Book 1: Fail-Safe

Fail-Safe
Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler

Written and set just in the terrifying year of 1962, when the world seemingly teetered on the brink of nuclear destruction at the hands of the United States and the Soviet Union, Fail-Safe takes fears of nuclear annihilation and a perilously naïve trust in machinery to their logical conclusion. The prologue itself asserts that the novel's conclusions will most assuredly come to pass, if not in the particular way envisioned herein, and though the novel has become a bit dated because, well, that didn't happen, it is nonetheless strangely powerful and almost claims a sense of immediacy even fifty years after its publication. What holds it back, however, is its inextricable ties to its own time; with a United States president so thinly veiled they really may as well have called him Kennedy consulting with Nikita Khrushchev, the book hardly seems relevant at first glance. It becomes, instead, a brilliant look at the fears of the Cold War era, an interesting, if not perfectly executed, vision of the intricate mechanisms that somehow did not manage to combine and destroy us all. This is not to say, however, that the book is particularly well-written, or even well-plotted; indeed, the fact that it is entertaining, let alone emotionally effective, is shocking given the number of missteps that very nearly doom the book at every step along the way. Burdick and Wheeler begin in a somewhat mixed manner, offering an in-depth character portrait with a ticking clock nicely placed at its end. The instinct to pull back in the next chapter and re-set the stage is marvelous, and the authors almost pull it off before the reader realizes that we are not just seeing the main players but getting additional superfluous backstory that almost, but doesn't quite, work.

The suspense so strongly built and so deftly pulled back in the first few chapters dissolves entirely as the authors allow the plot and characters to stagnate, and the book grows stale, predicated upon the importance of mere minutes and seconds yet seemingly obsessed with decades and years, not to mention those clumsy, "Hey reader!" conversations that explain everything in some unrealistically blunt simplicity. By the time the plot returns to its suspenseful self, readers have to re-acquaint themselves with a strangely ill-defined, yet heavily explored, cast of characters, and the effect is choppy where slick thrills are really called for. Place this all in front of an excruciatingly dated backdrop and sprinkle it with awkward, overt references to the inevitable rise of the machines and you get…an entertaining and oddly moving testament to the raw emotional power of total nuclear destruction. I'm not sure entirely how this happened, but somewhere within the escalating tension the clumsiness made way and the immediacy of the problem subtly infused itself into my consciousness. A visit to the cockpits of the bombing squadron tasked with destroying Moscow (of course it's the largest of Russian cities) and to those of the fighters sent to bring them down helps, and there is a quiet desperation throughout the writing, lurking beneath the surface, a result of the same bravado and assuredness that makes the prologue seem so silly in retrospect. At some point, it becomes obvious that Burdick and Wheeler wrote what they considered to be an inalterable consequence of politics, and despite its punch it never becomes a desperate plea for peace. Instead, Fail-Safe is quietly resigned to its conclusion, foreseeable yet completely devastating, a warning that doesn't quite cast a shadow of lasting relevance but which throws the Cold War crisis into sharp, and somewhat terrifying, relief, even fifty years later.

Grade: A-

Book 6: Watchmen

Watchmen
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

This famous graphic novel, soon to be released as a movie, is my first foray into the world of graphic narratives, and what an opener it is! This book has just as much, if not more, depth than many of its more traditional counterparts and provides a perfect balance of mass, pulp appeal and high art. Though I don't have anything to directly compare it to, Watchmen balances its written words and its art marvelously, using both to advance the narrative in ways unique to its medium. Not content to rest on a simple, straightforward narrative, Watchmen utilizes a uniquely complex mix of flashbacks, sub-plots, primary document-fueled backstory, and parallel narratives to completely immerse readers in its hardscrabble alternate future. Combine these intense and extremely well-executed literary techniques with the book's impeccably evocative artwork and Watchmen easily becomes a masterpiece in the world of printed art.

This book would be notable for the successful execution of its story alone. It is difficult to write alternative histories without becoming overwhelmingly didactic or falling into the realm of tired cliches; there are no such errors in the world of Watchmen, which paints its world in vivid colors and whose world is not so foreign to the real climate of the late Cold War. Major details, such as the outcome of the Vietnam War, are changed, but the fundamental climate of fear (and flashpoints of Afghanistan and East Germany) are not, making the world believable and suitably familiar to remain chilling and effective. Additonally, the changes to our accepted timeline are relevant to the book's superhero saga and are all necessary to the mood of the book, which is its strongest point. Its plot, regarding real-life superheroes facing a difficult and often hostile world, characters (who face very real and very complex psychological dilemmas), and setting (both in time and space) combine as perfectly as in any fictional world I've ever seen- each component is carefully considered and balanced against the others to create a completely engrossing story.

