Set before and after a flu that wipes out the majority of the human population in a short time, we follow a variety of characters and their connections. Perhaps most notably a troupe of actors who travel the new sparsely populated America performing Shakespeare for small towns.

 I've hear about this book for a few years now and decided to pick it up when I found a rather bettered looking copy in my library. I can see why it's popular. It's not particularly difficult to read without being condescending or underestimating the reader  and post apocalyptic media has always been popular. Unfortuanatley I seem to be in the minority who just found this okay. 

Between the number of characters and how much we jumped around I just didn't find myself connecting to any of them. I did like the idea of the troupe but overall this one just fell flat for me. 
I found the glimpses we got into the early days of the pandemic the most interesting but unfortunately that's the time period we got the least about. I would really have loved to have seen more about how the survivors got to the world they live in now. 

Some of the choices about where people ended up don't feel completely realistic to me. Especially for so long after the start since presumably the flu would more or less have wiped itself out as it rushed its way through the population, killing everyone who came into contact with it quickly. I wonder how so little progress has been made, both on an individual level for some of the groups and people we meet and on a societal level. I'm sure some knowledgeable people or at least those who would be willing to seek out the knowledge in books to make their own lives more comfortable would have survived. Sure, it's when people come together that the most innovations are made but I find it hard to believe that everyone would shrug it off as "well, I guess this is life now" without trying to make things easier, especially since they know that life can be easier and that at least some of the resources and knowledge are out there. I find it a bit hard to believe that people would still be living in fast food restaurants, for example. And that seemingly no one looked into solar panels and generators (at least in the earlier days to set up better systems and rebuild something more) and the like. Surely some of the hiding people and survivalist types would have done some research in the days before the power and internet went out since most do like their comfort. While it makes sense that society isn't at the level it is now, I would have expected the troupe to come across at least some people who are more technologically advanced than everyone seems to be.

While this book had some interesting ideas, it didn't quite stand up to all the praise I've heard about it. I can see why it would work for so many people but unfortunately I'm not one of them. Maybe I'm just overthinking things or missing something though...