A Hundred Little Pieces on the End of the World
“A brilliantly written, deeply thoughtful, and even humorous book about a very dark topic. I hope civilization will last long enough for it to be published for all to enjoy and contemplate.”
—Paul R. Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb
Written with clarity, tenacity, humor, and warmth, A Hundred Little Pieces on the End of the World attempts to find tolerable ethical positions in the face of barely tolerable events—and the real possibility of an intolerable future. It is a compelling, surprising, disturbing, and highly literate work of reportage and contemplation. It is both a collection of gentle-spirited wisdom and a rumination on ruin, as if distilled in equal measure from the spirits of Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.
Through these ten essays, each further broken into ten smaller pieces, Rember examines the practical and ethical dilemmas of climate change, population, resource depletion, and mass extinction. At the same time, he never forgets those improbable connections between human beings that lead to moments of joy, empathy, and grace.
Awards
A Hundred Little Pieces on the End of the World received an Honorable Mention for the 2020 Idaho Book of the Year Awards from the Idaho Library Association.
Reviews
William Deresiewicz, author of Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life
“The writer’s job description runs to three words: tell the truth. John Rember is a writer. He tells, unflinchingly, the truth about our looming civilizational collapse. He allows us no illusions, no evasions, no sentimentalities. Rember lives in central Idaho among survivalists who stock their bunkers with ammo and cheese. He has preferred a different form of preparation, storing his mind with logic, wisdom, humility, and compassion—provisions he offers his readers in prose of exemplary lucidity and force.”
Tim Sandlin, author of Skipped Parts: A Novel and Honey Don’t
“Most books explaining why the world is about to end are not fun to read. They tend to earnest pretention, self-righteous diatribe. John Rember has written a book that is not only entertaining and fun to read, but it matters. His observations are original and surprising. He writes with a scalpel. Buy it, read it. You’ll be a better person.”
Paul Kingsnorth, cofounder of the Dark Mountain Project and author of Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist and Other Essays
“John Rember’s perspective on the possibly-soon-to-be-end-times is like nothing I have quite read before. It is not often that a writer effectively combines black humor with seriousness of intent, light touches with heavy themes, a tender sensibility with a bleak global perspective. This book is not trying to sell you anything. It is true, real, and uniquely visionary.”
Catherine Ingram, author of A Crack in Everything
“Elegantly written, sparkling with brave insights and true stories about our precarious time in history, A Hundred Little Pieces on the End of the World kept me up for two nights running. I already want to read it again.”
Publishers Weekly
“Rember meditates on finding hope in the face of ecological catastrophe in this thoughtful collection. In the end, Rember finds the most promising and assuring model for morality to be a small-scale one focused on ‘love, kindness, empathy, caring’ toward loved ones. Rember’s sometimes dark, sometimes humorous book of reflections dispenses hard-earned wisdom on a world in crisis.”
Matt Sutherland, Foreword Reviews
”John Rember's A Hundred Little Pieces on the End of the World is a savage attack on complacency and idleness. If you want to be grabbed by the collar and told to pay attention, be better, think harder, Rember's the guy for you.”
Jeremy, on Goodreads (5 stars)
“A Hundred Little Pieces on the End of the World is thought-provoking, reflective, and forthright. You might not like the message, but the messenger did his due diligence with more compassion and insight and humor than might have been expected. … [It’s] that freak book that actually lives up to its descriptive copy: ‘a collection of gentle-spirited wisdom and a rumination on ruin, as if distilled in equal measure from the spirits of Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It and Cormac McCarthy's The Road.’”
Wary Tarry, on Amazon (5 stars)
“Rember leavens a book about the end of the world with humor that doesn’t lie but still makes you feel better. It is, at its heart, a love story between John and his wife, Julie. At its edges it’s his ongoing affair with truth. Overall it’s how he ‘abides and endures’ and, in the end, thrives. It is cerebral, so dive in, head first. Rember’s waters are deep enough and the temperature is perfect, like a warm bath that makes you grateful you are not alone in (the end of) this world.”