Prophet Song by Paul Lynch – Book
From a Google Image Search – The Guardian
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch won the Booker Prize. That would be enough reason to read it, but the dystopian nature, reflecting America’s possible descent into authoritarianism, makes it essential reading. Eilish and Larry Stack are having a perfectly ordinary night with their children (except the oldest boy who like most teens does not always get home on time). Bailey and Molly are in front of the TV and Ben is breast-feeding, as the author muses on behalf of Eilish,
“The night has come and she has not heard the knocking, standing at the window looking out into the garden. How the dark gathers without sound the cherry trees. It gathers the last of the leaves and the leaves do not resist the dark but accept the dark in whisper. Tired now, the day almost behind her, all that still has to be done before bed and the children settled in the living room, this feeling of rest for a moment by the glass. Watching the darkening garden and the wish to be at one with the darkness, to step outside and lie down with the fallen leaves and let the night pass over.
But the knocking… ” (pg. 6) (Paul Lynch’s writing would drive Grammarly crazy which doesn’t make it wrong.)
This proves to be one of the last ordinary nights the Stack family ever has. Who is at the door? The police, but not the ordinary police, these are the police of the new order, the order that is making up rules against every aspect of the state in which the people have lived for decades, perhaps centuries.
What do these people want, these people who were once neighbors, fellow citizens but are now, somehow, the police who can come to anyone’s door and make them disappear? It seems that they want nothing except power over you and your family. As Eilish struggles on her own, once her husband is rounded up and his fate becomes a mystery, she at least still has a job. Soon her job too falls afoul of whatever it is the new government will tolerate and she loses her grasp on the equanimity that routine offers. Everyone tells her to leave but she can’t imagine leaving while her husband is still being held, while her oldest son is off fighting with the revolutionaries against the new government which sees all citizens as enemies. Why? There appears to be no why, but just a quest for absolute power. These new leaders seem to offer nothing to citizens. Eilish’s sister wants her to come to Canada, but she wants to wait it out, believing it to be a temporary upheaval.
This is a disturbing book that we still ought to read since our senses tell us that this is something that could happen in America right now. Who would know better than Ireland (where this is set) what can happen in a divided nation? What would you do if the stormtroopers, no matter how polite they seem and how officially they are dressed, were to start appearing at doors across America warning you about mysterious transgressions that you were accused of committing? What would you do if family members were taken into custody and never returned? Suppose no information about their whereabouts was forthcoming? Would you leave America? Where would you go? You would have to be quick about it before the rules got too stringent and security measures forced you to find illegal ways to travel. It’s chilling to read about it, but it would be far more chilling to live it. A very timely book and a warning to all of us.
