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Alas, Babylon
by
Pat Frank
The classic apocalyptic novel that stunned the world.
Paperback, 323 pages
Published
July 1st 2005
by Harper Perennial
(first published 1959)
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Stephen
rated it
4.5 to 5.0 stars. I think the above pictures and quotes say a lot more of what I would like to express in this review than my words possibly can about the power and eloquence of the story Pat Frank created in 1959 about the folly and danger of Nuclear war. I can not imagine a better novel about the immediate after-effects of a global nuclear war than what is presented here.
True, the fact that anyone is left alive after the war does tend to make the...more
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It's 1959. It's the height of the Cold War. The threat of thermonuclear war hangs in the air like an impending thunderstorm.
Randy Bragg is a lawyer living in the backwaters of Florida in the small town of Fort Repose. He's the younger brother of an Air Force Colonel, Mark Bragg, stationed at Offutt AFB in Omaha - the renowned home of SAC HQ. Mark sends Randy a cryptic telegram telling him his wife and kids were coming to visit and ends with the phrase "Alas, Babylon."...more
Randy Bragg is a lawyer living in the backwaters of Florida in the small town of Fort Repose. He's the younger brother of an Air Force Colonel, Mark Bragg, stationed at Offutt AFB in Omaha - the renowned home of SAC HQ. Mark sends Randy a cryptic telegram telling him his wife and kids were coming to visit and ends with the phrase "Alas, Babylon."...more
This is a letter I wrote to our family after reading this book. This book definitely gives you a lot to think about even if there isn't a nuclear holocaust, we could definitely find ourselves without resources for a number of other reasons. The people in the book had done no planning ahead, but managed to adapt. I think it is important to plan for the worst and hope for the best. Thus came the letter I drafted for our family....
Our Dearest Family,
Current events have given...more
Our Dearest Family,
Current events have given...more
This book was published in 1959, and it feels like it every step of the way. The plot is compelling enough, but the writing is incredibly wooden. I actually laughed out loud at some of the passages, and not in a nice way. The author drags us through 100 pages of rising action, which is annoying because it adds nothing to the plot, and we all know the bomb is going to hit before we even read the blurb on the back cover.
The racism and sexism is also pretty terrible. Even after th...more
The racism and sexism is also pretty terrible. Even after th...more
How would react to no electricity, no food at the grocery store, no sanitation, and no clean water? Could you survive?
Paranoid? You may be after you read this book. Written in 1959, Frank captures, at least I think he captures, the mood of many US citizens during the heart of the Cold War. In elementary school I remember having to hide under desk, with my hands behind my head and knees pulled up to my chest. I remember that the Russians didn't like the Americans and didn't come ...more
Paranoid? You may be after you read this book. Written in 1959, Frank captures, at least I think he captures, the mood of many US citizens during the heart of the Cold War. In elementary school I remember having to hide under desk, with my hands behind my head and knees pulled up to my chest. I remember that the Russians didn't like the Americans and didn't come ...more
I read "Alas, Babylon" during a vacation to Mammoth at the end of August, 2005. We had no TV, no newspapers and no radio for 4 days. When we got home, we learned about the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina. As I watched news reports about the aftermath, I kept thinking back to the incidents in this book. It was just a bit spooky and it made me realize how unprepared I am for a major disaster. It also made me wonder if it's even possible to be truly prepared for a disaster. ...more
I read this when I was 10 or 11 because my mother believed that if I was physically capable of reading the words, I could read whatever books she had. I was terrified of nuclear war for the next five years. I'm actually still terrified by the idea, but I've learned to live with the fear. It would probably seem dated now, but it was a well done book when I read it.
I liked it. A quick, easy read, and an interesting look into the socio-political fabric of Cold War era, small-town America.
What struck me most about this book (and perhaps because of it's shining reviews), was that the majority of the book carried little emotional impact, stemming from a lack of conflict. One could argue that the setting of world wide nuclear destruction is conflict enough (which for the audience this was published for in 1959, it surely was), but the lack of small...more
What struck me most about this book (and perhaps because of it's shining reviews), was that the majority of the book carried little emotional impact, stemming from a lack of conflict. One could argue that the setting of world wide nuclear destruction is conflict enough (which for the audience this was published for in 1959, it surely was), but the lack of small...more
Mary JL
rated it
Recommends it for:
anyone interested in politic or history or a story of human survival
Shelves:
main-sf-fantasy
This was probably one of the very first "end of the world" novels I read and it is still one of the best.
At the very end, one characters asks "Who won?" and another replied "why, we did" and "turned to begin the thousand year night". So much for winning a nuclear war.
Very scary and depressing, and unfortunately all to real on what life would be like after a nuclear exchange.
At the very end, one characters asks "Who won?" and another replied "why, we did" and "turned to begin the thousand year night". So much for winning a nuclear war.
Very scary and depressing, and unfortunately all to real on what life would be like after a nuclear exchange.
Good, well-written. Stands the test of fifty years of Cold Wars (and Cold War apocalypses) since.
