2009 # 7

Oliver Lange - Defiance - Finished - 1/17/2009

PB - (333 Pages HB) This is a strange one, beginning with the forward. Basically its a mixture of a journal, Gov/military communications and story of an artist living in New Mexico in the early 70s. Eugene Vandenburg is solitary man who paints well but shuns normal city/town life and instead roughs it on a simple ranch past the reach of power or phone lines. Here he paints and does his daily chores with his teenaged sun who has some form of autism whose mental age is below his physical age. The setting: Due to a sneak attack of some kind (not specified) Washington DC is paralyzed and and the population decimated. Before the rest of the country can react, the Russians have control and are now running the country. ( the journal entries bemoan the lack of grassroots resistance due to the present condition of US society). Gene is picked up in his favorite bar one day by the local sheriff and held in the town jail, no charges , no phone call until the Military police pick him up and take him to an isolated camp for retraining. He is even unable to arrange for his son was left out at the ranch. The tale continues with his time in the camp and subsequent developments. (keeping some things back). An interesting book once I got into it and I think basically a commentary on the the state of US society at the time it was written. Not sure too much has changed for the better even now.

ISBN - 0-8128-8156-7534, Military/Thriller, Pages - 534, Print Size - R, Rating - 4