The soaring success of Watchmen is largely due to the way that it uses and twists familiar comic cliches. I initially wanted to groan at the appearance of a comic within this comic, but before long it was apparent that this nested narrative is carefully balanced with the book's main plot to expose grand truths about existence and human psychology, besides being an excellent and chilling self-contained story itself. Its characters are likewise the kind of flawed anti-heroes we've come to expect in recent years, but each embraces his or her role in an entirely unique way that defies stereotypes. Even when the plot becomes grandiose in typical superhero-story fashion, it is riddled with moral dilemmas so complex that the book becomes a work of deep and difficult philosophy while remaining enjoyable on its basic story level. Watchmen has layers so deep and complex that it is a trip deep within the human psyche, and even if these considerations become overbearing and a bit confusing at some points, the narrative itself is better for it. This is anything but an easy, breezy read and that is just fine.

Watchmen is the perfect example of art that recognizes and exploits its medium to fullest effect. Complete with backstory-rounding primary documents that illuminate the rich world of the book, this volume creates one of the most complete fictional universes I have ever encountered, to say nothing of its engrossing, thrilling, and completely appropriate plot. In addition to commenting on traditional superhero narratives with enough originality to stay out of the trap of didacticism, Watchmen puts forth a compelling story that fits entirely in to the fears of both its alternate history and its real-world publication date. Moore and Gibbons are able to capture the very specific fears and paranoia of the Cold War while retaining the atmosphere of general fear and doubt that accompanies today's advanced nuclear age. The problems of Watchmen are hyper-specific to its fictional history, real history, and today's continuing history; they are at once specific in time and entirely universal without being dated or at all cliche. Combine Moore's ultra-intelligent writing with the recurring motifs and absolutely stunning and appropriate art of Gibbons and it is no wonder that Watchmen has become such a classic in its own genre and throughout the entire publishing world. This book packs a serious punch and deserves all of its accolades; anyone skeptical of the power of the graphic novel should pick it up immediately, as well as anyone interested in the psychology of trying times. Watchmen defies description and soars above any praise I can humbly seek to bestow upon it.

Grade: A

Book 59: The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate
Richard Condon

Having never seen either of the movie adaptations of this book, I went into it relatively unspoiled, which I think is a good thing because I was permitted to engage in the novel's big reveal precisely as it was intended, just before the heretofore barely implicit became blindly obvious. Because the political implications of the novel hinge on this plot twist, it is difficult to assess the novel on a first reading. For much of the story, I was somewhat bored and confused by different characterizations and rambling paragraphs of exposition that seemed to add little to the story; in retrospect, some of these bits are useful but some are unnecessarily long and come into play far later for minor plot variations. The book is largely boring but speeds up fairly well in the end, achieving a thrilling intensity in its last hundred pages that would serve it well in the previous parts. The book is also hard for someone in my generation to judge, as it feels most at home in the Cold War and must, therefore, take on a vintage feel to the modern reader. Ultimately, it is a decently written but dated story that raises its interesting issues far too late, and with far too little exploration, to make it particularly politically compelling.

The story itself is quite interesting and should pose interesting philosophical and ethical questions: what would happen if an enemy force could manufacture a Medal of Honor winner and use him as an ultimate, almost undetectable weapon? Unfortunately, a lot of the intrigue gets lost and bogged down by a downright unlikeable cast of characters who are almost impossible to relate to and a whole lot harder to care about, until maybe the very end of the book when it is too late for Condon to manufacture sympathy. Though the plot is driven by an original and well-executed idea, it crams far too much of its intrigue into its final, rushed act and fails to sustain interest throughout. The writing itself is passable and the book as a whole simply interesting, to be read and passed quietly into the "read" pile. Those interested in Cold War literature or brainwashing will probably enjoy this book, and anyone cynical about American politics will appreciate the cold and stark portrait of Raymond's mother as the most coldly calculating of political opportunists and the driving force behind an underdeveloped McCarthyist hysteria. There are hints of interest throughout the book, but they are either woefully overplayed or frustratingly underdeveloped. Ultimately, The Manchurian Candidate is consistently vaguely interesting until its final successful act, by which point readers' ambivalence has gone unchecked for so long that it's hard to get wrapped up in the action and the book is reconciled to a place on the shelves of mediocre dated political thrillers.

Grade: B-