Ten Novels Every American Should Read to Understand the Culture Part 1

We all have our favorite books that we think everyone should read, both novels and non-fiction. I could probably name a hundred that I think need to be on your Don't Miss This! list.  Why? Because they help us understand what's going on in the world and how to respond to it. I'll start with only ten of my favorite books in a two-part post. Every one is worth reading more than once and reflected upon. Each has prophetic elements that strike the tocsin, the warning bell. We would do well to pay attention! 

If you're looking for a Catholic list, check out Fr. John Hardon's Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan which lists books that relate to the Catholic faith: what we believe and what great teachers, saints and mystics have written throughout the ages. Unfortunately, it's out of print and pretty pricy. My list contains only one book recommended by Fr. Hardon, Lord of the World by Fr. Hugh Benson but my list is more oriented toward books that illustrate the decline of the culture and how it may impact and contribute to a dystopian future. Maybe I'll do another list on my favorite books for spiritual growth. Imitation of Christ would certainly make that list!

So here are my first five cultural warning books.

1) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley -- 

We've been living in the brave new world (BNW) for decades. Our immoral culture has happily separated sex from procreation. We have contraception (literally "against conception"), IVF making babies consumer items whose DNA can be altered to get the "right" characteristics, and surrogate motherhood making women "wombs for hire." No need for abortion in the BNW since no one carries her own child. Will we get there too? Gay guys sure can't carry a baby. They fuel the surrogate industry which exploits women.

We have drugs like soma to make everybody feel good, and, speaking of feelings the BNW movies are "feelies" that let viewers experience what they see on the screen. Pornography resembles that and we can see the Georgie Porgie orgies growing around the world with sex trafficking even of children and the increasing push for polygamy and group sex. Really! There are websites that defend orgies and describe how to engage in them "safely." I don't encourage reading about or searching those terms, but realize that we have much in common with those eras that ended in massive violence preceded by sexual deviance of the worst kind. (e.g., the years preceding and during the French Revolution and the immoral Weimer Republic preceding the rise of Nazi Germany) 

Why read about it? Because it's a warning. Widespread and culturally justified sexual immorality always ends in massive violence. The reign of terror in France and the revolution's genocide in the Vendee illustrate the degree of evil of which mankind is capable when he separates himself from God.

Huxley was an atheist so don't look for a happy ending. The book is a lesson on despair. Like the ghosts said to Richard III in Shakespeare's play before the Battle of Bosworth Field, "Despair and die." 

2) 1984 or Animal Farm by George Orwell --

The election of Mamdani in New York should send a chills through every American patriot. Unfortunately, there aren't many of those left in NYC and many, if not most, of the electorate (at least in New York and other blue states) are ignorant when it comes to the meaning of socialism/communism. 

Orwell paints a grim picture in both books. The reality is that, under communism and its more benevolent sounding euphemism, socialism, "All pigs are equal, but some are more equal than others." In Animal Farm the fate of the good work horse Boxer, who represents the working class in Soviet Russia, illustrates what Big Brother from 1984 has in mind for those who can no longer serve the party. And for those who contemplate rebellion, as Winston and Julia learn, the fate is even more horrifying than the glue factory. Some things are worse than death! Orwell was also an atheist so don't look for a happy ending in his novels either. Despair is the default position for those who reject God.

3) The Children's Story by James Clavell -- 

Another book about Communism and how children (and others) can easily be twisted by thought control is The Children's Story. In Nazi Germany all kind of rhetoric disparaging the Jews was introduced into the school curriculum: math word problems, health instruction, etc. How is the same strategy being used here to turn children into little commie robots? 

Clavell says he wrote the book after a conversation with his little daughter after school. She had been taught the Pledge of Allegiance, but without understanding it. He realized what could happen "in twenty-five quietly devastating minutes," thinking "how vulnerable my child's mind was -- any mind, for that matter -- under controlled circumstances." 

In his short pamphlet-sized book, Calvell shows how easy it is to manipulate the mind of a child. But don't we have evidence of how easy it is to manipulate the minds of adults through our COVID experience? Again, this book is chilling and without a positive ending. In view of all the young people on our campuses and in our communities today who are enthusiastic about communism/socialism, it's more relevant than ever.

4) The Ugly American by William Lederer and Eugene Burdick --

The Ugly American was written by two foreign service officers, experts in U.S. relations in Southeast Asia. It tells a story showing how ignorance, greed, incompetence, and deceit infect our foreign policy and contribute to the growth of communism around the globe. Written during the cold war (published in 1958), The authors describe the book as "more fact than fiction." The ironic title comes from the fact that one of the most heroic men in the book, working to improve the lives of the poor where he's living, is physically ugly. But it is the bright and beautiful, the ambassadors and their staffs, who are truly ugly, generally ignorant about the cultures where they serve and  sometimes unwittingly insulting representatives of the host countries and their people. How many ambassadors today are completely ignorant of the places where they serve? 

Lederer and Burdick end the book with a "Factual Epilogue" lamenting that "our free life well may be lost in a succession of bits and fragments." Their book illustrates exactly how that can happen. The book has been described as "one of the most influential American political novels." 

5) Lord of the World by Fr. Robert Hugh Benson -- 

The dystopian world described in Benson's book resembles ours in many respects. Religious thought is promoted in three principal ways: Catholicism, a secular humanistic Man is God belief, and Eastern religions. Benson describes the rise of the anti-Christ and the gradual move toward violent suppression of those who believe in God. Euthanasia is common with suicide clinics and even forced euthanasia. The book was published in 1907 and shows how totalitarianism grows and takes over to the point that the people are ordered to disavow God or be executed. 

At the time of his writing, World War I was approaching. World tensions were growing with many doubts about the future. The grim ending of Lord of the World makes it appear that the demons have won and the world ends in a fiery whimper. Benson's next novel, The Dawn of All, showed an opposite outcome with the rise of Catholicism. In the preface to the book Benson describes how some described the book as "exceedingly depressing and discouraging to optimistic Christians." And so he wrote a more positive and hopeful story. 

Sad to say, Lord of the World appears to have been more prophetic. In many respects, the ending reminds me of the final scene in another favorite novel of mine, Mr. Blue by Myles Connolly. Blue, a St. Francis type character, has an idea for a film about the persecution and elimination of Catholics. The authorities believe that the last priest has been executed. The people have all been herded into the cities to live a hive-like life. A single priest has survived. He spends his free days going out into the country where he grows a little wheat to make communion bread. When he's finally prepared, he locks himself into one of the high rise buildings, goes to the roof and begins to offer Mass, to bring God back to earth. He's spotted and the tyrannical government sends planes to drop bombs, but as they do, he raises the host at the Consecration of the Mass and Christ's second coming occurs. The book is an antidote to all the dystopian novels I've mentioned. 

Well, I've given you more than five favorite novels. What novels have you read that you think should be on everyone's bookshelf? I have an acquaintance who doesn't read fiction. I can't relate at all. I have often found a book of fiction a rich source of meditation, not to mention a challenge against ignorance, like The Ugly American. What would you put on your Don't Miss This! list?