Book Review: The Man Who Watched The World End

Feeling slightly gloomy this week what with the party season finally being over, I read Chris Dietzel’s The Man Who Watched The World End. As you can probably hazard from the title this is a tale about the end of mankind. 

The story is told through the diary of an 80-year-old man who takes care of his wheelchair-bound brother. The two are the last people living in the town of Camelot, which has long since been abandoned by many residents. The man recounts the events of his life and how mankind will become extinct in the space of a generation. This is because when he was a child the number of normal births plummeted to zero in the space of five years, never to recover. All children born in this time are paralysed both mentally and physically - thus creating the last generation of mankind. 

It’s basically the same idea as Children of Men, except it isn’t crap. The Man Who Watched The World End is written well and as a result feels believable. Despite knowing how it will end, the memoirs of the protagonist keeps drawing you in read on. There are no happy endings here and no miracles, just the end of one man’s life told through his final words. 

Author Chris Dietzel has put a lot of thought into how the world would react and how things would change if mankind was to come to such an end. Many social aspects, cultural and political themes are considered, as well as day-to-day practical tasks like whose going to collect the garbage when there’s no one left. 

What really gripped me about the book though, was the constant foreboding sense of doom. It is something the author did not have to reinforce constantly; instead it was done subtly through the diary entries. It plays on one of our deepest fears, something we all know will happen one day. It’s that creeping sort of fear - you know it is coming but you also know there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s that constant reminder throughout that makes this book so gripping.