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I have to say that I really do like this man’s books. I think the only reason I would read a book on Krakatoa is because Winchester wrote it. It is also very likely that the only reason I would read a book on an earthquake is because Winchester wrote it. Let me tell you what there is to love about this book. Firstly, Winchester starts off by talking about the Gaia Theory – essentially that everything is related to everything else. He does this because talk of earthquakes has only begun to make sense since we learnt of plate tectonics – that the continents float about the world on huge plates and that these rub up against each other and cause volcanos and earthquakes. And one of the most fascinating things about plate tectonics is that this idea has only been around in science since the 1960s. Think about that for a moment – that we have only had any real idea about the how and the way of volcanos and earthquakes for a little over forty years. Prior to the 1960s we also had a very localised view of how these catastrophic events happened. We really didn’t have any notion that an earthquake in Tokyo might impact on a volcano in Hawaii. We still have only hints about how these two events might be related, but the fact we can even seriously ask the question now ought to send a shiver down your spine. “What a piece of work is Man… in apprehension how like a God…” Gaia theory holds that the whole of the world is linked up by a series of complex and remarkable interconnections. And just to celebrate, Winchester writes his books in a way that brings to the fore layer after layer of beautifully observed relationships between earthquakes and racism and artists leaving for the hills and architecture and religion. When people say things like, ‘everything is related to everything else’ I generally feel a little uncomfortable in that ‘let me get out of this conversation as quickly as I can’ kind of way. There is a scene in Douglas Adams’s Dirk Bogart’s Holistic Detective Agency where Dirk is at a complete loss what to do next and so, figuring that everything is connected to everything else, he follows a car at random, which, naturally enough, brings him to where he needs to go. This is fiction after all. Winchester’s paths are never random. His relationships never fail to delight. His keen eye for both the fascinating and the absurd never fail him. I really am very fond of his books and this one is no exception. There is a part of this book where he is describing the horrific fire that started as the earthquake ended. This was a city ready to burn, and the quake bursting both gas pipes and water pipes beneath the city did much to strike that particular match. There is a photo in this book taken from the top of a hill. In the distance you can see the smoke billowing and being blown into the background of the picture. How Winchester explains what you are looking at and what is about to happen in the world of this photograph is one of those moments in a book that is a pure joy. He starts off by stating what we all think – that fires move in the direction that the winds blow them. Clearly, in this photograph, the wind is blowing towards the back, so that will be the direction the fire will go. He then points out that what is in the distance behind the scene in the photograph is water and already burnt buildings. It is then that he says that city fires not only make their own winds, but that they move in the direction of the fuel that is available – not always in the direction of the wind. One of the more fascinating connections with this earthquake was the start of the Pentecostal movement. The pastor who started the Pentecostal movement said, a mere three days before the quake and fire, that God was preparing a sign – and when God prepares signs, he provides the entire Burma Shave experience. The most Godless city in the United States virtually wiped off the map in one go. God does seem to have learnt his lesson though, as this time there are no wives being turned into pillars of salt and the only good man in the town didn’t end up getting drunk and doing a Fritzl with his two daughters. At least, at the time it seemed they only spoke in tongues – I’ve no idea when Pentecostals started getting down and dirty, but I assume it was a long time prior to when the Swaggarts and Bakers did their stuff. I liked this one very much, but then, I’ve enjoyed every one of his books so far.

2022-11-14 13:39