Anthem

 It’s hard for me to think of what to say about Anthem by Noah Hawley.  I saw it offered on one of my eBook mailing lists.  Two things attracted me: I knew Noah Hawley created the way-out and successful Fargo movie and series.  I so enjoyed his way of telling a story: lots of darkness with a nice sprinkling of comedy.  The eBook list said this: “An epic literary thriller set where America is right now, in which a band of unlikely heroes sets out on a quest to save one innocent life—and might end up saving us all.”  Oooh, sounds like a fantasy-type!  I wanted to read it and so I requested it from the library.

The back of the cover warned: This isn’t a fairy tale

I disagree.  Fairy tales have violence, monsters, and many times unhappy endings.  I would say this is a dystopian fairy tale, set in our very near future.

I was hooked right away, even though many things upset and disturbed me.  I seem to be reading a lot of that lately, believing one thing about a book and discovering something very upsetting and learning something true and awful.

The very basics are this:  there is a movement among teenagers that starts small and starts spreading from our country to around the world.  Teenagers often learn that their parents and their times aren’t perfect and so they rebel.  This particular rebellion has very tragic consequences.  The other basic information is that a group of teens, kids that don’t fit in for one reason or another, band together to rescue a girl being held hostage by an evil character nicknamed The Wizard.  There are other horror/fantasy characters as well: a witch, a troll, orcs, and other Lord of the Ring races.

The book brought to mind others I’ve read and I don’t mean to say Hawley’s style is better or worse than any others.  The development of characters and use of horror reminded me of The Stand by Stephen King.  A lot of recent social issues came up and, now and then, Hawley wrote about them with no other characters interacting.  That reminded me of The Grapes of Wrath, in which John Steinbeck would insert chapters about the Dust Bowl, the cruelty of people toward the displaced farm families that lost everything, and the struggles one particular family had trying to survive.  Reading this book also reminded me of 1984, Animal Farm, and The Handmaid’s Tale.

So, be warned.  I thought it was an awesome book.  But then, I have an active interest in my future and that of my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  What will it be like?