Monday, March 7, 2016

Reading: Canticle for Lebowitz

This week I read another classic, A CANTICLE FOR LEBOWITZ.

Here is the description from Amazon:

Winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel and widely considered one of the most accomplished, powerful, and enduring classics of modern speculative fiction, Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s A Canticle for Leibowitz is a true landmark of twentieth-century literature -- a chilling and still-provocative look at a post-apocalyptic future.

In a nightmarish ruined world slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infant rediscoveries of science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the study and preservation of the relics and writings of the blessed Saint Isaac Leibowitz. From here the story spans centuries of ignorance, violence, and barbarism, viewing through a sharp, satirical eye the relentless progression of a human race damned by its inherent humanness to recelebrate its grand foibles and repeat its grievous mistakes. Seriously funny, stunning, and tragic, eternally fresh, imaginative, and altogether remarkable, A Canticle for Leibowitz retains its ability to enthrall and amaze. It is now, as it always has been, a masterpiece.

I have been reading a ton of books that I plowed through as a teen 40 years ago. I have really been enjoying most of the titles.

I have to say this book is not as good as I remember. I should rephrase that. I didn't enjoy this book as I remembered. I have grown to enjoy a single well developed protagonist. Even in massively long sagas. CfL is a short novel. lacking a single protag just bugs me.

--Give me a flawed hero any day.

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