The Last American?

June 20, 2007 12:20 AM

BookFilter: Looking for a post-apocalyptic novel that I thought was called "The Last American" but apparently isn't.

From memory it was about a guy who took his family to a summer camp and it was like a wilderness survival thing for the first year with him and his wife and sons. Then a carrier comes through and the virus kills his family but he survives and becomes a carrier as well. It then follows his travels through the post-apocalyptic states with very World War Z things like astronauts stuck in space and submarines sending in landing parties. I may have some of these details muddled up with other books. But I am sure that in the end it had him piloting a plane across the Bering Strait and Russia having to nuke him to stop him bringing their virus back to them. I could've sworn it was called The Last American but the only two by that title are futuristic Sci-fi, it's bugging me now.

posted by szechuan to writing & language (8 comments total)

the beginning (with the summer camp) sounds kinda like The Earth Abides, but it doesn't have anything like the nuke / plane / etc.
posted by sharkfu at 12:30 AM on June 20, 2007

The astronauts stuck in space sound like "Lucifer's Hammer."

The submarine landing party sounds like "Footfall."

The rest of it sounds like I-Have-No-Idea.
posted by dersins at 12:38 AM on June 20, 2007

More to rule out:
The White Plague (Frank Herbert) has a plague that kills women only created by a guy after the IRA kills his family. He travels across the world then, and has to be stopped.
The Ringway Virus comes about because a little girl with leukaemia gets insecticide on her. Survivors include airplane crash survivors in deep dark New Guinea, and Australian doctors who decide to take a boat and find a remote island.
Mary Shelley also wrote an apocalyptic book called the Last Man which involved a plague but I doubt she had airplanes in it.
posted by b33j at 2:52 AM on June 20, 2007

Many candidates here. Good luck.
posted by Leon at 3:19 AM on June 20, 2007

Possibly The Last Canadian.
posted by TorontoSandy at 5:33 AM on June 20, 2007

The Last Canadian. Sounds like TorontoSandy has it.
posted by teleskiving at 6:05 AM on June 20, 2007

Ha! That review is spot-on.

I remembered liking this book when I first read it as a kid, but picking it up later made me feel like I had cooties on my hand and in my brain from the terrible writing and worse mindset of the author.
posted by Sallyfur at 9:15 AM on June 20, 2007

Wow. Thanks!

I guess I won't be re-reading it.
posted by szechuan at 12:26 PM on June 20, 2007