimulation nearby if you shopped on Amazon, you know it.<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Wayne Perras, from Middle Grove, 7\/4\/13<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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