The Camp of the Saints review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Jean Raspail's infamous collapse-of-Western-civilization novel, The Camp of the Saints.

       I've rarely been so uncomfortable about posting a review, but given how often it has been referenced recently -- now again especially (but hardly only) with the wave of refugees from, in particular, Syria into Europe -- and how often it is brought up in discussions of Michel Houellebecq's just-out-in-the-UK and coming-soon-to-the-US Submission I figured coverage of it serves at least some informational value.
       But, holy shit, this is an unpleasant piece of work, with no redeeming features ... and in some ways particularly hard to review; to say Raspail is misguided doesn't come close to how off the rails he is. The opening of the Kirkus review from four decades ago gives some sense of the struggle to put this thing in any sort of perspective:

The publishers are presenting The Camp of the Saints as a major event, and it probably is, in much the same sense that Mein Kampf was a major event. It takes important and chilling facts that very few people are willing to face, and digs into them like a hyena into carrion.

       Sadly, there are those who hold it up as an exemplary work and warning -- and it's that, and not Raspail's scenario, that can make you despair of mankind and the future.