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on June 23, 2017
This books is almost creepy to read as if Europeans have read it before the whole immigration/refugee thing started and staged it for the rest of the world to watch step by step, line by line, this reads as a script of current affairs; sad to a point as we watch old Europe die in front of our eyes..
on July 2, 2017
Jean Raspail said that over the 18 months it took to write this book, it consumed and aged him. It is easy to see why, probing human nature to the depths explored in this book is exhausting to the soul, but yet, he did it and the results are sublime.
Raspail’s credentials are a lifetime spent in world travel and dispassionate sociological examination. He is an expert on recognizing the elements that lead to the extinction of civilizations and societies and has written a novel (a novel, not a government document) whose premise is the end of Western civilization, drawing heavily on past European and African revolutions and biblical theology. Even as an English translation, the writing is powerful and a deeply intellectual and an analytical mind shines through. Apocalyptic scenarios are sketched with humour and whimsy and a clear appreciation of the absurd.
Raspail reiterates that this is a parable: a superficial story combined with a deeper message. People who read the novel, anxiously searching to apply labels of racism, imperialism, supremacism, fascism etc, will be quickly satisfied, since after all one of the central themes is the toxicity of this behaviour and its consequences to society, and they are immediately and effectively caricatured. Don’t be intimidated by anyone into missing this incredible novel, every page is precisely tuned to evoke an emotion. The intellectual terrorism wielded abundantly by characters in the novel, is in plain view in many of the reviews and articles that you see. Raspail has an earthy approach that is more easily identified with the many societies he has observed, and his unflinching imagery may be unpalatable to some and courageous to others.
As with “The War of the Worlds”, “1984”, “Animal Farm” and “Fahrenheit 451” (to name a few of the most visible books of this nature), those most in need of the reflection this novel should inspire, will be the quickest to denounce both the novel and its creator, presuming to know him through a story he has told. But fiction novelists and fiction movie-makers are free (today and hopefully always) to imagine "what-ifs" and develop powerful themes, even if apocalyptic or dystopian, and readers and movie-goers are still free to read and view, and to examine their own minds, societies and consciences.
Raspail’s credentials are a lifetime spent in world travel and dispassionate sociological examination. He is an expert on recognizing the elements that lead to the extinction of civilizations and societies and has written a novel (a novel, not a government document) whose premise is the end of Western civilization, drawing heavily on past European and African revolutions and biblical theology. Even as an English translation, the writing is powerful and a deeply intellectual and an analytical mind shines through. Apocalyptic scenarios are sketched with humour and whimsy and a clear appreciation of the absurd.
Raspail reiterates that this is a parable: a superficial story combined with a deeper message. People who read the novel, anxiously searching to apply labels of racism, imperialism, supremacism, fascism etc, will be quickly satisfied, since after all one of the central themes is the toxicity of this behaviour and its consequences to society, and they are immediately and effectively caricatured. Don’t be intimidated by anyone into missing this incredible novel, every page is precisely tuned to evoke an emotion. The intellectual terrorism wielded abundantly by characters in the novel, is in plain view in many of the reviews and articles that you see. Raspail has an earthy approach that is more easily identified with the many societies he has observed, and his unflinching imagery may be unpalatable to some and courageous to others.
As with “The War of the Worlds”, “1984”, “Animal Farm” and “Fahrenheit 451” (to name a few of the most visible books of this nature), those most in need of the reflection this novel should inspire, will be the quickest to denounce both the novel and its creator, presuming to know him through a story he has told. But fiction novelists and fiction movie-makers are free (today and hopefully always) to imagine "what-ifs" and develop powerful themes, even if apocalyptic or dystopian, and readers and movie-goers are still free to read and view, and to examine their own minds, societies and consciences.
on April 19, 2017
Much maligned by the Liberal Establishment. I am a Liberal but also a scholar and history professor. The book is, in all fairness, a great read. The book describes a point in time when Malthus' treatise on population predictions will lead to famine in The Third World. At that point, the West will be faced with some hard choices.
on March 13, 2004
While a bit verbose for my tastes, Raspail accurately describes in detailed figurative prose the multicultural dilemma threatening to destroy Western Civilization.
If your interpretation of this book leaves you thinking it is no more than a simple diatribe steeped in racism, you are probably kin to Clement Dio.