Might have quibbles about how Frank got World War Three started and the unlikely advances his group of survivors had, but even he acknowledged that most folks in similar circumstances wouldn't have made it. Fifty years later, I'd guess most Americans are much less able to cope with having the society we depend on ripped away.
Big disagreement with his closing sentence. Even tha...more
Might have quibbles about how Frank got World War Three started and the unlikely advances his group of survivors had, but even he acknowledged that most folks in similar circumstances wouldn't have made it. Fifty years later, I'd guess most Americans are much less able to cope with having the society we depend on ripped away.
Big disagreement with his closing sentence. Even tha...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Now I know what's meant by a "cozy catastrophe."
Alas, Babylon was probably a lot more frightening in the Cold War era when it was a huge bestseller, but we're wiser now. We know what nuclear fallout can do. We've seen and read apocalypses that are far more bleak --and realistic.
While the bombing of the US is by no means a fun scenario, the main characters in Alas, Babylon, with some work, see their lives improved post-catastrophe. By the end, the neighborhood i...more
Alas, Babylon was probably a lot more frightening in the Cold War era when it was a huge bestseller, but we're wiser now. We know what nuclear fallout can do. We've seen and read apocalypses that are far more bleak --and realistic.
While the bombing of the US is by no means a fun scenario, the main characters in Alas, Babylon, with some work, see their lives improved post-catastrophe. By the end, the neighborhood i...more
I've now read this book twice. It's a quick read, and I've enjoyed it both times.
This book speaks of hope that exist beyond terrible tragedy. People can be cruel, and yet those who choose to can survive and live a life of service and caring. It's thought provoking. What would you do if your government couldn't help or didn't exist at all? Would you take charge? Would you help those you could, or always be looking out for yourself? What about public rules? Would they just disa...more
This book speaks of hope that exist beyond terrible tragedy. People can be cruel, and yet those who choose to can survive and live a life of service and caring. It's thought provoking. What would you do if your government couldn't help or didn't exist at all? Would you take charge? Would you help those you could, or always be looking out for yourself? What about public rules? Would they just disa...more
Good book written early in the cold war days about what would happen in case if a nuclear attack. The author shows that even with advance notice, people did not prepare adequately, but that some preparation is better than none. The story is interesting because it looks into a future time that has already passed for us. We get to compare his imagination with our reality. After reading this book, you will have a better idea of how to prepare for an emergency, the problems disaster victims face, an...more
This had a lot of technical information in it, but it was a good book. It was realistic, and I really felt the same need to survive that the characters had. I just can't picture living without electricity, water, etc. This was a very good survival story. I have always been interested in post-nuclear war stories, and I liked this one. I reccommend it.
I thought that Alas, Babylon was a good read. It deserves 3.5 stars. I found the beginning and some other parts that contained a lot of war lingo to be very slow and uniteresting. I think if I was a little more familiar with the terms and names of certain divisions of military I might have been able to follow it better. I was very satisfied with the execution of the Highway men and the marriage between Randy and Elizabeth. I wish Frank would have created a love trianble between Hellen, the d...more
I picked this book up because both Liz and Eve read it, and I'm a sheep like that.
The first third of the book is waiting for the horrors of nuclear war to happen, and then the last two thirds are about how, with enough American Ingenuity, Johnny American can survive the best that those dirty Ivans can throw at us! Hurrah!
So. Even though I found the book painfully dated, (it was written in 1959,) it was an easy enough read, with likable enough characters, and some truly st...more
The first third of the book is waiting for the horrors of nuclear war to happen, and then the last two thirds are about how, with enough American Ingenuity, Johnny American can survive the best that those dirty Ivans can throw at us! Hurrah!
So. Even though I found the book painfully dated, (it was written in 1959,) it was an easy enough read, with likable enough characters, and some truly st...more
This book is based on the cold war. The US is bombed and disabled. A small town in Florida survives, but is surrounded by radioactive cities. They come together as neighbors and friends and survive.
This book made me think of things that I need in case of an emergency.
I read it quite fast.
This book made me think of things that I need in case of an emergency.
I read it quite fast.
I'm surprised this book hasn't become more popular with the birth (and re-birth) of the CBS show Jericho, which borrows both premise and key conflicts from Pat Frank's novel.
In the midst of the Cold War, Frank wrote this novel in part to depict what exactly MAD entailed. His protagonist, Randy Bragg, struggles to hold onto his neighborhood and some semblance of civilization in the wake of a nuclear exchange between Russia and the US. Shortly after its publication, Alas, Babylon was...more
In the midst of the Cold War, Frank wrote this novel in part to depict what exactly MAD entailed. His protagonist, Randy Bragg, struggles to hold onto his neighborhood and some semblance of civilization in the wake of a nuclear exchange between Russia and the US. Shortly after its publication, Alas, Babylon was...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
If you grew up during the Cold War Era, chances are you remember practicing the “duck and cover” method - crawling under your desk at school and covering your head - to protect yourself from a nuclear blast. Although that may sound ridiculous to us enlightened twenty-first century folk, this era of human history was a time of very real fear - fear of being overrun by Communism and of sudden annihilation by nuclear war. In fact, it was this fear that drove many novelists to document their anxieti...more
At just about 300 pages, it was an excellent read for my public transportation commute to and from work.
