Behind the Brick

Don’t miss this one. Here’s the best out of all the five-star reviews this book has garnered. To get your copy go to http://www.amazon.com/author/shaunwebb

Also see: http://www.shaun-webb.com

5.0 out of 5 stars Where Cornwell meets Orwell (Or, why 2050 is the new 1984), January 23, 2014

By D. Logue – See all my reviews

(REAL NAME) This review is from: Behind the Brick (Paperback)

I must admit I rarely spend time reading fiction, but the premise of this book had me intrigued. Behind the Brick is a very ambitious book. As the title of my review suggests, the fast-paced, action-oriented book style reads like a Patricia Cornwell novel while the social commentary is filled with Orwellian symbolism.

The year 2050 has become the new 1984. A president uses a public safety platform to push the US closer to the edge of tyranny. A number of ever-increasing laws have failed to stop the pandemic of Predator Panic, and the public sex offender registry has swelled to over two million faces. Residency restrictions and microchip implants have failed to quell the fears, leaving a final solution– the creation of an isolated penal colony in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, surrounded by 25-foot brick walls (hence, “The Brick”).

The story centers around the actions of “The Advocates,” a trio of individuals resisting the roundup– Steven Smith, an eccentric but smart computer nerd hiding in the Montana wilderness, and Rachel and Matt Lyons, a couple from New York also working to stop the impending ‘Wisecroft Act,” the Executive Order calling for internment of all registered citizens at “The Brick.”

President Wisecroft has used the popularity of his cause of child safety to lull the masses into a plan that would push the USA across the invisible line into Imperialism. Among Wisecroft’s pawns are the NVAC, a group of citizen volunteers assisting in the roundup of registered citizens and seizing the property of their families.

I do not wish to give away too much of the plot, so I wish to focus on the social commentary of this novel. Behind the Brick is an Orwellian commentary about our current state of criminal punishment codes. In our current society, we treat every social issue as a “war” — the war on drugs, for example. Laws are propagated and passed without any thought to the consequences. Just as Stalinism loomed heavy on George Orwell as he penned his most famous works, so the current state of crime politics looms over Behind the Brick.

While 2050 seems so far away and the idea of internment camps seems ludicrous in the “land of the free,” we forget it was hardly a generation or two ago the USA had internment camps, Jim Crow laws, and the forced removal of Native American Indians onto “reservations.” In each example we find a despised and feared group in which the urge to dehumanize, intern, and eliminate is powerful. In addition, we have shown in recent history how public fears can cause us to give up our liberties for the sake of public safety. Behind the Brick thus serves as a modern incarnation of the classic Orwellian novel.

The social commentary does not take away from the fact this novel is fun to read and action-packed. Despite Behind the Brick’s value as a social commentary, the book does not resort to lofty preaching and detours like many similar books, even a book like 1984, tends to do. The focus from beginning to end is on a handful of characters.

I rarely read novels, and despite the size of the book, I was able to read through it in a couple of evenings. I strongly suggest this novel to anyone looking for something off the beaten bath. This novel is a real diamond in the rough that I hope will someday be given the publicity it deserves.

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