Customer Reviews

The Lemming Condition

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I began using this book in my classroom about 20 years ago.
I have read and discussed it with children 10-18.
Most notably, I read it to students at a continuation high school where I worked for three years. Many of the students were in gangs and had already been to jail. Many of the girls already had their first child and had settled into a pattern that would spiral their lives and those of their children into misery. This book offered them an alegorical exposure to the idea that life need not be preset series of events leading to the leap of no return and the long death.

It remains one of my most stolen books, always a compliment. Mr. Arkin reminds us that it is not only okay, but necessary that we break from the pack to survive.
I am so grateful for his authorship and the effect it has had on so many. I wish he knew.

If you like stories that are simple, yet challenging then the Lemming Condition is for you. Alan Arkin the author of the Lemming Condition wrote this story for kids, but its just as much a novel for adults as it is for children. The children side of the novel reveals the Lemmings as tiny little creatures that are living happily ever after. Until one day when all the Lemmings are talking about heading west and executing the wet walk. Bubber, the main character in the book is confused about the situation, so he goes around and tries to find out information from family, relatives, and finally friends. When none of that seems to satisfy his nagging urges he scouts information on his own. The adult part of this story is the 2nd level that isn't revealed in plain black and white English. What Alan Arkin does is he creates a hidden meaning in the story, which is known to the writers and readers as allegory. With these two parts in the story working together, it makes for a wonderful reading time. This book is highly recommended for enjoyment reading for all ages.

Bubber's family was getting ready. So were all the lemmings families in burrow after burrow, all over the tundra. It was the morning of the great march west and the leap into the sea. Bubber was excited about it, until his crow friend starts asking some pretty pointed questions : Could a lemming even swim? What comes after the leap from the cliff? Bubber found that he couldn't say for sure. He had followed the crowd and taken it for granted like everybody else. The lemmings were doing something; he was a lemming. However, Crow's questions startle and unsettle him, and he starts having questions of his own - ones that had to be answered before the day was over. Short, very short, but wonderfully written, the several levels of storytelling meshing into one throughly enjoyable whole. However, despite it's shortness and cute illustrations, it is not for younger children - a few cuss words and the graphic, disturbing depiction of the mass lemming sucidide might not be apportiate. But everyone else will pick up important messages and meaning from this allegorical furry tale. Though I must add as a side note that lemmings do NOT kill themselves. It's a myth that was perpetuated by a few cameramen shoving them off a cliff for a Disney nature film in the fifties.

Bubber, your average Lemming, was just another Lemming in the field. Then all of a sudden, every Lemming starts talking, and talking about one thing only. Traveling west. Every Lemming in the whole colony is heading west. They don't know why and they don't how far they're going. That is, until Bubber talks to his friend Crow. Then he realizes that he's going to need to jump off a cliff and into water to get there, which is fine except for one small thing. He doesn't know if Lemmings can swim! Bubber tries to figure out what's going on and what they should do.
This is a good book for all ages. It is easy enough for young readers to understand and has a hidden message for older people. Some readers may think that this is a book for only young kids but as you get along the way, you'll find that this is good for all ages. I was surprised to find out that Alan Arkin is an actor and an author as well. Alan Arkin puts you in a position you're not in every day. I recommend this book to everyone who enjoys a quick, but good story.
-Brendan Goggins

I read this book back in the eighties while I was teaching. This summer I read it again with a couple of middle and upper elementary aged kids. To me it's a classic story, written simply but with a rare combination of lightness, humor and a look at the important ideas concerning "following your own path." It's a book that parents can read with their kids and use the story lines to discuss all sorts of ideas. It's a children's book that doesn't talk down to kids. In fact, it's a simple story for all ages.

As an elementary school teacher, I have read this book aloud to fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. It is an amazing springboard for discussion and can be tailored to any age group--adults included. Those who arrogantly posit how simplistic this book is, apparently have not dealt with children. I have been amazed with the many themes I have been able to use in the classroom--not just life lessons (not following the crowd, thinking for yourself, friendship, tolerance, etc.), but with teaching writing.

Caveat: Make sure the children know that scientifically, it is not true that lemmings run off cliffs. Focus on the fact that because the main character chose to think for himself, he saved himself from a lot of heartache and was able to continue to grow and learn.

I read this book when I was about 6-7 years old. They had it at my school's library, and it was one of the first books I read (on my own, outside of class). The main pieces of the book I remember were the lemmings' mass suicide, and the main character having the intelligence and foresight to not join in. It didn't disturb or frighten me at that age, it just left me feeling very perplexed at the idiocy of the lemmings. It didn't "corrupt" my young mind in anyway, and though I don't remember there being any swear words as another reviewer had mentioned if there were they never influenced me in any manner, in other words I was never one to swear in my childhood. However, it did have enough of an impact on me that I have never forgot it, and throughout my life I have come to understand the deeper meanings of what Alan Arkin was trying to get at (not to sound conceited) at a seemingly faster rate than some of my peers who had not been exposed to such literature at the age range that I had. It's been so long (well over a decade, not quite two) that I can't really comment on how well it was actually written or the depth of the characters and such, all I can comment on is that it can be a very influential book for children in the recommended age range (4-8). Influential in a positive way, of course. On a side-note, it did prompt me to learn more about lemmings... What was disturbing for me at that age: finding out what the company who made the majority of films I was watching had done to those poor lemmings.

The lemming condition is written like a Children's story but it is not.
the message in it is for more adults than Kids.
if read in schools I suggest above sixth grade, it is not descriptively Violent, it just is very unnatural for a book written like it to contain the things it does, most children will not expect such a ending do to it is a fairy tale sort of thing, and so get into the mind fix that the ending is happy, almost all the characters commit a unknowingly suicide, falling off the cliff one after another.

Sincerely,
disturbed Teenager

P.s. Read it. It is good, just not for Kids.

Read the sequel instead. It's called The Clearing and its a much better book. You don't need to read the Lemming Condition first, it's nicely recapped early in the sequel. I've read many many books in my life and The Clearing is one of my favorites. Full of zen wisdom and subtle humor it's a book you won't soon forget.Alan Arkin, ladies and gentlemen, poet and a prophet.

Although this book was rather childish and at times confusing, the story is very symbolic of the way society makes people want to be included. Bubber, the main character, can't understand why all of the lemmings want to join in the Wet Walk. He discovers that everyong simply wants to be included in the excitement. This seems to resemble the way our world works today. Teens try pot because someone told them it was cool, women get plastic surgery so they can be as desired as models, and children admire movie stars because everyone else does. The crow in this story questions Bubber of the reason for the Wet Walk, but Bubber doesn't know. All he can tell is that everyone is so into the Wet Walk, they don't see it pulling them down. This was an awesome allegory, and really made me think. I realized how easily we are pulled into things just because "everyone else is doing it."