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Mar 29, 2015, 02:40 PM
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Member Since: Nov 2002
Location: Mid World
Posts: 18,129
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I know everyone here is old enough to have been around when the book was written (1959). Anyone here read it? It's about a group of survivors in a small Florida town after nuclear attack.
I'm currently listening to it on audiobook. It's read by Will Patton, whose voice is perfect for the book.
I have a couple of observations from listening to it. I was in middle school the first time I read it. This was back in the Cold War days when we were sure we were all going to go up in a radioactive cloud when the US and the USSR started lobbing nukes at one another.
side note - Remember "duck and cover" in the halls? I used to wonder if they really thought cowering in the hall of the school was going to protect us from radiation.
Sorry, back to the book... Back then we were scared that the US and the USSR were going to turn the other into a radioactive slag heap. Today we worry about people with bombs in backpacks. Not to mention the Red Terror just sort of crumbled 25 years ago. When we were kids could any of us believed the evil empire would just sort of fall apart?
The other thing that stood out about the book so far is that it was definitely written in pre-politically correct days. A character is referred to as an "N-word ('cept the book uses the actual N-word) lover" and talks about "them" needing to stay in their place. Neither would fly in this day and age, but were acceptable at the time.
I'm waiting to see if the book scares me as much now as it did when I first read it. I live and lived, not far from where the book is set. In an era when we were sure we were doomed the book scared the bejeebers outta me.
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