Post-doomsday scenarios have been discussed since the 1950’s and the fallout shelter era, so there exists a body of literature on the subject.
Like the 1958 classic “Alas Babylon”. I reread it recently and it is still not dated.
But I agree, short-term survival yes; but after that it may be like lovable old Nikita Khrushchev observed, “the survivors will envy the dead”.
It is laughably dated in a few details.
Protagonist knows in advance of the impending holocaust and prepares a cache of "iron rations" - incl. a pound of coffee, a couple of cartons of smokes, etc.! Laughable! He later forgets about it until long after the bombs drop, and is then "pleasantly surprised" upon rediscovering it.
He should have purchased three hundred pounds of coffee (i.e., not just for his own consumption, but primarily for use in bartering, as well).
Also, an important storyline is that people are contracting radiation sickness from wearing jewelry (necklaces, diamond rings, etc.) salvaged / scavenged from the bombed-out cities. In actual fact, to be so heavily irradiated, such jewelry would have had to have been exposed to the direct blast, and would hence have been reduced to charred slag. (Placing pieces of jewelry directly into a controlled neutron reactor for a couple of hours would sufficiently contaminate them without damaging them, however - though after a few weeks, they'd be back to normal.) In other words, Mr. Frank grossly overestimates the effects of radiation (and also overestimates the wisdom of burying a small shoebox of "goodies.")
Regards,
I just finished reading it last week.
Kept thinking it sounded familiar - then I read it was part of the inspiration for One Second After. Alas Babylon a good end-times template.
Of course before that there was "Day of the Triffids"
GREAT BOOK.
A.B. - you are being paged...
I recommend Dean Ing’s Pulling Through. The older versions have instructions in the back on how to make a radiation meter from an orange juice can, HEPA filter from toilet paper rolls, that sort of thing, plus a good survival story.
“Like the 1958 classic “Alas Babylon”. I reread it recently and it is still not dated.”
I haven’t read that since high school. Maybe I should find a copy somewhere.