Books for Times Like These: Not for the Faint of Heart

As the news of the Coronavirus has literally gone viral, I have noticed an odd spectrum of factual, medical, hysterical, and--yes--humorous information coming across the World Wide Web.  I confess that I get a kick out of some of the cartoons and memes poking fun, for example, at the way shoppers have stripped the shelves of toilet paper and Amazon has hiked prices of hand sanitizer. I remember right after the first space shuttle explosion reading a psychological explanation of why we joke about serious news item. Rather than being a sign of our callousness, it represents more of a coping strategy.

In that vein, then, I shared the Facebook warning that books might be in short supply, encouraging people to rush to their local new and used book shops to stock up on reading material in case this "social distancing" lasts long. Someone suggested we treat the experience the way we do snow days: use common sense and stay inside. I always loved the part of snow days that left me at home with time on my hands to read. (I also have inexplicable urge to bake bread. But I digress.) Part of my justification for stockpiling books is for times like these when I might be caught at home--with no March Madness or Masters golf tournament to distract.

One book in my "to read" stack was Karen Thompson Walker's The Dreamers. I heard Walker at the Southern Festival of Books and, intrigued,  picked up a copy. Without offering any spoilers, I will tell you that the story begins on a college campus when  a coed comes back to the dorm after a late night of partying, falls asleep, and then doesn't wake up. The inexplicable "sleeping sickness" begins to spread, beginning in the dorm where quarantine is put into effect at an attempt at containment. The similarities between their story and the one unfolding here is uncanny.

Walker is not a newcomer to these kinds of scenarios. In her previous book, The Age of Miracles, the earth's rotation gradually slows, throwing off the clock, the calendar, the seasons. Her tendency to explore the "what ifs" makes for a fascinating read.

Having taught British literature for much of my career, I've always been fascinated with tales of the Black Death that took such a human toll across Europe during the Middle Ages.  Two novels published closed to the same time dealing with that plague are Geraldine Brooks' Year of Wonders, which focuses on one small town and attempts at containment, and the second novel in Ken Follett's trilogy that began with Pillars of the Earth. In World Without End, Follett applies his narrative skills in a sweeping epic set in the same fictional cathedral town, this time as the Black Death takes its toll.

I must include a YA novel, the debut work by Alison Kemper, my teaching colleague in North Carolina.  Her novel Donna of the Dead details a zombie outbreak that opens with the protagonist on --of all places--a cruise ship.  Kemper's tongue-in-cheek humor, rare in this genre, made it a fun read.

I know some people would prefer some escapist literature--and there's plenty of that to go around. Even Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, is blogging encouraging words from her safe place.  If, however, you prefer to look into the mouth of the lion, to explore pandemics in a fictional setting, here are a few from which to choose. Try to buy them from a brick and mortar bookstore while you can. They're going to need your business.

Books for Times Like These: Not for the Faint of Heart