My main gripe with all of those is that they are of the "big flash all dead" genre of nuclear war. In many ways I prefer the end of "The Day After" — grittier, less philosophical, more generally depressing.
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Even the "optimistic" post-nuclear scenarios are about the long, hard job of rebuilding, recovering, remembering. I think some of those "everyone dies and its just a totally different world afterwards" books are "slate wiped clean" fantasies of their own.
Imagine having to recover from nuclear war AND still pay taxes, AND still manage your responsibilities, AND still have student loan debt, AND still yammer about politics, etc. No clean slate — just a lot of misery, harder times, shorter lifespans. And for what?
