In this powerful collection of personal journal entries, a writer at the height of his powers responds to the fear and uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic in real time.
In March of 2020, John Rember was scheduled to go on tour for his latest book. Covid-19 intervened. In the following years, 1.2 million people died of Covid in the United States. Global deaths exceeded 7 million. A world, one secure, predictable, and safe, had disappeared forever.
Quarantining in Idaho's Sawtooth Valley, Rember and his wife, Julie, went hiking and, during the snowy months, backcountry skiing. They cooked gourmet dinners for two. They had a well-stocked woodpile, an Internet connection, and enough unread books to last a non-pandemic-shortened lifetime.
It was idyllic. Fearful. A touch claustrophobic. They had no idea if they would see another year.
Still, the times needed a witness. End Notes records warmth in the face of cold pandemic statistics, dark humor in the face of death, and a penetrating honesty in the face of a consensus reality addicted to denial. Written at a time near the end of this country's history, the three volumes of Journal of the Plague Years offer a primary source for historians of the future, should there be any.
