This is a thoughtful read “post” COVID. The setup for this book is that a virus first renders all rice plants sickly and diseased. The West looks on with detached pity as the East suffers under famine. The virus then mutates and all grass suffers the same fate. Western civilization takes drastic action to circumvent famine and that’s where the bulk of the novel takes place. This book is at its core a study of just how quickly we’d lose our social graces in dire straights. It’s really well done. Some of the beginning dialog feels hopelessly dated and stilted but the book is 70 years old.