It Can't Happen Here Book

October 8, 2015:

I am just on page 84 of this book but I cannot wait to write a review. So I will write a preliminary review.

Sinclair Lewis wrote this meanwhile classic satire in 1936. And I am afraid that fictious history might become true, 80 years after this book has been written.

The satiric novel tells about an American presidential candidate who is very belligerent and bombastic. Irony of all irony: Even though he is clearly a fascist, he hitches a ride from the Democratic Party to come to power.

Will keep you updated.

I URGE YOU TO READ THIS BOOK.


October 10, 2015

I rarely have time to read anywhere else than in bed or in the bathroom. At neither locations I keep any writing material. So in order to be able to treat you to a few excerpts from this book, I had to sit down at a table to reread part of what I had already read and take some notes.

I try to keep this review short, so I'll confine myself to only a few passages. They all portray the presidential candidate protagonist, whom, for simplicity, I will only call "The Candidate". I'll leave it up to you to find similarities to any of the present presidential candidates.

Here I go:

At the nomination event, The Candidate eventually retires to his hotel room, leaving a letter to be read to the electorate.

"Summarized, the letter explained that he was all against the banks but all for the bankers … … … ; that he had thoroughly tested (but unspecified) plans to make all wages very high and the prices of everything produced by these same highly paid workers very low; that he was 100 per cent for Labor but 100 per cent against all strikes; and that he was in favor of the United States so arming itself, so preparing to produce its own coffee, sugar, perfumes, tweed, and nickel instead of importing them, that it would defy the World …, and maybe, if that World was so impertinent as to defy America in turn [The Candidate] hinted, he might have to take it over and run it properly."

The other protagonist, owner of a small-town newspaper, whom I'll call The Newspaper Man, describes The Candidate as follows:

"Aside from his dramatic glory, The Candidate was a Professional Common Man.'Oh he was common enough. He had every prejudice and aspiration of every American Common Man. … … … But he was the Common Man twenty-times-magnified by his oratory, so that while the other Commoners could understand his every purpose, which was exactly the same as their own, they saw him towering among them, and they raised hands to him in worship."

And the Newspaper Man continues a few pages later:

"The few who did fail [to adore and support The Candidate], most of them newspapermen, disliked the smell of him more than before they had met him. … … … Even they, by the unusual spiritedness and color of their attack upon him, kept his name alive in every column … … …"

Will keep you updated.

PLEASE READ THIS BOOK.


October 12, 2015

I am now getting towards the middle of the book; more precisely, I have read to page 156.

As you might have guessed, The Candidate became The Nominee, and The Nominee became The President.

My, oh, my! What can I say? The book is getting eery. As a matter of fact, I think Sinclair Lewis has plagiarized "Pfaffenhofen unterm Hakenkreuz" ("Pfaffenhofen under the swastika"), a non-fiction book, written by a local historian, telling how my hometown was nazified during the 1920s and 1930s. This was accomplished with rallies (some of which Hitler, in person, attended), promises, marches, songs, propaganda, and finally with hard-core brainwash; and as you might have heard of because it happened all over Germany, with harassing and threatening those citizens who resisted the brainwash and sending dissidents of every couleur to Dachau. Actually, not all of the latter were sent to Dachau; some were properly arrested and brought in front of the "Volksgericht" (People's Court), where a defense attorney was unnecessary. And a few were found dead, said to be murdered by some bolshevik swines. Mind you, all this happened before I was born (in 1939). So I cannot really testify to it and have to take the local historian's word for it. (This book, btw, is out of print, and there is unlikely to be a new edition because there are rumors that the author has received death threats.)

Getting back to America: No, this can't happen here. IT, definitely, CAN'T HAPPEN HERE. None of our present presidential candidates are evil. I have said this before, but I cannot say it often enough: NONE OF THEM ARE EVIL. Some are even very pious. Mind you, some are a bit power-craving (o.k., a few are a bit more than a bit power-craving). Some (and here I am definitely not naming names) are not the very brightest. One seems to be megalomaniac (might be treatable). This particular one is also very rude, vulgar, and scarily belligerent. I wouldn't even rule out that one or another is a bit of a scoundrel, but none of them are evil. So IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE.

Yet an old German proverb says: "Man soll den Tag nicht vor dem Abend loben." ("One should not praise the day before the evening.") I am not yet finished reading this book. So let's see how it will go from here.

