YMMV / Alas, Babylon

• Ensemble Dark Horse: Cool Old Lady Alice Cooksley the librarian and (for some of their Fair for Its Day characterization) Malachi, Peyton and Rita are all decently-regarded secondary characters.
• Fair for Its Day: The author was, in some ways, incredibly progressive.
  • The most capable individuals are black: Malachai, the non-drinking mechanic who knows war is coming because he keeps up with the news who is responsible for the folks on River Road having running water; Preacher Henry, who is a more than capable farmer and expert fisherman whose knowledge, passed on to young Peyton (a girl), helps keep the people of River Road from starving in August. He also, without any comment from anyone, presides over Randy and Libby's wedding. Even Two-Tone, who mostly is an arch-typical Lazy Shiftless Black Guy, manages one or two moments where he is genuinely useful. Racism generally dies in the town when the white residents realize that the black residents are more capable of living off the land and generally aren't starving as a result.
  • The women aren't housewives or trophies. Lavinia's house may have been poorly designed for Florida, but the fact is she designed a house. Libby resents being sidelined as a woman, but her degree in psychology comes in handy for understanding the pressures put on the various citizens of River Road. Where the boys are content to settle into their roles and take orders, Peyton's the one who explores and strives to contribute on her own.
  • The new President was the holder of the lowest-ranking position in the Cabinet (Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare). As she says in her inaugural address (on an emergency radio message broadcast to the nation) "Some of you may have guessed how it happens that I, the head of the most junior of government departments and a woman, have been forced to assume the duties and responsibilities of Chief Executive on this, the most terrible day in our history". She goes on to confirm that Washington, D.C., has been destroyed, and the President, Vice President, all other Cabinet members, leaders of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and the large majority of Congress have been killed; the new Acting Chief Executive happened to be out of town on The Day. That she was "head of the most junior of government departments" seems to be as shocking as that she is a woman.
  • Randy's Hispanic, Really Gets Around ex Rita Hernandez is initially just a hanger on to her storekeeper brother. After he dies, Randy and Dan predict Rita will need to attach herself to another man to survive, but she keeps trading on her own, and when reluctantly approached to provide supplies for the plan to trap the raiders not only agrees but proves innovative in suggesting ways not to raise suspicions that it's a trap.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • At the time the novel was written, both home canning and breastfeeding were in decline and are portrayed as relics which have all but disappeared, although both have enjoyed a resurgence since then. This leads to dialogue where a character unintentionally sounds sarcastic:
  Helen: What happens to babies?
  Doctor: Evaporated or condensed canned milk... while it lasts. After that, it's mother's milk.
  Helen: That will be old-fashioned, won't it?
• Inferred Holocaust: If the USA can suffer such catastrophic damage and still be considered the victor, then the Soviet Union must be in a ghastly state. The only knowledge the characters and reader get of their situation is that at last report their government was ruling from Mongolia.

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