I first encountered this novel in high school -- when I wasn't interested at all in reading assigned books. But I picked it up again a week or so ago and found I couldn't put it down.
The stories focuses around a central Florida town (the fictional Fort Repose) and a number of its citizens in the wake of a massive nuclear attack by the Soviets in the late 1950s/early 1960s. ...more
I first encountered this novel in high school -- when I wasn't interested at all in reading assigned books. But I picked it up again a week or so ago and found I couldn't put it down.
The stories focuses around a central Florida town (the fictional Fort Repose) and a number of its citizens in the wake of a massive nuclear attack by the Soviets in the late 1950s/early 1960s. ...more
Pikachu
rated it
World War III has just broken out, triggered by the global tensions of the Cold War. Russia and The United States go at it with Hydrogen Bombs. The blasts shake the earth, rousing the people in the sleepy town of Fort Repose from their respective slumbers. When they look out their windows, they can see the mushrooming clouds, cast in the red light from the dying sun. Randy is more prepared than most since his brother, Mark, is in the military, and he's seen this coming for a while. Mark sends hi...more
This book was written in 1959 during the Cold War. Pat Frank writes about the future, of course this future has already happened for us. In this future the Soviets launch a nuclear attack against the USA and wipe out most of the major cities here and in western Europe. a small town in Florida manages to survive. It is not exactly a "Mad Max" novel where the hero gets to wear leather and shoot bad guys with out thought of law or consequences. It is more a novel about second chances. The...more
I approached this book without much enthusiasm, but was pleasantly surprised. Written during the height of the cold war, Pat Frank creates an intriguing novel describing a nuclear holocaust and its consequences. I enjoyed his writing for many reasons, but most of all because he showed the horror of nuclear war while still preserving hope in humanity.
The story focuses on the small town of Fort Repose in Florida and how its citizens are affected. During my reading I came to the natu...more
The story focuses on the small town of Fort Repose in Florida and how its citizens are affected. During my reading I came to the natu...more
A charming, if not terribly realistic, post-apocalyptic novel soaked in 1950's gin. The characters are a bit wooden and shallow, their challenges relatively simple (and easily met), but the novel is still unrelentingly charming. For example, it has a wide range of interesting and colorful characters, like the Preacher, whom nobody outside his family knows by any other name, but is also wildly racist, such as w.r.t the Preacher, who is stereotyped like many 1950's fictional negros. A lot of ti...more
Kind of a right-wingy, Cold War, masturbatory, end-times fantasy complete with the sexism and subtle bigotry found in polite, Southern society of the the day. All things considered, this book isn't poorly written and certainly takes an accurate snapshot of the late 1950's, early 1960's American body politic revealing the fear and submission found just below the surface of a culture dominated by a military-industrial complex that failed to protect the country in spite of near-infinite resources.
...more
In 1959, at the height of tensions between America and the Soviet Union, Frank published Alas, Babylon, his most famous novel. The portrait of a small Florida town's efforts to cope with the aftermath of an all-out nuclear war is a work of science fiction, but at the time, with the arms race escalating into space, it seemed all too realistic. Harry Hart lived to see the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when his vision of nuclear conflict almost became a terrible reality. After the publication of Al...more
I've always enjoyed science fiction that deals with apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic themes. Many people read this work earlier in their lives, but I didn't come across it until I was in my thirties. This work was published in 1959 at the height of the cold War and paints a very realistic picture of the fear and paranoia that Americans felt in the 1950s relative to the atomic bomb. The story focuses on character development and does not really delve into the scientific or military aspects of ...more
Could your town pull together to survive the aftermath of a Nuclear War? That is exactly what the small community of Fort Repose, Florida is faced with. The struggles of finding enough food, water, and doing battle against maurading bands of thiefs and killers. Not knowing what exactly is happening in the rest of the world is the hardest for those who have loved ones elsewhere. Who will take charge and organize the community; what would you do if you no longer had a job to go to; if m...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alas Babylon | 3 | 46 | Aug 16, 2011 07:29am | |
| does anyone know what the "thousand year night" is? | 4 | 43 | Jun 15, 2011 02:18pm |
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"Pat Frank" was the lifelong nickname adopted by the American writer, newspaperman, and government consultant, who was born Harry Hart Frank (1908-1964), and who is remembered today almost exclusively for his post-apocalyptic novel Alas, Babylon. Before the publication of his first novel Mr. Adam launched his second career as novelist and independent writer, Frank spent many years as a j...more
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“ 'I think you ought to go to New York or Chicago or San Francisco or any city with character and vitality. You should go to work. This place is no good for you, Randy. The air is like soup and the people are like noodles. You're vegetating. I don't want a vegetable. I want a man.' " - Lib McGovern”
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“ 'Legs are for men's pleasure, breasts are for babies'.' " - Lib McGovern”
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