Journal of the Plague Years

In this compelling collection of personal journal entries, an award-winning writer responds to the grief and fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic and other civilization-threatening dangers. After a year of weekly entries, John Rember ended his Journal of the Plague Years: End Notes in March of 2021. But the pandemic wasn't over. This second volume, Ghost Dance, starts in September 2021. It expands the meaning of plague to include wars, population growth, undeniable climate change, increasingly corrupt and fraudulent politics, toxic social media, and a murderous tribalism. Obviously, the times still needed a witness. Ghost Dance is a collection of essays examining human attempts to impose grace on a world where a chaotic present has cut ties with the remembered past. Like the original ghost dancers, these writings focus on the green world that still exists beneath a human-constructed reality. Rember looks for the stories and the rituals that might, however improbably, make that world a place where humans can live. Written at a time near the end of this country's history, the three volumes of Journal of the Plague Years offer a primary source for historians of the future, should there be any.

In this powerful collection of personal journal entries, a writer at the height of his powers responds to the fear and uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic in real time. In March of 2020, John Rember was scheduled to go on tour for his latest book. Covid-19 intervened. In the following years, 1.2 million people died of Covid in the United States. Global deaths exceeded 7 million. A world, one secure, predictable, and safe, had disappeared forever. Quarantining in Idaho's Sawtooth Valley, Rember and his wife, Julie, went hiking and, during the snowy months, backcountry skiing. They cooked gourmet dinners for two. They had a well-stocked woodpile, an Internet connection, and enough unread books to last a non-pandemic-shortened lifetime. It was idyllic. Fearful. A touch claustrophobic. They had no idea if they would see another year. Still, the times needed a witness. End Notes records warmth in the face of cold pandemic statistics, dark humor in the face of death, and a penetrating honesty in the face of a consensus reality addicted to denial. Written at a time near the end of this country's history, the three volumes of Journal of the Plague Years offer a primary source for historians of the future, should there be any.