Animal Harm

American Spectator ^ | 02 june 08 | Hal G.P. Colebatch

[rellimpank]

Cry Wolf: A Political Fable By Paul Lake (Benbella Books, 224 pages, $12.95)

It has been rare in recent years for me to get more than a few pages into a modern novel before abandoning it; rarer still for me to bother finishing it; rarest of all for me to read it in a single sitting. This book, by an American poet and professor of literature (poetry editor of First Things) is in that final and rarest category.

Actually, Cry Wolf is more than a novel, though it has many of the strengths of one. It is a political fable, in the great tradition of George Orwell's Animal Farm. I can only hope that it will be as widely read and will be as powerful an influence as was Orwell's masterpiece in awakening civilization to its present deadly peril.

I have been watching developments in Britain for some years and it seemed to me much of the book could have been taken from British newspaper-clippings with only the names changed, but obviously this is an American work. It leads one to wonder if the title of Mark Steyn's brilliant and terrifying America Alone may not actually be over-optimistic.

[MNJohnnie]

Mark Steyn's brilliant and terrifying America Alone

Should be required reading for all politicians. Mr Steyn is an amazing intellect. Brilliant and funny. His thoughts on how European style Socialism "prolongs adolescents" and the societal consequences of that perpetual adolescents deserve a Nobel Prize.

[saganite]

I usually don’t read excerpted articles but this one is worth it.