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The Propheteers
Howard Johnson and Walt Disney are determined to acquire land near Orlando, Florida from Margery Post Merriweather, heiress of the family cereal fortune
306 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 19, 2016
When V. R. Erlinsky returned to Tashkent to rejoin the cereal queen on her journey through Central Asia, he met Clarence Birdseye and became the third person to taste a fresh one-year-old strawberry. The man was unmoved by the historical event.
"Fruit, by its nature," he said, "is against the interests of the working class. it is expensive to transport and has a high spoilage rate. The only workers truly able to enjoy it are the growers or those close to the market. Yet they rarely taste this fruit of their labor because the market value makes it necessary to ship fruit immediately to the tables of the rich."
"All I asked," Clarence Birdseye said, "is if it tasted OK."
"Nothing, sir, tastes good that has been stepped on by class tyranny. This government is committed to grain-- long-lasting, largely unperishable, easily transportable grain. The people need bread, no frozen berries."
"People have had bread for about a million years," Birdseye said, "and nobody's had frozen fruit. I've been freezing my ass out here for two years and you can't even give me a straight answer. How's it taste?"
"It tastes like ill-gotten gain," Erlinksky said.
This is another data point in my long-standing love-hate relationship with satire. Apple's work takes the form of an unblinking, naive hyper-literalism which, over the long term, starts to shade into a sort of hagiography of the capitalist entrepreneurs that you can sort of lose track of yourself in, and lose track of the satire as it loops back on itself in some kind of layered labyrinth. It makes for a strange but often hilarious reading experience. Strange as it may be, it does kick the ass of a book like Scoop (an earlier data point in my long-standing love-hate relationship with satire), to say nothing of Cocksure.
I leave you with a second quote, for you to decide if, like me, you think it a shame that this author has been largely forgotten:
At the corner of Pearl and Main Margery saw the end of the line of people waiting to sign the Disneyworld petition. The front of City Hall was now painted light blue and a gigantic model of Tinker Bell floated from the top of the Doric columns. People dressed as Goofy and Mickey and Donald and others circulated in the line, handing out leaflets that said "Make the New World Happen Now."
"Fruit, by its nature," he said, "is against the interests of the working class. it is expensive to transport and has a high spoilage rate. The only workers truly able to enjoy it are the growers or those close to the market. Yet they rarely taste this fruit of their labor because the market value makes it necessary to ship fruit immediately to the tables of the rich."
"All I asked," Clarence Birdseye said, "is if it tasted OK."
"Nothing, sir, tastes good that has been stepped on by class tyranny. This government is committed to grain-- long-lasting, largely unperishable, easily transportable grain. The people need bread, no frozen berries."
"People have had bread for about a million years," Birdseye said, "and nobody's had frozen fruit. I've been freezing my ass out here for two years and you can't even give me a straight answer. How's it taste?"
"It tastes like ill-gotten gain," Erlinksky said.
This is another data point in my long-standing love-hate relationship with satire. Apple's work takes the form of an unblinking, naive hyper-literalism which, over the long term, starts to shade into a sort of hagiography of the capitalist entrepreneurs that you can sort of lose track of yourself in, and lose track of the satire as it loops back on itself in some kind of layered labyrinth. It makes for a strange but often hilarious reading experience. Strange as it may be, it does kick the ass of a book like Scoop (an earlier data point in my long-standing love-hate relationship with satire), to say nothing of Cocksure.
I leave you with a second quote, for you to decide if, like me, you think it a shame that this author has been largely forgotten:
At the corner of Pearl and Main Margery saw the end of the line of people waiting to sign the Disneyworld petition. The front of City Hall was now painted light blue and a gigantic model of Tinker Bell floated from the top of the Doric columns. People dressed as Goofy and Mickey and Donald and others circulated in the line, handing out leaflets that said "Make the New World Happen Now."
April 6, 2012
Only 17 reviews! It's just because this book is pre-Goodreads crowd. It's fantastic, it's these imagined histories of major corporate leaders, like Howard Johnson. He has the whole biography, the vision of the orange roofs in the setting sky.
