Customer Reviews

Ah, Mikhail, O Fidel

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Ah Mikhail brings us into inner city New York in the early nineties.In this immigrant filled world full of uncertainties and shifting loyalties we get a sense of the impending chaos that would come to a climax on Sept. 11,2001.

Through the eyes of a nervous teacher Radix we see the underbelly of the new superpower. The failing public school system is a mirror of the chaos that really exists in this mega city.

All who read this fascinating but disturbing novel must come away with a sense that we are losing our grip on order. If the center cannot hold all is lost. Our world will spin out of control.To those who make the big decisions about society I urge you to take some time off and spend a week end reading this novel. It will wake you up.

In the sub world that Williams so incisely explores are communities bound together by fear,doubt and terrible loneliness.
People come here from thousands of simpler socities and are plunged into the boiling waters of New York like some lobster intantly converted into prestigious food for the new super race.

However native New Yorkers beware. The immigrants may seem like unthinking walking zombies but they are skilled in surviving. It's the old law of the jungle: the fittest survive and they can wreck the smooth Madison Ave world.

People in Third World countries were not surprised that someone would fly planes into a building. They like in a world where developing unusual ways of defeating the ruling classes is an everday pastime.

This is an intense,well written novel dealing with very important issues. Read it. Remember " The Words of the Prophets are written on subway walls" as Simon and Garfunkel told us so soulfully in " Sounds of Silence"

I applaud Williams for his courage in writing this novel and for putting it out for us to read.