This book was too close for comfort in these times. A president who becomes a dictator had many parallels to our present world. Not an easy read, as it takes place in the 1930s, but many of the themes, such as the removal of press freedom, the president's private militia, people escaping to Canada, cult-like devotion, racism, misogyny, etc., are familiar. The best example, with 1984, of not learning from the past.
“The novel that foreshadowed Donald Trump’s authoritarian appeal.”—Salon
It Can’t Happen Here is the only one of Sinclair Lewis’s later novels to match the power of Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith. A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, it is an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America.
Written during the Great Depression, when the country was largely oblivious to Hitler’s aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a president who becomes a dictator to save the nation from welfare cheats, sex, crime, and a liberal press.
I love origin stories. This book would appealto all who are intersted in the late 50's early 60's music scene. Robert Hunter met Jerry Garcia in Palo Alto and joined a group of acquaintances that lived together in one room. They discussed art, music, literature and the world. Friends came in an out of their lives as they shared one cup of coffee with refills and haunted Kepler's bookstore. They worked odd jobs and played music at local schools. Eventually the friends would find new pastures, and Garcia would leave the beatnik lifestyle and trek up to San Francisco, and history. I am not a Dead Head, but enjoyed reading about these idealist young people and how they found their footing in early adulthood, and followed their dreams.
Discovered at last, the legendary lost manuscript of Grateful Dead co-founder and primary lyricist Robert Hunter, written in the early 1960s-a wry, richly observed, and enlightening remembrance of 'the scene' in Palo Alto that gave rise to an incredible partnership of Hunter and Jerry Garcia, and then to the Grateful Dead itself-with a Foreword by John Mayer, an Introduction by Dennis McNally, and an Afterword by Brigid Meier.
'Strange to think back on those days when it was perfectly natural that we all slept on the floor in one small room . . . These were the days before practical…
As in last year's Hum we are in the dystopean near future as seen through the eyes of a 10 year old girl. I found this United States where those of European heritage have 3/5 voting rights, where girls and women crossing state lines have to test that they are not pregnant, scarily prescient. Vera's everyday childhood concerns compete with her overriding obession to find her birth mother. The book is not all gloom and doom and through Vera's eyes there is room for humor and hope for her future.
'A novel you can read in one sitting that will stay with you forever' Karen Russell 'Very funny, very sad, very sharp, and completely delightful' Elif Batuman 'A classic American road adventure. Gary Shteyngart keeps getting better' Literary Review 'Genius... A miracle' Washington Post 'Pull up a beach chair: The book of the summer is here... A poignant Harriet the Spy-esque delight' People
The Bradford-Shmulkin family is falling apart. A very modern blend of Russian, Jewish, Korean, and New England WASP, they love each other deeply but the pressures of life in an unstable America are fraying their bonds. There's…
William Holman Hunt wants his own revolution. In the year 1848 Europe erupts in turmoil, but Hunt is an art student, with many dreams and limited funds, in a London where revolution is just not done - especially one against the art establishment.Hunt, along with six friends and fellow students - including the prodigy John Everett Millais and the artist-poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti - proclaim themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB). They plan to display their new art at the most prestigious exhibition in the country: The Royal Academy of Art.They were expecting criticism, praise, or even ambivalence. What they were not expecting was the violent abuse hurled at them by the art elite, journalists, and even Charles Dickens. The stale and stodgy art world of mid-Victorian London will not tolerate these upstarts. The defiant PRB will not back down. Now it really is a revolution.Can the young PRB survive the attacks against them? Can their friendship survive growing up?
