I accepted an invitation to read this book and give a review because I was intrigued by the cover combined with the title – Abandon Us. The classic view of the post-ap and the red communist flag. Wow, I thought. Now everyone is hearing the phrase of Rosa Luxembourg, which is so unpleasant to hear that we diligently ignore it – socialism or barbarism.
I expected ideological wars, flashbacks, perhaps to a peaceful past. Like, you know, the ruins after civilization, as we can see it now. Maybe even something sacred, something like all the creators of narratives about Chernobyl are helplessly trying to write out (all stories on this topic are stupid. Just all of them.)
But no, the book turned out to be a solid (and solid is, I think, the most accurate word to describe this book) representative of the genre. The book has everything that fans of post-ap love – gangs, mutants, the struggle for survival. And the lonely ones. Lonely people who do not know how to live in society, together, and that’s why they even don’t know what to live for. In the book there is not a single Man with a capital letter, who would please the eye and soul, but where would they come from? The author boldly and honestly uses the technique of predictive fiction. In these realities, it is precisely such a future, such people, that awaits us.
At first, I was angry at the dialogues. What nonsense, I thought! Everything around is in ruins, the two go out in search of food and then an exemplary dialogue:
-And where will we go?
-We’re going to look for food
-What if we don’t find it?
-Well, we think out of something
-What if someone attacks us?
-We’ll run away.
-Do you think it’s a good idea to go? Okay, then let’s go.
The world is at war. They need to run. A dialogue (it’s just invented examples, they aren’t exact dialogues from the book)
-We need to run and hide.
-Where will we run, how will we live?
-Well, somehow, but we can’t stay
-Do you think it’s worth running and hiding?
-Yes!
-OK.
Why do they talk like that? After all, it is clear that there is no choice, why do they discuss the obvious? This is stupid talk.
But then I realized that this is exactly what people who brought the world to this condition should talk about. This is not a mistake, but the strength of the author. These dialogues tell us how the characters will act. And they justify their language.

By the way, the book itself is written in a wonderful language. Simple and rich. It has very picturesque and not drawn-out descriptions. It’s easy to imagine what’s going on.

Then I was very disappointed that a group of communists behaved contrary to the ideology of communism. Actually, no ideology is shown or noted in the book. The struggle between anarchists and communists is exactly the same as between two gangs. They could not be attributed any ideological attitude, because they do not justify it in any way. I even wanted to address the author – are there really such stupid communists in America?
And then I realized again – yes. Others could not have been there, because otherwise there would not have been a book. After all, otherwise, they would have begun to restore the world.
It’s an important accent – under the red flag with a hammer and sickle – not always there is a communist. In the Russian Federation, for example, the official communist party is anti-communistic “cannibals”. Being a communist is not propaganda or slogans. These are actions and attitudes towards life. This is important to show. And the author did it.

The technique of Hemingway and Remarque, about those infected with death, was professionally applied. When the survived ones the war, can not live on. They believe that war and death still hunt them. These people have no future because they no longer need it. They know that death can come at any moment and cannot enjoy life.
And the final. The final is natural. These heroes could not end in another way.
Everything that happens to them is the result of their thinking. They cannot do otherwise. They do not have the most important thing to build the world – systemic education. They do not know how to live, they did not live before the War, just survive, so they just continue to do what they did, just in changed conditions.

A scaring and honest book. This is the future of your children. And that way they can’t survive. There are many books and films about post-ap survival. But almost all of them teach not how to survive, but how to die. It’s always about what do you need to do to die?

I am glad I’ve read this book, and I recommend you to do the same. And recognize yourselves in it.

Teach your children to read. Teach your children to love reading. Teach them to be afraid of ignorance and under-educating. Maybe this world someday really will fall apart. Maybe American communists are really so stupid and haven’t any difference from any bang of thuds. Unlike Russian Bolsheviks, who were and are all in building and carefully keeping human lives, not destroying, and who would recover and rise the countries from ash and zero, as they did more than once. Maybe the best people will die at the beginning of the End, and only selfish crap of human beings will stay and survive. And then things will be how it’s in all modern post-ap books. Like in this one.
It’s a useful book to read. To know, where hostility leads to.

To read here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61140175-abandon-us?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=KRsG8jJbB4&rank=3

#review