Customer Reviews

Frog in the Well: a novel

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I very much enjoyed this book. It's clever, and really amazingly thought provoking. Really, anything that gets the wackadoodle Christian right in that much of a tizzy is going to be a splendid read. Give it a buy, love it.

For a book about bunch of bugs fighting wars at the bottom of a well, this novel has stirred up a lot of controversy, especially among the Christian Right. 'Frog in the Well' is about the power struggle between the republicans and the religious fundamentalist factions in the kingdom of the frog; and that has ruffled some feathers. Pat Goltz's review (Jan. 24, 2009) is quite scathing, accusing the book of being subversive. She is clearly bias and deceptive. Her profile-link on Amazon.com shows that she is the co-founder of an influential anti-abortion group in the United States called Feminists for Life.

Ms. Goltz claims that the book is anti-Christian in general and anti-Catholic in particular. However, the author does not mention Christianity or any other human institution anywhere in the fable. Nor is the book against democracy, as Ms. Goltz purports. In fact, the hero of the story, Simon the dung beetle, is a pro-democratic militia soldier who fights against the totalitarian Ecclesiastic Army. Outside of Ayn Rand, this is one of the most pro-freedom books I've ever read.

The author, S. S. Wong, has taken a big risk in his storytelling. He tries to introduce a rationalist theory explaining the existence of God that contradicts the Bible; (thankfully, he does this not in the main text of the novel, but in the Appendix in the form of a short story -- also about bugs). His theory is so controversial that it is now perceived as a threat by some in the religious establishment -- perhaps even more heretical than 'The Da Vinci Code'. In Ms. Goltz's own words on Wong's ideas, "The main danger is that this stuff will be used to influence public policy."

But the most important thing for the reader is whether this novel is well written. And the answer is YES. Given her diatribe, even Ms. Goltz wrote of Wong, "...he has quite an imagination. His writing is vivid and allegorical."

This book is entertaining and is perfectly wholesome and safe for teenagers, and older readers will enjoy its thought-provoking ideas. The book has some violent content but there is no profanity (however, the novel is not any more violent than many fantasy or science fiction novels I've read).

This writer is obviously in love with entomology, and he has quite an imagination. His writing is vivid and allegorical. That said, he presents a rather distorted and dismal picture of the human race. There are influences in society he never acknowledges, and much of what he writes is "old news". Within the first few chapters, he presents an execution. It was so graphic and cruel that I felt sick, and I won't describe how I felt with the level of detail he employs. And why was the victim executed? For doing what comes naturally to that species. Go figure. I can't help but wonder if this isn't a screening, to screen out those with tender hearts. He can then influence the ones that are left, that can tolerate and rejoice in extreme cruelty, hopefully toward his agenda. To begin with, it would have appeared that he simply wants to bash the Christian faith. I say that because he isn't opposed to all religion. He seems to be OK with psychics and mediums, and his version of new age thought. But one of the prominent features is a caricature of the Catholic church, and here's where he is writing old news. It's not that the Catholic church is without problems today, but the level of cruelty he depicts is not the way things are today. Other Christian groups and influences don't even exist in his world, nor does Jewish thought. He also comes across as having no use for republics or democracies. He almost seems to like the idea of an absolute monarchy, though in the end, he even destroys that. It's hard to read between the lines. Surprisingly, he doesn't seem to have any use for communism, either. But he never quite arrives at a truly humane society in his depiction of dystopia. He reaches the nadir of his thought when he depicts the capture and cruelty to the most beautiful insect of all: the butterfly. I spent the entire book trying to get inside his head, without any success. It was an extreme act of self discipline to read past the ugliness of the first execution. The ideas in this book would tend to be way over the heads of his apparent intended teenaged audience, especially with how illiterate so many are these days. You have to have some background to know what he is talking about. But he seems to want to influence people before they have developed their own centeredness.

This writer is clueless about individual liberty and rights. He doesn't understand that the Judeo-Christian consensus is what made unprecedented freedom and technological advancement possible. Yes, he recognizes that individual freedom is a prerequisite for industrial development. But of the root, he has no clue. If people start to think as he does, our relatively humane society will be short-lived.

In the end, he presents a sort of treatise on his religious ideas, through a dialog between teacher and students. This section is so much gobbledygook as far as I am concerned. It is self-contradictory, and illogical. I have read a lot of Chinese philosophy, particularly Confucius, and also about Zen and Tao. His views are of panentheism: God is everything. But I couldn't make much sense out of this. God has to cease to exist to have free will? Whoa! This section will provide lots of sound bites for people who just want to spew out their own egos by sounding erudite. The main danger is that this stuff will be used to influence public policy. I see lots of hints of Chinese thought, but the writer has a poor understanding of western thought. In the end, the idea is that we can save ourselves through strictly secular thought. It hasn't happened before, and it won't happen now. Cloaked in the idea of God, yes, but God has no real influence.

Was it entertaining? I can't decide. Parts were; parts engaged me. But for utility, spend your time doing something else.

The novel can be a bit propagandistic in the way it conveys its views of society, and to a larger extent, the meaning of the universe. However, it isn't a difficult read.

To put simply, Wong is trying to prove the existence of Almighty God! He does so unabashedly in the Appendix of his novel, titled the Wise Old Pill Bug. Read the chapters on Amazon's content search.

I've read the Appendix several times, and to my surprise, I think the author is quite convincing. More convincing than any other argument on the existence of God that I have read. I think the book can be a great friend of the Creationist movement.

`Frog in the Well' by S.S. Wong is a lively and highly readable take on the eternal philosophical questions of man. Clever bug metaphors draw the reader into a fairly-tale like land where bugs suffer the trials and tribulations of people and seek answers to the seemingly unanswerable.

`Frog in the Well' paints a vivid picture of the author's personal philosophy, and even includes a detailed compendium that allows the most enthusiastic of readers to delve deeper into the concepts presented in the story itself.

I enjoyed `Frog in the Well' but found it difficult to keep track of the names and species of the various characters that appear throughout the story. Regardless, I found it easy to enjoy this book while delving a bit deeper into the ideas S.S. Wong ultimately sought to present. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in philosophy, especially university students who are just entering the realm of academic thought and need an approachable introduction.

Great work!

Jeff