What would you do when nuclear war happens? Will you die or will you survive?
During the cold war, nuclear war was something that became a worry for most Americans. What if Russia did the unthinkable? It was re-imagined and fictionalized by Pat Frank, who wrote the story about โAlas, Babylonโ, a novel that deals with an apocalyptic theme talking about the unthinkable, the nuclear war.
๐๐ฆ๐ค๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ญ๐บ, ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐๐ญ๐ถ๐ฃ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ'๐ด ๐ข ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ญ๐บ ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฌ ๐ช๐ด "Whatโs your favorite/recent apocalyptic-themed book that you read, and why did it resonate with you?? ". ๐๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ต ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ : ๐๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐๐ญ๐ถ๐ฃ ๐๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ญ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต #311
This book was a recent work that I picked up a few days ago. Among many similar stories, Patโs work stood out simply because of the title that piqued my interest, โ Alas,Babylonโ. When you hear the word Babylon, somehow my association was towards a thriving, powerful society that declines. It somehow connects to the symbolism of a downfall on something. If youโre a cinephile, you must have heard/watched Babylon(2022) a story about decadence and its downfall around Hollywood during the 20โs. So you see, Babylon is used to refer to something of a downfall from great excess, to horrors that came after it.
Was the title symbolism itself?
While inside the book pat also talks about the origin of โAlas, babylonโ a phrase uttered by characters in the novel, in my opinion it certainly serves as a symbolism. It also refers to specific chapters in the bible about how Babylon was brought down and that is what makes the characters of the novel use it as their โown family code signโ.
In another note, at the time, the US was the power house undergoing a cold war with Russia. Both have different ways of governing their people and somehow they wanted to keep things the way they are until defending the status quo just leads to more wars and eventually loss. Through this Pat somehow re-imagined what if the power house truly fell apart? Was it a mistake of its people or was it because it was bound to happen due to the stagnation that happened?
"Nations are like people. When they grow old and rich and fat they get conservative. They exhaust their energy trying to keep things the way they areโand thatโs against nature,"
In this novel, we follow the journey of Randy Bragg, a failed politician who grew up comfortably using his inheritance and has no sense of. responsibility He has an older brother called Mark, who works in the Air Force stationed under the SAC (Strategic Air Command) with headquarters in Omaha. Through his work as an intelligence officer in missile defense, he warned Randy about the unclear conflict and sent his family to Fort Repose, Florida. .That is when the story starts getting more interesting and the premise of the whole novel.
Randyโs life was turned upside down and now he realized he is responsible for not just himself but Markโs family Helen, Ben & Peyton ( Markโs Children). In the novel, Randy undergoes character development. He became a leader to Braggโs family but also the people around him including his neighbors and friends. He also started taking relationships more seriously as in the first chapter, he was described as a playboy/womanizer.
This novel is really more than just human survival but also finding the strength to face unimaginable;e adversity. It also serves as a social commentary for the society at the time. If you do not mind about racism and sexism in the story, I do recommend reading the book.
I wonder if this book was banned due to the language it's used but considering Pat lived in a different era, itโs worth reading especially for preppers because inside the novel, it gives a picture of what would/should do when shit hits the fan.
Think about a society where money is worthless, your checks, whatever you name it is worthless. They were all going back to the oldest system in the world, barter.
World war 3 is something that we often heard lately. There are nations out there with nuclear power and have the possibility to launch their missiles whenever they wish to do so. We never know when but this novel is a great reminder that this was a long time fear that could/might have come true in the coming years or before anything else.
The overall novel was gripping, chilling and Pat has the ability to hold you down in your seat and get lost, in this small town in Florida and its people dealing with the aftermath of nuclear war.
Honestly, this is one of the most intriguing apocalyptic novels Iโve read. I am happy to have found this and the books Iโve been reading lately have been quite inspiring and very enjoyable to read. See you next week!
Join me into this fun and check our for more here Hive Book Club Highlight #311
 | ๐๐ข๐ค ๐ช๐ด ๐ข ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง-๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฐ๐บ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐ซ๐ข & ๐ค๐ฐ๐ง๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ช๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ถ๐ณ . ๐ ๐ต๐บ๐ฑ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ, ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ด, ๐ต๐ฆ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐บ. ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ช๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ, ๐ข ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ง๐ญ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ญ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ณ๐ด๐ต ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ด, ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ท๐ช๐ฆ๐ธ๐ด, ๐ต๐ฆ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ท๐ช๐ฆ๐ธ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด, ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฐ๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฉ๐บ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต. ๐๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฏ, ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ, ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐ค๐ถ๐ญ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ฅ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ค๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ข๐ถ๐ต๐ช๐ง๐ถ๐ญ ๐ด๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต๐ด ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐บ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ'๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ค๐ค๐ข๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ธ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ค๐ช๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด ๐ค๐ถ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ณ๐บ ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ด. ๐๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ข๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ! ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ท๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ, ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ข ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ฃ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ. ๐ ๐ณ๐ฆ-๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฐ. |