Customer Reviews

Alas Babylon

5 star:		(91)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

When I was an impressionable young girl of 14, my then boyfriend at the time insisted I read Alas, Babylon, saying that he felt a nuclear conflict was not only possible, but inevitable. Of course, this was in the late Seventies and the Cold War was still all about 'arming for peace'. Knowing there was a distinct possibility that one day I might have to face a full-on nuclear disaster, I found that Alas, Babylon rang so true to me that it haunted me for years. I have moved all over the country and halfway across the world, and my battered old copy of this fantastic novel has come with me. Well, my impressionable years are behind me, but the impact of Alas Babylon's vision of how folks in a small Southern town would react to a nuclear halocaust is still as strong. I read it just the other day and was again struck by it's vivid, disturbing descriptions of not only the horror of watching your world literally blowing up around you, but also the grisly task of how to survive it. Yes, it's military Cold War jargon and it's prickly talk of racism and segregation give it a slightly dated feel; but if the bomb drops tomorrow, and I'm alive, I can only hope my copy of Alas, Babylon survives with me. It may just safe my life...

While Nevil Shute's "On the Beach" deals with nuclear war after the fact, Pat Frank puts the reader right in the middle of the war and lets them witness firsthand the mass hysteria and carnage that would accompany the beginning and aftermath in the first few years afterwards.

The actual beginning of the nuclear war occupies only the first few chapters of the book, and the fallout, both literally and figuratively, is what makes up the rest. Having the reader in the middle of the action is what hits home the most--especially when the radio address by the new president, a woman who is about twentieth in line to succeed the president, reads a complete listing of the areas with so much fallout that people are forbidden to enter or leave them. Chills will run down your spine when you read this part and realize that you are right in the midst of one of these zones.

This book is more optimistic than Nevil Shute's, so perhaps it's less realistic. However, Frank weaves a wonderful story of people picking up the pieces of the shattered world and managing to move on together in the face of such tragedy. Definitely a worthwhile read.

I read this book as a teenager and was so taken by it that I would reread it several years in a row. Its picture of life after a nuclear war is harrowing and frightening. In a sense, this is a prelude of the story that concludes with "On the Beach". The only problem is that Frank writes so well and gives such a hopeful slant to the possibility of survival that some readers might want to be there when the missles start to fall. (By the way, this much superior to that mess of a movie "The Day After"--and, oh how I wish, it would have made a splendid film. I believe it was made as a Playhouse 90 for TV in the 50s. Oh, would I love to see that!)

I would never have imagined a book about nuclear war being so insanely optimistic and upbeat (just count on your neighbors and all will be well in the end). I picked this one up after reading the infinitely superior ...(and was on a post-apocalyptic lit jag) and was greatly disappointed. The (excessive) explanations for the novel's war are rooted firmly in the 50's and offer nothing to a modern reader and aside from a lack of fresh produce, life seems to be pretty groovy for the survivors in this book.

I had to read this book last year for my English class. It's about a small town in Florida watching a nuclear war take place around them. Overall I'd say it's a pretty interesting book, but if given the choice, I would've picked other books to read instead. If you like sci-fi novels about nuclear war, give it a shot. Otherwise, keep looking...there are other books out there.

This was required reading for me in a high school freshman English class. Am I glad! As one of the first books I read as an adolescent, it awakened in me the potential power of books, how they can inspire and get us in touch with our feelings. How to some extent they can tell us whether we are even feeling, by whether we are emotionally connecting with the book. I really was sucked into this post-apocalyptic adventure, with its highwaymen and primitive fight for subsistence. Somehow the idea of a post-apocalyptic world forces us to get in touch with ourselves, by removing what is phony and comfortable and, often, unearned. There is love, action, thought and feeling here. A tremendously entertaining book.

