Review: Rabbletown – Randy Attwood
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| Print Length: 106 pages Publisher: Attwood Consulting, LLC (July 19, 2011) English |
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Characters:
Bobby Crowley – A young boy with a memory for scripture.
Jerry Falwell – Pastor President
Pat Robertson – Pastor Vice President
Synopsis:
The time is sometime in the future. America and the world are devasted by bombings. This gives the extremist Christian movement the open door they need to take over. And when they do, it’s not pretty.
Review
This story is set in a dystopian society. The story centers around the radical Christian sect controlling the country. There are organized stonings, burnings at the stake, Crusades in other countries, etc. There are those throughout the story who feel that they are on the wrong track.
One such character is that of Bobby. We first see Bobby in his ramshackle home with his parents and siblings. His dad works building a huge Kansas temple. His father is a miserable man, and doesn’t care too much for Bobby or his spouting scripture all the time.
Then there are the friars who still have books, and purchase books on the black market that show the technology and the way things used to be. The “Church” isn’t crazy about these friars, but they tend to tolerate them.
Bobby shows up at one of the arranged stonings saving a young woman who is being killed for adultery. He steps forward and says for the who is without sin to cast the first stone. That’s the catalyst for the rest of the story where Bobby is hunted by the military arm of the Church known as The Inquisitors.
I thought this was an interesting story. There are certainly elements of the story that make one worry about the very real possibilities of a dark era yet to come in our history. Everything flows logically, and it is entertaining.
I’d say for content alone it’s for older teens/adults but anyone who enjoys dystopian fiction I think would probably enjoy this story, it makes for a good afternoon read.
About the Author
I grew up on the grounds of Larned State Hospital, where my father was its dentist. That was interesting. I went to The University of Kansas during the tumultuous 1960s. That was interesting, too. For the first half of my adult career I worked in newspaper journalism. You couldn’t call that boring. I won my share of honors, twice winning the award for investigative reporting from the William Allen White School of Journalism at KU. For the second half of my career I was Director of University Relations at The University of Kansas Medical Center. There were some boring times, but the exciting episodes made up for it. I retired at the end of 2010 from The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, where I was its media relations officer. You see, my degree from KU was not in journalism, but in art history. Unfortunately, my father died when I was 21 so I couldn’t make him eat his words about that art history degree not being worth anything. I’ve had stints living in Italy and in Japan.
During all this time I’ve been putting words on paper, creating fiction. My works don’t fit into neat genres, unless that rather new genre “quirky” applies. And each work is quirky in its own way. What that means for me is that in each work is evidence of a deep search within myself. Sometimes it’s scary what you find in there.
I’m semi-retired now in Kansas City, keeping busy with a lot of things, among them promoting my fiction and creating new works. That search within yourself never ends.
*Disclaimer* A special thanks goes out to Mr. Attwood at for a review copy of this book. It in no way influenced my review. You can discuss it here or join my facebook page and discuss it there.
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