This was one of my daughter’s choices for 10th grade summer reading. It sounded interesting and I was surprised that not only had I not read it, I hadn’t heard of it before.

Set in the late 1950’s when fears of a nuclear war with Russia were high, this novel follows the story of a handful of people in the small Florida town of Fort Repose as they try to survive in the aftermath of a nuclear war.

I’m always drawn to these post-apocalyptic novels because I’m fascinated by the details of how people would survive in these dystopian scenarios. Here, the details are interesting because even though this book was written over 50 years ago, before so many modern technological advances like cellphones, the basics of survival seem like they would be the same even today. I was interested in the story and the characters, and wanted to see how the book ended.

That said, I think the novel is limited by a few things: 1) while fitting with the time the novel was written, many of the characters are stuck in (now) outdated gender and race roles, which I found jarring. The racism and the language associated with that is pretty horrifying. The women in the story, while quite capable, are confined to cooking and sewing, and often utter diaglogue that – in context – just seems silly. A lot of “oh, darling!” and that sort of thing; 2) the character development is quite superficial and I think the novel could’ve been much more impactful if the feelings of the characters had been explored more; and 3) I felt that the novel underplayed the likely horrors of the aftermath of a nuclear war. In that respect, the travails of Fort Repose seem almost quaint.

Glad I read it, as it is a classic of the genre, but not sure I can enthusiastically recommend it. I’ll be interested to see what the 10th graders and their teacher have to say about it!