Oh, btw, I have trouble with all the names in this book. Being nuttin' but an immigrant (listen, Mr. Trump, a LEGAL immigrant!), I am not very familiar with American politicians and other celebrities of days past. But I get by without identifying all of these characters.

One of the things I really like about this book is that it enables me to widen my meager ESL vocabulary. So for instance, I just recently came across the word "gas bag". I had known "wind bag", but "gas bag" can be so much more fitting. Sinclair Lewis even uses the expression "the gassiest of all gassy gas bags". This is such a beautiful and flowery expression. I don't know how I have been able to live without this expression for almost 76 years.

Talk to you again when I read further on.

In the meantime: GO AND START READING THIS BOOK.


October 17, 2015

I am now on page 258. America has been turned into a bomb-tight police state, terrorizing and murdering its non-conformist citizens. And I tell you, this COULD HAVE HAPPENED in the 1930s because, all differences taken into account, Americans are NOT THAT MUCH DIFFERENT from Europeans and even Germans.

Yet I am rather sure that IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE now, in the early 21st century. But don't relax yet. Worse things CAN HAPPEN now.

So get off your couch and do something. Don't let worse things happen.

Will keep you posted.

HOPE YOU HAVE ALREADY STARTED READING THIS BOOK.


October 21, 2015

I have now read to page 355.

It's not funny anymore. And I don't mean the police state, as it goes without saying that this isn't funny. I mean the book. It is turning into a horror story, and I don't like horror stories. I never read horror fiction, and I get more than I ever want non-fiction horror from the news and from reading Holocaust memoirs, which I consider every decent person's duty to read.

So what is happening to this satire novel? I always thought that satire, while allowed to be acid, is supposed to be funny.

Could it be that Sinclair Lewis's wife, the journalist who visited Germany several times and even interviewed Hitler, got mad at her husband for writing too funny a book about such a serious matter as an abominable police state with concentration camps, torture, and state-approved murder? Could it be that she kicked him and coaxed him to describe in detail what oppressive, totalitarian regimes do to their non-conformist citizens (and occasionally even to their conformist citizens who fall out of grace for one reason or another)?

I am confused. Let's see where this book goes from here. I hope to be able to finish reading tonight.

However, regardless of how much criticism of this book I might come up with and whether or not I'll see myself compelled to snip off a star, GO AND READ THIS BOOK.


October 21, 2015 ' evening.

I am now done with page 380; this means that I have finished reading this book.

So what can I say? First of all, I would like to express my relief that the last 25 pages contain no more horror details.

I don't wish to include spoilers. So just let me say that a lot of things happened already in the previous pages'changes in government and the like.

But now, guess what! The President of the United States has STARTED A WAR WITH MEXICO'no, not because of illegal immigrants, and not even because he wants to build a wall on the Mexican border and the Mexican government refuses to pay for it. (There wasn't even any talk about Mexicans raping American women. Instead, there are songs about American soldiers having fun with Mexican girls.) No, it is something else.

Oh gosh! I forget what this war is for, but it doesn't really matter. The underlying cause is that the President of the United States and his Secretary of War (plus a few other government officials) consider the Mexicans inferior, and inferior people shouldn't be allowed to own a country. As I said, I don't quite remember the official reason.

And now what? Well, I won't give away the end. It is a bit inconclusive, and I am not too impressed with it. So don't expect a happy end. Who expects a happy end anyway with a book like this one?

Let me close with an uplifting thought: In the 1930s, there were no nuclear weapons. Thus, no one, not even Hitler, would be able to produce a total Armageddon. So don't worry about the ending of this book. It can't be all bad.

Today, however, there are nuclear weapons, and a WWIII will, most likely, be the war to end all wars, except maybe for insect wars. (I hear that insects are more resistant to radiation than mammals.)

Now, where was I? Allow me. I am a senior, and seniors occasionally lose their train of thought. I wanted to close with an uplifting thought. That's right. O.k.!

So let's return to the title of the book. It says: "IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE".


(I decided to leave the rating at 5 stars. The general message of this book makes up for the flaws.)


P.S. February 9, 2016: After the primary results in New Hampshire, I am afraid, "IT CAN HAPPEN HERE." Time to start doomsday prepping.


P.P.S. November 9, 2016: "IT HAS HAPPENED HERE."