Obeying a slight craving for the post-apocalyptic, I stumbled upon this supposed classic of the genre. I initially chose it because of the stark contrast between this and my trip with Dawkins through atheist regions. Although the plot was unknown to me before purchase, the illustration of a shrouded monk walking through fire under circling vultures was enough to tip me off to a strong religious element.
The book was written at the height of nuclear paranoia in the 1950's and the author's personal fear and lack of faith in humanity is clear from the get go. The story takes place in a world where nuclear destruction had occurred and in retaliation the surviving uneducated waged war against the people who were responsible, bringing civilization back to the days of candle light and religious dominance.
The novel's story revolves around the monastery of Saint Leibowitz. Leibowitz is revered for beginning a movement of preservation of literature during the retaliation against modern education and that is the purpose of the monastery, to seek out and preserve technical literature of any kind.
Although the monastery and its penitent monks are the focal point of the entire novel, the story is broken into three parts; The first being a re-creation of the dark ages, where the monks could only preserve the scientific documents but couldn't understand or interpret any of them. Irony oozes liberally from the pages when thinking about what these monks were trying to achieve, to return civilization back to modernity where religion is no longer a way of life but rather a crutch, and they do it with such devotion. Brother Francis is the main character in part one and he's described as a pitifully meek and obedient follower but with such heated passion toward the cause of the monastery of Leibowitz. While praying in seclusion in the desert, as was the thing to do when called upon to do it, Francis stumbles upon an old fallout shelter containing evidence of Leibowitz's existence including a shopping list, which he treats like ancient scripture. He's then visited by an enigmatic character; an old man who at first gives the impression of a loon, but hints at a greater wisdom. This character is somewhat of a mystery throughout the novel, an observer of events likened to the biblical Lazarus and is seemingly immortal. I won't get into full detail of the following events other than to say Francis is hurtled into a national conflict that shows two clear sides: those who want to understand and return to modern civilization and those who don't.
Part two of the novel describes a time when science is just starting to take hold. The tension between the primitive and the modern is magnified and an interesting theme is present. When modern civilization has already occurred and a lot of the literature has been preserved, it would naturally take a lot less time to return to modernity. However, this accelerated speed of scientific progression would do nothing but amplify social tensions and that is exactly what these chapters depict. Brutal tribes of cannibals, simple monks and scientists all fighting for power and what they consider to be the way of life. On a critical note, of the entire novel this was the intermission, the bridge that was obviously important to the narrative, but not quite the page turner that I wanted or expected.
Part three brought an immediate end to my slight boredom with previous chapters. The setting is a second modern civilization, far beyond present time when colonies had been formed on the closest habitable planets in the galaxy and earth finds itself on the threshold of a second nuclear holocaust. It's interesting how Miller goes about finding a story within these settings. He seemed intent, especially in this part, to approach certain controversies and flesh them out with colorful arguments on both sides but showing a reluctance to form an opinion either way. The argument that dominated the final chapters of the novel was euthanasia. An entire city was blown completely off the map and millions were dead, the wounded survivors had to deal with the grim realization that radiation sickness is often incurable and leads to a harsh and painful death. The argument was between a doctor and the head of the monastery. The doctor had the responsibility of deciding which victims were beyond medical care and were to be given the choice of assisted suicide as an alternative from a brief painful existence. The monk was trying as hard as he could to convince the doctor that assisted suicide was wrong and it is these people's destiny to die painfully, to rob them of that is to spit in the face of God and his plan for human existence. Obviously I sided with the doctor, but the argument was presented in such an unbiased way that a religious person would have obviously agreed with the monk and never given it a second thought.
Overall this was an immensely interesting and thought provoking read. It certainly dragged in some parts, but those pages served to raise the tension until the finale which was very satisfying and at the same time unsettling when some time is taken to reflect on our own civilization.
5/5
