The end of his tether

Martin-Fehr, J[ohn]. The End of His Tether. [Chichester, England]: Janay, 1972. A young boy struggles to survive in a savage post-nuclear war England, aided by a kindly and heroic doctor and nun. (This is one of the few novels in which the faith of conventionally religious people is viewed sympathetically, although the author assumes a basically non-religious stance.) An American submarine is said to have started the war by firing a missile at Poland, either by accident or in "an act of insanity." As one character proclaims, "War is a thing of the past," proclaims one character: armies will have their hands full merely burying the dead. Yet individual combat in the form of starving mobs, marauders, and brigands is commonplace. A mob lynches a former Communist. The boy's dog and the horse he has borrowed are both killed for food. Martin-Fehr concentrates to an unusual degree on postwar diseases: typhus, leukemia, blindness, and radiation disease. At the end of the novel an Australian ship arrives to recruit men. Their culture now exercises eugenic control of mutation through sterilization, infanticide, and compulsory childbearing. The Australians, who practice a form of communism, see themselves as the new race which will replace the old. The novel's weaknesses are its repetitiousness and relentlessly grim tone. Its strength is its careful attention to detailing the consequences of a nuclear war.