Customer Reviews

The Common Good

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This was a great book! It raises questions and allows your mind to wander. Gerrin did a wonderful job catching the readers attention and keeping it. This is a book that you wont want to put down until its through. Its a book i think everyone should own and experience.

On the back cover of The Common Good, author Gerrin Narcisse is described as being from "a small, culturally rich town without any stoplights." Nonetheless, the book itself is far from provincial in scope, and the author is audacious in addressing the big questions. The many themes of this dystopian novel include the relationship between the media and the government, philosophy--theory and putting it into practice, the role of education, conformity vs. non-conformity, the balance between pleasing one's loved ones and following one's calling, reason vs. religion, and most importantly, sacrifice.

Readers may be reminded of familiar dystopian novels such as Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, The Giver, and 1984--all of which are mentioned within this book--but the genre of The Common Good is not limited to that of the dystopian novel. The speeches of protagonist Jason O'Neal may remind one of the climactic speeches of Howard Roark and John Galt in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, respectively, and thus The Common Good has many elements of a philosophy novel (albeit the author has not forced the philosophy on us as sharply as Rand does).

In any case, this reviewer thinks the novel is definitely worth a read, and its connection to modern events and politics will evoke thought and discussion on the big questions and the themes I have mentioned above. Much as Rand has done, this book packages philosophy with an action-filled plot, and much as the authors of the dystopian novels have done, this novel forces us to think about current events and politics.

The common good introduces itself as a bridge between the world today and the world of the classic Science Fiction novel, "Brave New World", I for one was doubtful that such changes could be handled in a believable manner. In the end it is scary how believable it is. I will concede that it is a slow start, as the first few chapters are spent developing ties between characters, but the ties are the most important thing about them. If you are use to thinking "where will the story take this guy next?" when reading then you might reconsider this book, as it reads like a movie is viewed, the character serve to advance the story instead of the story advancing the character unlike most books and some TV shows. However, it is something that I came to not only forgive, but enjoy as Jason O'Neal's story truly takes off as his actions do, soon driving the reader though the heart of the global conspiracy that shapes Jason's world. I will say that the end left me a bit sore at the author for seemingly losing his nerve towards Jason, but the last few pages really set the stage for something more, because of it. Overall I found The Common Good to be a thrilling uniquely written book that end with me paying attention to politics just a bit more.