Review by Marian Powell   —   August 17, 1999

That phrase had been a code meaning trouble ever since the brothers were children and heard a fiery sermon on how the wicked cities of America are like Babylon in the Bible and will face the same destruction for their wickedness. Alas, Babylon!

When they meet, the brother says that the world is on the verge of all out nuclear war and he is sending his wife and children to stay with Randy. That evening, Randy stocks up on supplies, tries to warn friends who don't believe him, picks up his in-laws at the airport and the next day witnesses the bombs falling in the distance. By the end of that day, the town is essentially cut off from the rest of the USA, the stores have been cleaned out, the electricity fails and, within days, the highways are too dangerous for travel. There is no power or running water, and no incoming supply of food or gasoline. The chief of police is killed the first night trying to stop looting; the mayor and other town leaders were political hacks who simply go into shock and provide no leadership; the policemen and firemen, knowing they won't be paid, have to focus on providing for their families.

This novel was first published during the Cold War (in 1960) nearly 40 years ago. Since the Cold War is over, isn't it hopelessly out of date? Sadly, it is not. One has only to watch the evening news to see how grimly relevant it is.

Pat Frank states in the Foreword that his purpose was to show realistically how terrible a nuclear war would be. His theme is stated and restated, that there will be no winners, no victors in such a war. All will be destroyed. Ironically, this is the one area where the book is out-of-date. It was written before we knew about nuclear winter. Also, too many atomic bombs fall. The radiation level would be much higher than he portrays. Realistically, there would be no survivors.

This flaw is what makes the book relevant and valuable. Forget a nuclear war between two superpowers. The true subject of the book is to look at what happens to a small town that is suddenly and totally isolated. What happens to the ordinary citizen? What happens to Randy, his family and his friends?

The first, urgent problem is a water supply. Pat Frank devotes some time to how serious this would be. He then cheats just a little. The town is located on a river. People have to boil the water, but at least it exists and they can catch fish from the river. Fish soon become the mainstay of the diet along with oranges. Because this is small, rural town many people have fruit trees. It is not a farming community, but still, a few people had gardens. In a nicely ironic touch, the people best suited to survive are the very poorest, the ones who, in their poverty, still kept chickens or pigs. One old man is the envy of the neighborhood. Out of poverty and habit, he farmed his land, not with a tractor but with a mule. Suddenly tractors are worthless and a mule is priceless.

One has only to think of Yugoslavia or the worst-case-scenarios of the Y2K problem to see how timely this book really is. It is a study of survival What makes it unique amongst such stories is that the focus is on the survival of the community as a whole, not just an individual. Most stories of the collapse of civilization are about its effect on one individual. The collapse of civilization becomes nothing more than a backdrop for exciting and heroic personal adventures.

Another unique feature is the lack of a single villain. The political hacks who can't cope are no help to anyone including themselves. There soon appear dangerous criminals who prey on travelers and isolated households looking for food and transportation. They are a serious problem. The climax of the book is Randy realizing the town has to organize to defend itself or be picked to pieces by these vultures. At the same time, these criminals are only vultures. There is a whole school of stories of which The Road Warrior is the supreme example in which a hero has to defeat a roving gang of thugs. At the end of the movie, the gang is destroyed and civilization is safe. These movies are totally unrealistic for defeating the bad guys would be the beginning of the story and not the end. The good guys still have to deal with problems like food production and all the boring little mundane details that make life possible.

Alas, Babylon is utterly realistic. The town has to learn to defend itself -- so that it can then cope with the truly serious problems of survival. I'm not going to say what solutions are found. I am going to recommend reading this book.