The asked the author how he knew all this stuff, and he said he didn't even know if there even was a Howard Johnson, or it was just a made-up corporate name.
The asked the author how he knew all this stuff, and he said he didn't even know if there even was a Howard Johnson, or it was just a made-up corporate name.
August 8, 2015
Three wealthy, self-made Americans, Walt (led by Will) Disney, Margery Merriweather Post, and Howard Johnson, converge on Florida at a late stage in their lives. Walt and Will Disney are planning to build the next Disney theme park, Howard Johnson wants to capitalize on the future tourism by building more hotels and restaurants, and Margery Post wants to be left alone in the southern mansion built by her enigmatic father.
This book is both very clever and a great story, which is a rather rare combination. I like the title's play on words - for these individuals a prophet profits - they can see what others want before they themselves know it, build/create it, and make more money than a single person knows how to spend.
The book is based loosely on history - Walt Disney's brother was Roy, and he was described as unaggressive. Apple plays w/ the timeline as well - in the book Disney confronts Margery Sept 15, 1964, but we know that Disney actually announces the plan to build Disney World Nov 15, 1965. Walt died in 1966. The real Marjorie Post was married 4 times; one of those men was Edward Hutton, with whom she founded Birdseye Frozen Foods. Her big mansion (Mar-A-Lago) was in Palm Beach, FL. The real Howard Johnson also married 4 times; he was famous for his ice cream and was very active in his business, moving from site to site in a black Cadillac.
This book has been described a myth, which Webster defines as "a story of great but unknown age which originally embodied a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; an ancient legend of a god, a hero, the origin of a race, etc.; ...a popular fable which is, or has been, received as historical". Of course this is no unknown age, but this book does present one perspective of the American dream and presents it w/ historical references. Here, the gods are the great entrepreneurs, individuals who created something, and this book makes them human as well, w/ their quest being a search for meaning, w/ the profit only a secondary outcome.
This book is both very clever and a great story, which is a rather rare combination. I like the title's play on words - for these individuals a prophet profits - they can see what others want before they themselves know it, build/create it, and make more money than a single person knows how to spend.
The book is based loosely on history - Walt Disney's brother was Roy, and he was described as unaggressive. Apple plays w/ the timeline as well - in the book Disney confronts Margery Sept 15, 1964, but we know that Disney actually announces the plan to build Disney World Nov 15, 1965. Walt died in 1966. The real Marjorie Post was married 4 times; one of those men was Edward Hutton, with whom she founded Birdseye Frozen Foods. Her big mansion (Mar-A-Lago) was in Palm Beach, FL. The real Howard Johnson also married 4 times; he was famous for his ice cream and was very active in his business, moving from site to site in a black Cadillac.
This book has been described a myth, which Webster defines as "a story of great but unknown age which originally embodied a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; an ancient legend of a god, a hero, the origin of a race, etc.; ...a popular fable which is, or has been, received as historical". Of course this is no unknown age, but this book does present one perspective of the American dream and presents it w/ historical references. Here, the gods are the great entrepreneurs, individuals who created something, and this book makes them human as well, w/ their quest being a search for meaning, w/ the profit only a secondary outcome.
March 27, 2016
More of a slice-of-life book than I was expecting, but still really enjoyable. Reminded me a lot of Steinbeck and how he chronicles the lives of families in order to explain how a main character thinks and acts. Loved how it was a book about success and capitalism but didn't beat the reader over the head about why those things are good or bad.
September 19, 2010
If I were rating this just on Apple as a prose stylist, more stars because he is such a supple satirist. But this novel just feels so dated now, on par with reading 19th century English literature.
December 12, 2010
A novel about the development of Florida that pits Walt Disney vs Howard Johnson. Funny, interesting, compelling, imaginative, great!
July 27, 2011
A lovely satiric mash-up of the motivations of Walt Disney and Howard Johnson.
The ending vignette is perfect.
The ending vignette is perfect.
April 30, 2011
smart, good
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews