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The Queue: A Novella and Warriors, a Trilogy of Plays
Aging, generational conflict and mortality are the themes of The Queue, a novella, and Warriors, a trilogy of plays.
Set in the not too distant future, The Queue describes the horrors faced by citizens of advanced age when they are forced by a planetary leader into a seemingly endless line toward an unknown destination. Joining the queue to assist his parents, a middle-aged narrator describes the ordeals that he and his companions endure over a challenging 40 days.
In a trilogy of absurdist drama, Warriors offers three humorist takes on aging, each of them grappling with end-of-life scenarios.
Set in the not too distant future, The Queue describes the horrors faced by citizens of advanced age when they are forced by a planetary leader into a seemingly endless line toward an unknown destination. Joining the queue to assist his parents, a middle-aged narrator describes the ordeals that he and his companions endure over a challenging 40 days.
In a trilogy of absurdist drama, Warriors offers three humorist takes on aging, each of them grappling with end-of-life scenarios.
196 pages, Paperback
First published May 23, 2011
22 people want to read
About the author
L. Michael Hager
2 books2 followersCurrently residing in Washington, DC, Mike Hager is a retired lawyer, diplomat, co-founder of the International Development Law Organization in Rome, Executive Director of Conflict Management Group in Cambridge, MA and President of the Education For Employment Foundation in Washington, DC. Most of his professional career was spent abroad (in West Africa, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Egypt and Italy). The Queue is his first novel and Warriors his first play trilogy. He has a produced ten-minute play (Waiting for Beckett) to his credit. Another ten-minute play (The Fishing Trip) and some unpublished short stories are in the wings.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 24, 2012
I approached this book warily. After all, fiction and playwriting are such different forms, why put the two together? Fiction is designed to pull you into a world, and a published play requires you to imagine seeing a stage and, despite the stage directions, you forget that a stage is there or that the script is really meant for actors. Ideally, the characters and actions are so intriguing, you forget all the artifice. It’s a difficult form to get right for readers.
Still, as a published novelist and produced playwright, I adore both forms, so I plunged in, starting with the novella; "The Queue" is absolutely brilliant.
"The Queue" takes place sometime in the future, perhaps not that far off, where our world is under guidance of a leader whom people call Leader. With resources starting to become short, the Leader has decreed that the state will confiscate the homes of “citizens of advanced age,” people eighty and older. They all have to report to a specific spot, a queue of people that extends to the horizon. What will happen to the elderly citizens, arranged by age, oldest first, when they get to the front of the line? No one knows.
The story is told by a middle-aged man who has helped his two parents to the line, and he stays with them. Author Michael Hager pours out the truths of the human condition in an existentialist tone reminiscent of No Exit by John-Paul Sartre. The story is not just about aging, but of many aspects of the human condition.
For instance, some people in line including the narrator’s parents take solace from their religion. How can faith exist when it seems so clear there is no higher power, no sense, no fairness? Yet when the narrator runs into a group of elderly nuns, he is awed by their strength.
The narrator experiences a mixture of the Stanford prison experiment and the surreal. Guards abuse older people and shoot or hang them if they’re the least bit surly, yet the old folks patiently stand and worry, moving sometimes only meters a day, wondering what will happen to them. Maybe it’ll be good.
What adds to the strength of this book are the contradictions, such as the upbeat nature of some of the people in line when so much is horrible or how a pleasant scent of the soldiers’ coffee leads to a positive memory.
As one elderly gentleman tells the narrator in the harshness of the line with a smile, “To age well, one must accept suffering and death, not only as inevitable but as something natural and good—whether it comes in a battlefield or in a hospital bed.”
The format of the book is unusual, a dance between standard design and indented sections in italics that jump into the protagonist’s memory. Expositive by design, they nonetheless reveal a lot. For instance, he remembers a day he was deeply in love and was about to propose to his girlfriend when she “had something to say. She’d met someone. This would be our last time together.” Such juxtapositions lead the reader to nod at life’s inherent unfairness and absurdity while remain fascinated by the moments of beauty.
Hager’s three one-act plays, in contrast, lack the truth and lyricism of "The Queue." I won't get into them because they are on-the-nose and clunky. However, they shouldn't dissuade you from getting the book to read the novella, which is haunting.
Still, as a published novelist and produced playwright, I adore both forms, so I plunged in, starting with the novella; "The Queue" is absolutely brilliant.
"The Queue" takes place sometime in the future, perhaps not that far off, where our world is under guidance of a leader whom people call Leader. With resources starting to become short, the Leader has decreed that the state will confiscate the homes of “citizens of advanced age,” people eighty and older. They all have to report to a specific spot, a queue of people that extends to the horizon. What will happen to the elderly citizens, arranged by age, oldest first, when they get to the front of the line? No one knows.
The story is told by a middle-aged man who has helped his two parents to the line, and he stays with them. Author Michael Hager pours out the truths of the human condition in an existentialist tone reminiscent of No Exit by John-Paul Sartre. The story is not just about aging, but of many aspects of the human condition.
For instance, some people in line including the narrator’s parents take solace from their religion. How can faith exist when it seems so clear there is no higher power, no sense, no fairness? Yet when the narrator runs into a group of elderly nuns, he is awed by their strength.
The narrator experiences a mixture of the Stanford prison experiment and the surreal. Guards abuse older people and shoot or hang them if they’re the least bit surly, yet the old folks patiently stand and worry, moving sometimes only meters a day, wondering what will happen to them. Maybe it’ll be good.
What adds to the strength of this book are the contradictions, such as the upbeat nature of some of the people in line when so much is horrible or how a pleasant scent of the soldiers’ coffee leads to a positive memory.
As one elderly gentleman tells the narrator in the harshness of the line with a smile, “To age well, one must accept suffering and death, not only as inevitable but as something natural and good—whether it comes in a battlefield or in a hospital bed.”
The format of the book is unusual, a dance between standard design and indented sections in italics that jump into the protagonist’s memory. Expositive by design, they nonetheless reveal a lot. For instance, he remembers a day he was deeply in love and was about to propose to his girlfriend when she “had something to say. She’d met someone. This would be our last time together.” Such juxtapositions lead the reader to nod at life’s inherent unfairness and absurdity while remain fascinated by the moments of beauty.
Hager’s three one-act plays, in contrast, lack the truth and lyricism of "The Queue." I won't get into them because they are on-the-nose and clunky. However, they shouldn't dissuade you from getting the book to read the novella, which is haunting.
January 18, 2012
it may be one of the most important books you ever read....
Reviewed by Anne B. for Readers Favorite
In The Queue we face a world that I hope I will never see in reality. The Leader has mandated that all elderly be rounded up and herded to an unknown destination. They walk in a queue many miles long as soldiers continue to force them ahead. The people are forced to wear a badge with their age on it, designating their place in line. Many fall along the way due to medical problems, abuse and lack of nourishment.
The plight of the elderly is told through the journal of a man searching for his parents. He locates them and witnesses the atrocities taking place. After a time he leaves his parents and mingles with other victims learning their stories. He heads toward the front of the line hoping to discover what lay ahead for the sufferers. What he found was beyond horrendous.
The Queue is not an easy book to read, I was sickened by the treatment of the elderly. Then I began to think of some things I have overheard concerning Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other humanitarian programs that aide the elderly. In the last few years we have seen an increase in the over sixty crowd and a continued decrease in those entering the work force. As one approaching sixty too fast I am concerned with the outlook of the younger generation. I have heard the elderly referred to as a burden to society. I have heard complaints that the elderly did not prepare for the future and now are dependent on the next generation. Too often the elderly are looked at as a burden and all of their hard work, accomplishments and sacrifice are over looked or forgotten.
While The Queue may seem abit over the top at first glance, after pondering the author’s intent it is easy to understand why this book had to be written in this style. Although filled with difficult concepts and imagery, it may be one of the most important books you ever read.
This book continues on with three short plays all shedding light on the elderly and nursing facilities. They are written with more than a touch irony. In the first the elderly are drafted into the military. The government has decided to send the elderly to the front lines instead of young soldiers. Being an equal opportunity army women are automatically accepted as well as the handicapped. The next one introduces readers to a home for the elderly where they pretend “no one ever loses. Each resident writes their own script.” The last play deals with being forced to leave your home.
As I stated earlier, the author utilizes his talent to shed light on the victimization of the elderly. Well done!
Reviewed by Anne B. for Readers Favorite
In The Queue we face a world that I hope I will never see in reality. The Leader has mandated that all elderly be rounded up and herded to an unknown destination. They walk in a queue many miles long as soldiers continue to force them ahead. The people are forced to wear a badge with their age on it, designating their place in line. Many fall along the way due to medical problems, abuse and lack of nourishment.
The plight of the elderly is told through the journal of a man searching for his parents. He locates them and witnesses the atrocities taking place. After a time he leaves his parents and mingles with other victims learning their stories. He heads toward the front of the line hoping to discover what lay ahead for the sufferers. What he found was beyond horrendous.
The Queue is not an easy book to read, I was sickened by the treatment of the elderly. Then I began to think of some things I have overheard concerning Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other humanitarian programs that aide the elderly. In the last few years we have seen an increase in the over sixty crowd and a continued decrease in those entering the work force. As one approaching sixty too fast I am concerned with the outlook of the younger generation. I have heard the elderly referred to as a burden to society. I have heard complaints that the elderly did not prepare for the future and now are dependent on the next generation. Too often the elderly are looked at as a burden and all of their hard work, accomplishments and sacrifice are over looked or forgotten.
While The Queue may seem abit over the top at first glance, after pondering the author’s intent it is easy to understand why this book had to be written in this style. Although filled with difficult concepts and imagery, it may be one of the most important books you ever read.
This book continues on with three short plays all shedding light on the elderly and nursing facilities. They are written with more than a touch irony. In the first the elderly are drafted into the military. The government has decided to send the elderly to the front lines instead of young soldiers. Being an equal opportunity army women are automatically accepted as well as the handicapped. The next one introduces readers to a home for the elderly where they pretend “no one ever loses. Each resident writes their own script.” The last play deals with being forced to leave your home.
As I stated earlier, the author utilizes his talent to shed light on the victimization of the elderly. Well done!
January 25, 2012
The Queue is a story of a fifty-year-old man trying to help his aged parents on a journey that they don’t know why they need to make. I can’t remember if the name of this man was ever established. The writing is a bit confusing as the same paragraph starts with what somebody says and in the next sentence the other person answers. This makes for a very slow going on a tale that is quite depressing to begin with. It is written like a diary entries, where every day starts with how he wakes up and ends when he falls asleep. Like I said, it is slow and tiresome, mostly because the reader never knows what the purpose of the tale is and why we should care.
The first play is named “Warriors.” It depicts a group of elderly people who live at the elderly house. They get drafted to war because the elderly are just a bother to the young.
The next one is “Paradise.” In it the elderly pretend to live in a live play to make the elderly live happily.
The last play is called “Home.” In this one an elderly man is waiting for the people from the elderly home to come and get him as his son-in-law goes nuts.
The writing in this book isn’t bad. The works just don’t fit my definition of what people want to read for fun. The Plays are described as absurdist drama with humorist takes on aging, but what I saw was death with no hope at all for those who get old. For adults only.
The first play is named “Warriors.” It depicts a group of elderly people who live at the elderly house. They get drafted to war because the elderly are just a bother to the young.
The next one is “Paradise.” In it the elderly pretend to live in a live play to make the elderly live happily.
The last play is called “Home.” In this one an elderly man is waiting for the people from the elderly home to come and get him as his son-in-law goes nuts.
The writing in this book isn’t bad. The works just don’t fit my definition of what people want to read for fun. The Plays are described as absurdist drama with humorist takes on aging, but what I saw was death with no hope at all for those who get old. For adults only.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews