1996 (English and English Edition) [Hardcover]

Gloria Naylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2005

This fictionalized memoir of the award-winning author, Gloria Naylor, tells a story of a massive covert surveillance operation perpetrated against her by an official of the U.S. government. This domestic spying both destroys the peace and tranquility of the writer s home and raises serious questions about the use of surveillance and technology by the government.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In 1996 novelist Naylor moved to secluded St. Helena Island. A minor fracas with a crotchety neighbor, whose brother worked for the National Security Agency, set into motion a series of events that made Naylor the object of close scrutiny by the government. The intensely private Naylor found herself in the company of other prominent black writers and activists targeted by the government. She was harassed until she feared for her sanity and consulted a psychiatrist. When she discovered that her tormentors were using mind-control techniques, she fought back with the only weapon she had--her writing talent. Naylor's account, with first-person recollections of her experience and third-person speculation on the motives of her tormenters, not only raises alarms about government actions but also raises many questions about this work. She includes addenda with research and litigation regarding government experiments with mind control. Whether readers think Naylor has been the victim of pernicious abuse or that she has suffered a breakdown, her incredible book will spark debate about government surveillance and the blurring of the lines between fiction and nonfiction. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Gloria Naylor is the author of The Women of Brewster Place, which won the National Book Award. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. 

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Third World Press (December 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0883782634
• ISBN-13: 978-0883782637
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,136,808 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 1996 - Our latest stepping stone to justice, July 8, 2005

By 

Eleanor R. White (Hamilton, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 1996 (English and English Edition) (Hardcover)

In the mid-1990s, our first stepping stone to justice was the article titled "Microwave Harassment and Mind Control Experimentation" by Julianne McKinney, raven1.net/microwav.htm

Our second stepping stone was (and is) the exhaustive and scholarly research into "non-lethal weapons," (clearly the birthplace of the living nightmare Ms. Naylor and an estimated three million North Americans are living,) ... of law student Cheryl Welsh, mindjustice.org

The third stepping stone was the 2001 book about vigilante stalking by David Lawson, a private investigator, titled "Terrorist Stalking in America", reviewed here: multistalkervictims.org/terstalk.htm

Ms. Naylor's book, with some material provided by Cheryl Welsh, is clearly a fourth and major stepping stone, by which the targets of vigilante stalking and electronic mind/body harassment hope to see the day the criminals are stripped of their cover, and justice will be served.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and Frightening, May 30, 2006

By 

book lover "Writer Mommy" (Wilmington, DE) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 1996 (English and English Edition) (Hardcover)

I read this book because I love Gloria Naylor. I hadn't heard about any of her travesties from 1996 before reading this book. I found it frightening at times, but it was so compelling, I couldn't put it down. Of course, certain parts are fictionalized, but Ms. Naylor obviously did a lot of research on domestic intelligence and mind control while writing this book. I recommend it for all Gloria Naylor fans and for anyone wishing to know more about the capabilities of the U.S. government.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars (RAW Rating: 3.5) - Makes ya say hmmmmm..., December 30, 2005

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 1996 (English and English Edition) (Hardcover)

Acclaimed author Gloria Naylor has returned to the literary world after a seven-year hiatus with a fictionalized memoir detailing her experiences in 1996 after vacationing in St. Helena Island to focus on her writing. After an altercation with her neighbor and requests for her to keep her cats off her property, Gloria sets out some poison that kills one of the neighbor's beloved cats. Unfortunately, her neighbor has a brother who works in the National Security Agency, and she reports Gloria as a drug dealer to get back at her. This starts a chain of events and investigations from not only the local police department and Jewish organizations, but also federal agencies.

Gloria starts to notice weird things going on around her and her house, to include lots of traffic on her secluded part of the island. She also realizes she's being followed and that someone is entering her house and tapping into her computer. It gets to a point where Gloria can't trust her friends or converse with those online because she's afraid of who's watching her. When she can't take the harassment any longer, she cuts her time on the island short and moves back home to her brownstone in New York. Sadly, things do not end and Gloria must find a way to return to the normalcy of her life.

While reading 1996, the reader is fully aware that this book is a memoir of sorts as it's written in first person, giving Naylor's actual experiences through this ordeal, in which she's the main character. However, it's also fictionalized in that she obviously doesn't really know what's going on next door, across the street or at the NSA for example. It is an intriguing story, reminiscent of conspiracy theory type movies popular in the last few decades. While I can say the story definitely makes you say hmmmmm, some parts of it will make the average reader question the validity of Naylor's allegations while others will merely view it as entertainment only.

It is the third-person accounts that I couldn't really follow, coupled with parts of the story which could've been tightened, edited a bit more, and the abrupt ending should've been a bit more conclusive. The characters, with the exception of Naylor, weren't developed as well as I would've liked, but overall, I did enjoy the story. While there are many speculations on what the federal government has the capability to do, and cases and documentation against them, it's a bit unfortunate that these types of allegations are lumped with UFO sightings and alien abductions.

Reviewed by Tee C. Royal
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers