A Hundred Little Pieces on the End of the World

Novelist Rember (Sudden Death, Over Time) meditates on finding hope in the face of ecological catastrophe in this thoughtful collection. Organizing his thoughts into 10 chapters consisting of 10 short sections each, he advises preserving one’s sense of identity in trying times via storytelling: “Losing faith in one’s own story, false or not, is dangerous if not fatal. Fiction has the power to keep us alive, which is why we all practice creating it.” In addition to modern-day issues, Rember considers postapocalyptic scenarios, imagining survivors of a nuclear war who aren’t overcome with despair but are filled with wonder that they’re still alive, and with hope at the prospect of a new world. Trying to come up with his authorial credo, he comes up with the conviction that “there’s plenty to write about in this world, if you keep existentially funny and honestly grief-stricken about it.” 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. (Mar.)