If your interpretation of this book leaves you thinking it is no more than a simple diatribe steeped in racism, you are probably kin to Clement Dio.
on August 14, 2017
Huxley wrote of the effects of class and technology and Orwell wrote of omnipresent government control. Raspail, in a 1973 book, wrote of the demise of a weary and guilt ridden Western Civilization and the swamping of the white race by third world immigrants. Unfortunately Raspail's book is so accurate that it scared the living bejeebers out of me. Oh sure Orwell and Huxley had accurate warnings of possible future human calamities, but Raspail described what is happening today to the tiniest detail.
How can anyone have been so accurate? It's almost unbelievable. While Raspail didn't use the term "social justice warriors," the work of these people is seen as a key to the loss of our culture. He has the Pope as a social activist and mentions that the World Council of Churches. Raspail has the liberal media continuously pecking away at western values and promoting racial guilt. Things become so bad that police officers really do little to enforce laws and norms are weakened more and more. The military is soft and more concerned with social issues than defense. More and more the media grind away at social and economic inequality. More white guilt. And on it goes. Previous third world immigrants are shown as mostly invisible to white Europe but are seething, in Raspail's words, with envy and hate. At the first chance, they join with the new third world immigrants, and European culture is forever changed and the white race is lost.
Horror comes at the end of the book as a motley group of 20 or so whites who are still defending the south coast of France are killed in a bombing raid by the new multi-racial government. A document is later found noting the 20 had fought and killed some hundreds of "ganges' and "fellow travelers." Raspail's point is to show how easy it would have been for Europeans to defend themselves had there been any remaining will or belief in the West of its institutions.
Looking at current events and reading Raspail is beyond unsettling. How could anyone see this coming so clearly from 44 years ago? I mean no hyperbola but Raspail provides the most terrifying book I have ever read.
How can anyone have been so accurate? It's almost unbelievable. While Raspail didn't use the term "social justice warriors," the work of these people is seen as a key to the loss of our culture. He has the Pope as a social activist and mentions that the World Council of Churches. Raspail has the liberal media continuously pecking away at western values and promoting racial guilt. Things become so bad that police officers really do little to enforce laws and norms are weakened more and more. The military is soft and more concerned with social issues than defense. More and more the media grind away at social and economic inequality. More white guilt. And on it goes. Previous third world immigrants are shown as mostly invisible to white Europe but are seething, in Raspail's words, with envy and hate. At the first chance, they join with the new third world immigrants, and European culture is forever changed and the white race is lost.
Horror comes at the end of the book as a motley group of 20 or so whites who are still defending the south coast of France are killed in a bombing raid by the new multi-racial government. A document is later found noting the 20 had fought and killed some hundreds of "ganges' and "fellow travelers." Raspail's point is to show how easy it would have been for Europeans to defend themselves had there been any remaining will or belief in the West of its institutions.
Looking at current events and reading Raspail is beyond unsettling. How could anyone see this coming so clearly from 44 years ago? I mean no hyperbola but Raspail provides the most terrifying book I have ever read.
on December 16, 2015
A chilling story of the time that accurately predicted the events of today. It amazes with its insight and downright scares with its prediction-come-true.
A staggeringly prophetic book from 1973 which accurately predicts current events. Poor Europe. Poor Germany.
on October 2, 2015
This is a staggeringly prophetic work of art. Written in 1973, it predicts precisely what is happening now in Europe and Germany with the allegedly unstoppable mass-immigration from a large number of countries. Thousands cross the border every day, with the German government's approval. The population is mostly worried and uneasy, but there are also those who don't realize what is really happening and who still cheer and clap when new groups are brought in, by now even in special trains on the government's order.Time will tell even those who fail to understand. Eventually they will see the consequences.
I wonder how Raspail did this. The present is sad and very frightening, but reading his book helps to some extent.
I wonder how Raspail did this. The present is sad and very frightening, but reading his book helps to some extent.
on July 14, 2010
Well written book. Unfortunately, probably somewhat prophetic. Reminds me of George Orwell's 1984.
on December 31, 2015
This book stays with you.
Is the West, western culture, western civilization worth fighting for? If so, then who will there be to fight for it?
This has become an annual re-read for me, but this year, with Angela Merkel and the immigration disasters in Europe and the United States, the novel seems especially prescient.
It's time for the US to buy Mexico. And maybe Canada. Europe... Europe is done for. We plan to take the kids to Europe in 2017 so they can see what it was.
Is the West, western culture, western civilization worth fighting for? If so, then who will there be to fight for it?
This has become an annual re-read for me, but this year, with Angela Merkel and the immigration disasters in Europe and the United States, the novel seems especially prescient.
It's time for the US to buy Mexico. And maybe Canada. Europe... Europe is done for. We plan to take the kids to Europe in 2017 so they can see what it was.
