5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well-written, but relentlessly and implausibly bleak, April 27, 2005
Derek Raymond, the nom de plume of Robert William Arthur Cook (a/k/a Robin Cook), died in 1994 a master of the grisly. His Factory series of crime novels is not for the squeamish. "A State of Denmark," originally published in 1970, predates the Factory series and has a different theme that at the time must have resonated in England, with its strong economic regulation and, in many quarters, embrace of socialism, disdain for capitalism, and belief that individual liberty was a dubious idea, quaint, outdated, and inefficient, and at best to be tolerated as long as it did not interfere with collective goals.
In brief, England is ruled by a leftist dictator named Jobling who has turned the country into a vicious totalitarian state. Jobling governs through a melange of fascism, socialism, and brutal oppression, all made possible by a cult of personality that surrounds him following a coup d'état that England's bourgeoisie have spinelessly accepted and the working class have welcomed.
So far, so good. And it's very well-written, with wonderful imagery throughout. The problem is the implausibility of the plot. The main character, Richard Watt, and his companion, Magda Carson, have fled England and developed a vineyard in rural Italy. He is a hardy character who, as a journalist in England, battled Jobling and after Jobling's coup found himself unemployed and unemployable. Yet for implausible reasons he and Magda accept Italian orders to quit their voluntary exile and return to the bleakness of England, where they meet a fate that the reader will discover. It's impossible to accept that such a resolute and stalwart character would put his life and liberty in jeopardy by doing so. Rather, he'd be arranging passage to Brazil or Australia. The other implausibility is that the Italian government would be so afraid of Jobling that it would issue the deportation orders. The England of "A State of Denmark" is hardly the Germany of "The Garden of the Finzi-Contini," able to persuade the Italian authorities to round people up and ship them to concentration camps. It is an economic basket case that is unable to feed and clothe its own people and is surrounded by enemies. Watt's and Italy's capitulations to Jobling require too much suspension of disbelief.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A 1970s Bleak Look at the Future, February 7, 2009
This review is from: A State of Denmark (Paperback)
Taken in the context of 'Thatcher England' in the late 1960s, this novel is an extrapolation of 'What might have been'. People forget that in the 'Interwar Years' England flirted with Fascism and that Sir Oswald Mosley and his 'British Union of Fascists' very much mirrored Mussolini and his fascists. The whole idea of 'alternate history' is to take an idea to the extreme and 'Jobling England' is that extreme.
When British Mining and Industrial capacity tanked in the 1970s, many parts of England resembled a old war zone. Buildings deteriorated and people were on the 'dole', the only businesses making any money were the betting parlours and the pubs. Great Britain does not have a written constitution nor an equivalent bill of rights. If you look closely, a dictatorship of the right is not that far below the surface and a rubber-stamp Parliament could easily approve any amount of infringement on civil rights that it wanted.
Anyone who has read stories about England just after the second world war (or seen the films produced) would see this landscape. The country was broke and rationing was still in place, the nation was dark and drab and little good seemed to have come from winning the war. It would have take very little to have turned England into a dictatorship at that time.
The only part of the book that I find slightly incredulous is how after only a short period of time Richard Watt becomes so compliant. I would have thought that he would have tried to start an underground movement or a break-out or a riot. Anything would have been better than this easy acquiescence to his situation and his total collapse as an adjutator. But maybe that was the point, you can only fight so many battles for so long and then give up.
Zeb Kantrowitz
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Mediocre., August 8, 2008
Not a good novel. Even beyond the relentlessly implausible plot and Cook's attempt to ramrod home his philosophy (change is bad) the writing is terrible.
Frankly Cook should have stuck to selling lingerie.
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