Alas, Babylon for me falls into the category of works that come from a different but recognizable time while still holding key ties to the modern era.
Numerous items seem incongruous in today’s world—segregated schools, switchboard operators, Russians as a primary military threat, the US being behind in the space race, and so on. Yet enough of it remains familiar, particularly in today’s Covid world, that its reflections on society seems remarkedly timely. People hiding in their houses, the collapse of ordered society, “Prepping” for an apocalypse, fallback on the military, doctors and first responders as the remailing pillars of community—these are all relevant topics to this day.
Pat Frank the author, was a long time newspaperman and he has a reporters focus—the day to day life and personal characteristics of individuals is drawn out here. Idiosyncrasies add color to each character and Frank limits the number of characters he develops so that each can be fully fleshed out. As a reader you aren’t wondering 3/4 of the way through the work who on earth “Randy” or “Peyton” are…you’ve gotten to know each one in detail and become invested in each character.
The setting also helps this familiarity. Largely confined to a handful of houses and a single town Frank develops a world you can wander around in your head. Everything ends up feeling like your own small town.
Beyond the structure and style of the work, the content deals with how a small Florida town and a few of its townfolk deal with the aftermath of a Russian nuclear attack which has wiped out much of the US including all key infrastructure and government. It reads like a primer for our current series of zombie TV shows and movies. The breakdown of people into various tribes that all fight for resources, struggle against the radiation in the ecosystem which is largely invisible, emergence of leaders from within the unexpected, romances blooming amongst those who lost loved ones in the initial attack…its all here. Essentially a blueprint for The Walking Dead or similar. Simply sway radiation for a zombie virus. I’m sure there is some psychological analysis to be done as we have moved from radiation and Russians and giant ants (movies…not in this book) to evil governments, viruses, and zombies. The scary stories we tell each other is a direct reflection of our societal fears.
Alas, Babylon is a fantastic representation of those fears from the late 50’s and early 60’s that holds largely true today in a manner that is much more serious, knowledgeable, realistic and well developed than most of today’s works that don’t hold technical water and focus on merely how graphic and hopeless they can get. Here you gut an accurate (for the time) projection with a hefty dose of hope, ingenuity, hard work, and moral direction. Its uplifting like few apocalyptic novels without being soft. Read this…skip the next Walking Dead drivel.