quote:Nowhere near as cheerful is M.J. Engh's brilliant but disturbing novel Arslan.
Originally published in 1976, then reissued in 1987 and most recently in 2001, there's a good reason why this novel keeps going out of print -- and then keeps coming back again.
It goes out of print because the story of an American town being chosen as the world capital of an Attila- or Genghis-like conqueror is so realistically grim that you can hardly bear to recommend it to your friends. You certainly can't give it to your children.
And yet no one has explored how power works within a community as effectively as Engh does within these pages. Do you want to get a glimpse of what it might be like if America were ruled by raw personal power? Not as evil as Saddam, the character of Arslan eventually wears a human face. But he can never be trusted, is capable of terrible cruelty, and any bargain you make with him is more of a bet, with him in control of the outcome.
Don't give this as a gift. Except perhaps as a gift to yourself, if you have the courage to look into the abyss.
I read this book on reccomendation from someone - I think from Ornery.
I hated reading it. Not because of the way it was written (it is very well-written), and not because of some wearying tropes carried to absurdity, but because it is so incredibly disturbing. OSC's right about the way the power is handled in the small community. How that power is handled in terms of the larger world isn't done well, but it isn't the point. Anyway, I read it once, and I have no intention of reading it again.
But I can't give it away.
I've been doing a cleansing of my meager worldly goods, and I'm creating a box of books to sell. It already four whole books in it (about .8%), and I wavered in the decision to toss in Arslan. I couldn't do it, though. Although I have no intention of reading it again, and I'll definitely never loan it out, I kept the book.
Has anyone else read it?
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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It sounds interesting, but I had never heard of it till I read the review less than an hour ago. Care to loan me your copy?
Posts: 1041 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Murray, Kentucky. In the western part of the state, near LBL. I was joking--I think I'm out of your reach.
Posts: 1041 | Registered: Feb 2002
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kat, funny you should mention cleaning off the bookshelves...I got disgusted with my closet this weekend and started cleaning. Toward the back I discovered a box full of books I didn't know was there. I started sifting through them, and then looked at my bookshelves in despair for ever finding room. Stuff was literally falling off the shelves, and there was no hope of finding *anything*, let alone putting more stuff on them.
So what started as cleaning out the closet turned into sorting through our collection of books, to make some room. Brutal hours later, I had 7 boxes full of books I knew I'd never read again.
Watching Clean Sweep regularly has made me far more brutal in sorting and getting rid of stuff. But I now have *lots* of room for new friends!
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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It's a show on TLC that plays at 6pm every weekday with new episodes on Saturday night. People who have two seriously overwealming rooms full of more stuff than you can possibly live with sanely submit themselves to being kicked out for two days, while all their stuff is pulled out for them to sort through. Meanwhile, the crew goes in and redecorates the rooms and organizes the stuff they are ultimately allowed to keep. It's wonderfully inspiring for organizing and getting rid of stuff you really don't need.
I'm itching to "Clean Sweep" my kitchen next.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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But I now have *lots* of room for new friends!
