So it's been nearly two hours after the earthquake here in California. It registered at 5.6 (or 5.4 or 5.8, depending on the report), and hit in Chino Hills, which is about six miles from where I live. I was writing a short story (predictably enough) and when it hit, I saw and heard Mrs. BookFox freaking out in the living room. We ran under doorframes, although technically, I just read you're not supposed to do that any longer. Thankfully enough, although everything swung and dipped and things fell off shelves, nothing was seriously destroyed. (Although as I type this, I just felt the second strong aftershock shake the room).
So. No real way to prepare for the next one, or to figure out whether this was a foreshock, or to steel myself for the aftershocks, so I might as well come up with some good earthquake fiction. Here it is.
- After the Quake. Haruki Murakami. Short story collection revolving around characters impacted by the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Murakami has enough talent to seamlessly transition between a Super-Frog fighting a giant Worm and a fatherless boy with a troublesomely large third leg (as the French call it).
- The Earthquake in Chile. Heinrich Von Kleist. Just finished reading Von Kleist's short stories, The Marquise of O–. German medicine online course writer, early 1800s. This novella-crammed-into-a-short-story concerns the earthquake in Santiago in 1647, and who the town tried to fix blame upon.
- Gardens of Water. Alan Drew. This novel is rooted in the 1999 earthquake in Istanbul, where a Turkish and American family struggle in a survivor's camp. The American son starts to fall in love with the Turkish daughter, and a clash between Muslim and Christian faiths ensues.
- Earthquake I.D. John Domini. A novel published in 2007 by our very own Los Angeles publisher, Red Hen Press. Here's a summary from The Literary Review:
Earthquake I.D.s are temporary passport replacements distributed to the again-displaced refugee citizens/earthquake victims of Naples: occupants of the tent city that inspired the Lulucitas to relocate, to help. This setting, one representation of the contrasts between the privileged (Bridgeport, CT) and those virtually without possessions (mostly Sub-Saharan refugees), is a driving force in the novel, a constant element of Barbara's introspection—the root of her inability, and ultimately unwillingness, to wholly invest herself in anything more than shallow and half-hearted philanthropic pursuits.
- Pleasure Boating in Lituya Bay. Jim Shepard. This is one of the short stories in his latest collection, Like You'd Understand, Anyway. Earthquake triggers a tsunami, havoc ensures. Oh, and the title might be slightly ironic.
6 comments
Arthur Clarke & Mike McQuay’s novel “Richter 10” tells us of a man’s quest to accurately predict earthquakes & then to eliminate them forever.
url: “https://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/05/richter-10-taming-earthquakes.html”
Couple of months back, I read this flash fiction piece on tsunami affected (not primarily about tsunami, however): Susan Partridge’s “Refugees”.
url: “https://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/10063/20080518-0001/www.antisf.com/text/storyt04.html”
Domini’s book is excellent – as is the follow-up, A Tomb on the Periphery (not necessarily a sequel, but it does refer to the first).
Domini’s book is excellent – as is the follow-up, A Tomb on the Periphery (not necessarily a sequel, but it does refer to the first).
Dan Wickett’s kind remarks prompt me to respond — with gratitude, big time. Thanks. I guess I should also point out that EARTHQUAKE I.D. appeared in ’07, not ’06, & that A TOMB ON THE PERIPHERY just came out this summer.
Otherwise, my compliments on a fine site.
Must also mention the latest novel by Jonis Agee, THE RIVER WIFE, which begins with a gripping & horrific post-apocalyptic evocation of the earthquakes in New Madrid, now in Missouri, in December 1811 & January 1812.
Check it out. John Domini
Thanks for the correction, John. It’s been amended in the text. Also, thanks for the River Wife suggestion and thanks for reading!