Kate’s 2¢: “Anthem” by Noah Hawley

“Anthem” by Noah Hawley

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

A few take-aways:

— Thoughts about politics: Swimmers: They ove in packs through the ocean and history; pulled along by the current The suffers ride on top of the water; choosing their own pathprogress is driven by their own muscles and will.

— Self-doubt about one’s copacity to deal with reality breaks down and the mental health of everyone.

— He wants words to mean what they are intended to mean. How is he supposed to conbey meaning and ideas when words have become meaningless?

— This is a story about America.

— When you don’t want to face the consequences of your actions, focus on the soap opera of public life, with its heroes and villians..

— What does it say about society when it cedes its moral leadership to perverts and pedophiles?

— Time itself is breaking down; the heat is here now, making it simultaneously  the present moment, but also the hot-house future. Models of prediction verge on the point of ridiculous.

— We live in a land of rules and texes, where the few make rule for the many.

— The children strive for hyper-freedom.

One thing leads to another. The best you can hope for is a feeling of catharsis; that something meaningful has changed; that growth has occurred.   

   I almost didn’t continue reading (listening) to this book. My mother had often admonished me to say nothing if I couldn’t say anything nice.  I kept reading and at the end of the story, I decided it had a similar theme to Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”.  The idea being that a group of people saw the destruction of the way things are and wanted to re-invent themselves in a utopia, where they might be able to finally get it right.

Hawley was born and raised in New York City, New York. His mother, Louise Armstrong, was a non-fiction writer and activist, and his maternal grandmother was a playwright. His father, Tom Hawley, was a businessman. He Hawley graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a degree in political science in 1989.[4][5] He worked for the Legal Aid Society in New York City, dealing with cases involving child abuse and neglect.[5][6] He later moved to San Francisco. He worked in computer programming at law firms[5] and as a paralegal.[2]

He has published six novels: A Conspiracy of Tall Men (1998), Other People’s Weddings (2004), The Punch (2008), The Good Father (2012), Before the Fall (2016), and Anthem (2022).[7]

Hawley was a writer and producer on the first three seasons of the television series Bones (2005–2008).[8] He was also creator and executive producer of The Unusuals (2009) and My Generation (2010).[9]

Hawley is the creator, primary writer, and executive producer of the FX anthology television series Fargo (2014), based on the Coen brothers’ 1996 film of the same name. On August 25, 2014, Fargo won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries, along with 17 additional nominations at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards. In total, the series has been nominated for 113 awards since its premiere, winning 32 of them. The fourth season of Fargo premiered on September 27, 2020.[10]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Anthem: a novel DB106616

Hawley, Noah. Reading time: 15 hours, 26 minutes.

Read by Noah Hawley.

Suspense Fiction

Mystery and Detective Stories

Simon Oliver is trying to recover from his sister’s tragic passing, but breaks out from the institution where he’s been staying. He joins up with Louise and the Prophet on a quest for the Wizard. On the way, they meet up with a man whose sister is being held captive. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2022.

Download Anthem: a novel

Atlas shrugged DB51074

Rand, Ayn Reading time: 58 hours, 4 minutes.

Michael Scherer A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.

General

Dagny Taggart, manager of a transcontinental railroad, opposes John Galt and others who relinquish control over their enterprises in exchange for security through government regulations. Espouses the clear-cut social values of the author’s philosophy of objectivism within a fictional story line. Thirty-fifth anniversary edition with new introduction in 1992. Some strong language. 1957.

Download Atlas shrugged DB51074