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Sharon

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Sharon is currently reading

American War

by Omar El Akkad (Goodreads Author)

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Sharon said: " I'm a big fan of post apocalyptic works but I almost bailed on this novel half way through.

p. 140 "Much of the world they talked about was long gone, the old dynamics of power now inverted."
The year is 2074. The author deftly portrays the United St I'm a big fan of post apocalyptic works but I almost bailed on this novel half way through.

p. 140 "Much of the world they talked about was long gone, the old dynamics of power now inverted."
The year is 2074. The author deftly portrays the United States as a smaller, weaker nation--reduced in size by rising oceans and flooding, thrown into chaos by civil war fought over fossil fuel policies, and dependent on foreign powers (in Asia an the Middle East) for food.

The premise is intriguing, highly plausible (and chilling), especially given the currently bitter political divide in the U.S., which was brewing when the author )a Canadian-Egyptian journalist) wrote this book.

p. 22 "rebel insurrectionist groups continued to engage in sporadic guerilla violence aided in part by foreign agents and anti-American saboteurs."

If and when the U.S. does devolve into civil war, it likely will be local, self-styled militias and insurrectionists operating under the radar of any government, state or federal. January 6th? Proud Boys? Oath Keepers? It will not likely reprise the North v South conflict of the 19th century. Five years post-publication, the book's underlying premise (southern Red v Blue north and midwestern states) doesn't quite hit the mark.

Where do organized insurrectionists recruit the "mad bombers" and mass shooters? Are they really working alone", as the FBI, law enforcement, the the media tend to claim? The book offers clues.

p.33 "They knew how to find the ones who were most likely to do it [bomb a government building]. They [Red rebels] kept watchers in the hospitals, where they looked for suicide attempts, and in the schools where they looked for outcasts, and in the churches, where they looked for hard-boiled extremists feverish with the spell of the Lord."

Prompts one to view domestic terrorism incidents with a new eye:

pp. 94-95 Introduces the idea that a virus could be intentionally developed and weaponized for wartime purposes. Sounds like a COVID-19 conspiracy theory. But not too farfetched. (The book was released 3 years before the COVID pandemic.)

pp.135-136 "He said people think of that war now the way they think about most wars: just a bunch of young men killing young men on the orders of old men. But he said it was women who were left to clean it all up in the end." Seems oddly anachronistic, as we do have female soldiers, commanders, and Congressional representatives.

p. 126 "God...hasn't said a word in 2,000 years."

p. 5 Describes cancer as "an overabundance of malfunctioning cells." ...more "

Nov 01, 2024 12:44PM · see review

Sharon’s Quotes

“And then Ginny jumping in with, “So Donald Trump and Sarah Palin are both drowning in the pool right in front of you, and you know there’s only going to be a minute or two before one or both of them goes under. Here’s the question: What kind of sandwich do you make?”
― John Lescroart, Fatal

3 likes

“So Donald Trump and Sarah Palin are both drowning in the pool right in front of you, and you know there’s only going to be a minute or two before one or both of them goes under. Here’s the question: What kind of sandwich do you make?”
― John Lescroart, Fatal

21 likes