Book review: THE SKY IS FALLING.

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.Powered by WP Greet Box WordPress PluginThis modern fiction novel by Caroline Adderson reflects perfectly the mentality of young and “partly” confused university students, who want to save the world.

The narrative includes in subtle terms how two females were attracted to each other in a sexually confused belief and started a relation. In reality, only one of the pair was lesbian, the other thought she was, but never was. This part of the novel is interesting enough to encourage you to continue reading.

The more central theme of the novel is how students of the time received political developments, nuclear war, and its repercussions.

A group of five students rented a house, in preference to residence at university facilities, and formed an association to plan demonstrations both in Vancouver, where the plot is set, and Washington State just south of the border.

Flyers were printed for distribution to make the population aware of pending Armageddon.

During all these preparations and unending meetings, everything than can potentially go wrong, goes wrong, and eventually a few members were arrested and sentenced to long periods of incarceration.

The author captures the mood to show how young, enthusiastic people think extremely well. She also shows how their minds are flawed with the here and now, and never consider the near or far future.

One the other hand, one of the heroines of the novel pursues her Slavic studies at the university. The ages describing her studies, several Russian words used make for interesting and informative reading.

This novel, although a fiction, explains well how idealists follow beliefs blindly, and their way of thinking. Parents of teenagers would benefit greatly from this book in that they will learn “collective’ thinking influences individuals in undertaking dangerous actions and ultimate failure.

This novel won the prestigious Marian Engel Award.

Highly recommended!