When I was an impressionable young girl of 14, my then boyfriend insisted I read Alas, Babylon, saying that he felt a nuclear conflict was not only possible, but inevitable. Of course, this was in the late Seventies and the Cold War was still all about 'arming for peace'. Knowing there was a distinct possibility that one day I might have to face a full-on nuclear disaster, I found that Alas, Babylon rang so true to me that it haunted me for years. The only other novel I have read that gave me such a chill was Stephen King's The Stand, a book that I also love - and I'd bet the rent money that Mr. King has also read Alas Babylon; there are too many coincidences for me to believe otherwise.
Alas Babylon tells the tale of a family preparing for, experiencing and then surviving a nuclear war in the mid 1950's. The characters are well-rounded and multi-dimensional; the situations realistic and haunting, and everytime I read it, I'm caught up again in the thrill of fear of hearing that first bomb drop - something I pray I will never have to actually experience. I have moved all over the country and halfway across the world, and my battered old copy of this fantastic novel has come with me. Well, my impressionable years are behind me, but the impact of Alas Babylon's vision of how folks in a small Southern town would react to a nuclear halocaust is still as strong. I read it just the other day and was again struck by it's vivid, disturbing descriptions of not only the horror of watching your world literally blowing up around you, but also the grisly task of how to survive it. Yes, it's military Cold War jargon and it's prickly talk of racism and segregation give it a slightly dated feel; but if the bomb drops tomorrow, and I'm alive, I can only hope my copy of Alas, Babylon survives with me. It may just safe my life...

This book is a superb look at what a nuclear war might have been like had it occurred in the late 1950s. Although some of the weapons issues that the book discusses are now dated (the book features a pretty good discussion of the missile-versus-bomber issue that was very real in the late '50s but which is now passe) in my opinion this detracts not at all from the novel's relevance. This is a gritty, hard-hitting novel about what life might have been like had mankind not managed to avoid nuclear conflict during the bad old days of the Cold War. Nuclear weapons are still around in abundance, and this book is still worth reading, and it is an enjoyable read that I personally found impossible to put down.

The story is set in a small Florda town that manages to be outside any of the blast or target zones. The novel begins prior to the outbreak of nuclear conflict, and takes us through it to its aftermath--an aftermath of anarchy, hardship, and economic chaos, as the agricultural and economic back of the country are broken, and perhaps a majority of Americans are dead, in common with people in many parts of the world. This could have happened and still could. This stark fact is what makes this novel as relevant today as it ever was, despite some of the dated military-political issues that it occasionally discusses.

The book does show the citizens of this small town surviving with dignity and even some optimism. But it never lets us forget that a nuclear war would be a catastrophe for mankind. Although we have dodged this bullet so far, surely current events show that we cannot be complacent, and books like this are as important as ever.

A good novel that I recommend to everyone.

This classic was written for two purposes: (1) A dire warning against nuclear war and (2) A morality tale of hope, goodness and survival. Everyone is immediately drawn to this book because of its downhome familiarity and avoidance of central issues that would arise in a nuclear holocaust. It doesn't really matter that the aftermath is a lot more hopeful than what would actually occur, or that people could really thrive and carry on after such a disaster.

What's important - and this is the essence of literary license - is that Frank has made this story so immediate and so gripping and (most important) imbued it with such hope that one forgets the inaccuracies and unrealistic optimism. This is also a romance between the hero and his gal involving old girlfriend, another woman, a dead husband and all the accompanying sparks that necessarily fly. It is rated a clear "G" and literally sings of a new Earth with all races and all peoples working hand in hand to rebuild. A clear winner and one that is as popular with the young as it is the "mature".

I did not HAVE to read Alas, Babylon for school, but did so anyway. This was in the early 60s, shortly after the Cuban Missle Crisis. It was one of the scariest books of it's day because it COULD be real. One morning in 1965 I was jolted out of my bed by an explosion and a mushroom cloud on the horizon. The light kept going for hours. We all went out of the house to get a look, but Alas, Babylon was all I could think of and I dragged my family into the house to avoid "fallout". It took a while to find that a pipeline had exploded on the other side of Natchitoches, La. and I was at school before the plume of fire dwindled away. That experience seared this book, it's title and premise into my mind. I may forget the author, but not feelings, for in those first few minutes I KNEW what it was like to be inside that book.

Recommending reading for "what might have been...and may yet be."