Things We Didn't See Coming

The 20th century was an event anticipated by many to be the turning point of civilisation. As monotonous as it turned out to be Steven Amsterdam has depicted his interpretation of the turn of events that would have unravelled post-millennium if man-kind were not to change their interdependent ways. Through numerous apocalyptic events, both naturalistic and man-made Amsterdam attempts to persuade the reader with a warning of a bleak prospect. The episodic narrative Things We Didn’t See Coming shadows the fragmented journey of an unnamed protagonist as he progresses from innocence to experience. The non-designation of a name enables the reader to attribute their own interpretations and values through the adoption of an ‘everyman’ persona. As the disjointed stories begin to come together, it becomes apparent that the narrator (or every common man) although burdened by emotional, physical & spiritual discomfort can triumph against the odds with a pure will & effort to survive in a dystopian environment. The new world portrayed within the text is broken, however this is only complimented by the structural mayhem in which the novel has been compiled, and the future differs greatly from what we know now… Despite the possibility that the apocalypse may bring out the worst in people, through the eyes of the main protagonist the reader is given a sense of hope that the morality and common decency of most men can survive the worst, although become distorted in order to adapt to the netherworld in which they are present.

Amsterdam exerts the opinion that despite the circumstance of an environmental dystopia human nature essentially stays the same. Although it may be assumed that depending on the nature of the individual prior to the apocalypse, that the devastation has enhanced their characteristics for better or for worse. After all there is good and bad in all of humanity. Margo a companion of the narrator, once a thief who even when caught ‘didn’t mind pocketing a few