When Randy Bragg receives a telegram from his older brother ending with the words "Alas, Babylon," he knows disaster is near. The two words were Randy and Mark's code for impending disaster. In this case, Mark, an Air Force Intelligence officer, wants to meet up to explain his fears that World War III is imminent.
Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank (pen name of Harry Hart Frank), one of the "first apocalyptic novels of the nuclear age" describes life in the fictional town of Fort Repose, Florida immediately following a full-scale nuclear strike on the United States. The people in Fort Repose must learn to come to grips with their new reality: store shelves that are soon empty, no gas for the cars, meds for diabetes (and later, typhoid fever), and a government breakdown, where each person, each town is an island.
A year after the devastation, the residents of River Road in Fort Repose are visited an Air Force helicopter, carrying family friend Paul Hart - now a colonel - along with his crew, bringing news from the outside. As Paul gets ready to leave, Randy asks the question on everyone's mind: "'Paul, there's one thing more. Who won the war?'
"Paul put his fists on his hips and his eyes narrowed. 'You're kidding! You mean you really don't know?...We won it. We really clobbered 'em!' Hear's eyes covered and his arms drooped. He said, 'Not that it matters.'
"The engine started and Randy turned away to face the thousand-year night."
Although Alas, Babylon was published in 1959, it is still every bit as relevant as it was when it was published, and well worth the read.
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Saturday, January 11, 2020
A Season of Delight, by Joanne Greenberg
Can a married, middle-aged woman find love in a much younger man, without physically cheating on her beloved husband, and then remain friends with the younger man?
In Joanne Greenberg's A Season of Delight, Grace Dowben, a middle-aged woman with two estranged children, helps her husband Saul with his store when not volunteering with the town's fire/rescue team, keeping house, and taking her mother-in-law, Riva, on periodic shopping trips. She is comfortable with her life, though not completely satisfied.
Enter Benjamin Sloan, who works with disturbed kids, and wants to volunteer with the fire/rescue team. Around the time he joins the team, Grace learns that Ben was born into a Jewish family, but lacks any form of religious tradition, something that Grace, Saul, and Riva value. Grace makes it her mission to include Ben in their weekly dinners, as her two children - Josh, now in a Hare-Krishna sect, and Miriam, a divorced feminist - are uninterested.
Between their time on the fire/rescue team and the teaching, Grace and Ben fall in love, but never quite get physical, which makes life a little less complicated, as Grace still loves Saul.
The book weaves Grace's story - rescue calls, her interactions with the team members, her work at Saul's side, her trips with Riva, her devotion to her Jewish faith, her house-keeping, the loss of friends - into a beautifully satisfying book, to be read again and again.
In Joanne Greenberg's A Season of Delight, Grace Dowben, a middle-aged woman with two estranged children, helps her husband Saul with his store when not volunteering with the town's fire/rescue team, keeping house, and taking her mother-in-law, Riva, on periodic shopping trips. She is comfortable with her life, though not completely satisfied.
Enter Benjamin Sloan, who works with disturbed kids, and wants to volunteer with the fire/rescue team. Around the time he joins the team, Grace learns that Ben was born into a Jewish family, but lacks any form of religious tradition, something that Grace, Saul, and Riva value. Grace makes it her mission to include Ben in their weekly dinners, as her two children - Josh, now in a Hare-Krishna sect, and Miriam, a divorced feminist - are uninterested.
Between their time on the fire/rescue team and the teaching, Grace and Ben fall in love, but never quite get physical, which makes life a little less complicated, as Grace still loves Saul.
The book weaves Grace's story - rescue calls, her interactions with the team members, her work at Saul's side, her trips with Riva, her devotion to her Jewish faith, her house-keeping, the loss of friends - into a beautifully satisfying book, to be read again and again.
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Note: This is a repeat of 2017's sole post. I'm back to writing here at a bi-weekly rate (hopefully)
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
During the early 1970s, it seemed everyone read Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. I had read it several times, and had fond memories of it.
Several years ago, I received a copy of this slim book from two different people and decided to reread it to see how it stood up over the intervening years. Since then, I've reread it several times.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull tells of a seagull who doesn't quit fit in and is banned from his flock as a misfit. Jonathan's misdeed? He loves to fly, loves learning how to improve on flight, how to fly faster, and knows that such learning is, itself, what makes life worth living. The flock, however, has come to the understanding that flight should be merely to be used for food-gathering. Thus, since Jonathan can't comply with living beneath what he is capable of, he is labeled a misfit and cast out of the flock.
It doesn't take long for him to reach a higher consciousness, learning from those who have gone on before him. However, those gulls who teach him soon admit that Jonathan is higher than they are, and that the student has become a teacher.
Soon Jonathan realizes that he must go back to his previous flock and start teaching the newer out-casts, several of whom call him the Son of the Great Gull.
This novella, with its photos of seagulls, can be considered spiritual in nature without being preachy. It shows the reader that we all need to be the best we can be, that we should be our truest self, and while we are learning from those more knowledgeable than we are, we are also to teach those coming up after us.
This is one book that I feel has held up well over the years.
View all my reviews
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard BachMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
During the early 1970s, it seemed everyone read Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. I had read it several times, and had fond memories of it.
Several years ago, I received a copy of this slim book from two different people and decided to reread it to see how it stood up over the intervening years. Since then, I've reread it several times.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull tells of a seagull who doesn't quit fit in and is banned from his flock as a misfit. Jonathan's misdeed? He loves to fly, loves learning how to improve on flight, how to fly faster, and knows that such learning is, itself, what makes life worth living. The flock, however, has come to the understanding that flight should be merely to be used for food-gathering. Thus, since Jonathan can't comply with living beneath what he is capable of, he is labeled a misfit and cast out of the flock.
It doesn't take long for him to reach a higher consciousness, learning from those who have gone on before him. However, those gulls who teach him soon admit that Jonathan is higher than they are, and that the student has become a teacher.
Soon Jonathan realizes that he must go back to his previous flock and start teaching the newer out-casts, several of whom call him the Son of the Great Gull.
This novella, with its photos of seagulls, can be considered spiritual in nature without being preachy. It shows the reader that we all need to be the best we can be, that we should be our truest self, and while we are learning from those more knowledgeable than we are, we are also to teach those coming up after us.
This is one book that I feel has held up well over the years.
View all my reviews
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