Just finished Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank and I loved it

Submitted by sadlegbeard t3_10o5n9p in books

This easily just became one of my favorite books. I have always been a huge fan of the survival genre, post-apocalyptic stuff, whatever you want to call it. I’ve searched the web high and low for years and somehow, this one never came up.

It is fantastic and if survival, nuclear war, and/or the Atomic Age are of interest to you then I can’t recommend this enough.

I’m quickly learning I have got to stop reading reviews on Goodreads for books I like. It does seem like a lot of people have unreasonable expectations going into this…it was published in 1959. Yes, there’s racism and misogyny. It was published in 1959. I don’t understand why people seem baffled and offended that a book is a product of its time. I honestly don’t know what else to say about it. It’s frustrating to me that so many people would cast this book aside because of that alone.

Also, I think in comparing Alas, Babylon to modern post-apocalyptic novels you can see a clear divide. This book does start off slow and there’s a lot of build-up to The Day. Personally, I enjoyed this. I love seeing people go about their daily lives, business as usual, the signs that something is coming are subtle and easily missed. I like seeing who people are before we get to the after. Most modern books leave this out, which I guess there’s a demand for, since a lot of reviews really gripe over it.

In fact, my copy of the book was from Goodwill and there’s a page that was left dog-eared, presumably where someone stopped…and it’s literally about a page and a half before the nukes start. Haha. I’m just gonna say…instant gratification has done people no favors.

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SuperSyrias t1_j6cpy3l wrote

are you telling us your opinion on the book or your opinion on the reading habits of other people?

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boxer_dogs_dance t1_j6cxv0w wrote

I have read it several times. As for racism, he describes the reality of living in a segregated society, regardless of whether the segregation is de facto or de jure. I see the book as intended to subvert the worst of racist attitudes, but all members of such a culture are scarred and influenced by it and the author definitely has biases.

Edit, I have no doubt that the author is himself racist. But his intention and depiction is community between people of all colors and races. Given his era, for me, that is enough good faith and positive intent to not cancel the book.

I would contrast Lest Darkness Fall by L Sprague de Camp which leans into racism in an entirely unnecessary way, inserting it anachronistically into a plot about ancient Rome.

I agree. It is an excellent apocalyptic book.

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Wendellberryfan_2022 t1_j6cyb3h wrote

That is the first real work of fiction that I read and loved. I was 12 years old and it started my interest in dystopian fiction. Thank you for bringing back a happy memory!

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mleftpeel t1_j6d4arg wrote

Next read Earth Abides by George R Stewart, written in 1949, and On The Beach by Nevil Shute, published 1957. Fantastic classic apocalypse fiction.

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gxbcab t1_j6d4fo0 wrote

Alas, Babylon is one of my favorite dystopian novels. I think it’s what gave me the longing to one day fuck off to a farm in the middle of nowhere.

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MEMOJKR t1_j6dgcxq wrote

I read this book in high school and loved it. It’s the only “school book” that I still reread to this day.

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New-York-Mouse t1_j6dglm6 wrote

Admittedly it has been over a decade ago now, but I remember being surprised by how much I enjoyed this, too. It was recommended to me from a colleague at my job, and I am the kind of person that just HAS to read things other people love as a way of getting to know them better. I really thought it would not resonate at all, but it did, and I felt it was one of the more realistic survival novels that focused heavily on the day to day life in a world like that.

I am with you on giving old books leeway for having blindspots. I can afford to give outdated books grace and find the parts of them that resonate. Like you, I also want more build up and characters lives BEFORE the bad day. That is sooo fascinating. Those deep breaths before the action are some of my favourite parts of any books.

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jfl_cmmnts t1_j6djvpx wrote

I liked it too. Slow mover, but nice to see a happy ending. My top few in no particular order are Footfall, Lucifer's Hammer, Station Eleven, Mother Of Storms, and of course The Stand

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DaveDeaborn1967 t1_j6dljuq wrote

I read Alas, Babylon when it first came out when I was in high school. I recently reread it and it holds up well. The big difference is that we now carry cell phones. The threat of nuclear war is still with us and has been since about 1948. I also watched On the Beach which deals with post-war life.

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CraftyRole4567 t1_j6drku8 wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#1,580,726)

Hi, your spoiler alerts aren’t working. Personally I think it’s clear they’re supposed to be there, & I’m sure folks see it,, but I just ran into this a few days ago and can now tell you that the problem is correct punctuation… If you put a period at the end of the section before the exclamation point, It doesn’t read it as a spoiler. Just fyi :)

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CrazyCatLady108 t1_j6e4d9s wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#1,580,726)

No plain text spoilers allowed. Please use the format below and reply to this comment once you've made the edit, to have your comment reinstated.

Place >! !< around the text you wish to hide. You will need to do this for each new paragraph. Like this:

&gt;!The Wolf ate Grandma!&lt;

Click to reveal spoiler.

>!The Wolf ate Grandma!<

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LoneWolfette t1_j6ecujt wrote

This is the book that started my love of the post apocalyptic genre. I agree on the racism issue. I see people excuse it in classical books as being “accurate for the time period”. The same is true here. Trying to pretend racism didn’t exist in the past won’t make it go away.

I have a pretty good list of post apocalyptic books if you ever need any suggestions

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Gorf_the_Magnificent t1_j6etfq0 wrote

I’m in my 70’s and Alas, Babylon was required reading in my high school.

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doveball t1_j6f19m9 wrote

Read this in high school in the 90s and a couple times since then.

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rpbm t1_j6fufuu wrote

I read this in college 30+ years ago and loved it. It was my English class assignment. Afterwards, we had to “rebuild society” with just our (dozen or so) classmates. The project and book study lasted several months, possibly a whole semester. We were featured in the local (tiny) newspaper for our project.

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77173 t1_j6fzpwe wrote

I read it in HS and it was one of maybe 4 books I liked that I was forced to read then.

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Any-Particular-1841 t1_j6gol28 wrote

I loved this book, and if you ever want to read it again, get the audiobook. It's narrated by actor Will Patton, and is excellent. I can still see all the settings in the book, just thinking about it now.

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Despguy1337 t1_j6i5tze wrote

I will never forget the chapter when finally the military appears and he ask them whether the US had won the war.

The response is something like "oh yes, we absolutely clobbered them".

So the US "won" the war, yet the country is a complete mess. Really shows that there are no winners in a nuclear war.

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