Snowball's Chance

Rating:
Summary: strong satire of a strong satire turning Orwell on his head
Review: After being exiled from Animal Farm, a contrite Snowball returns insisting that he learned his lesson of excess and abuse of power and will harm no one. He slowly begins his means of taking over through "democratic" processes by promising if elected in charge he will reform the farm so that the animals will have plenty of pie and the stables will be heated and well lighted. No one will want under his enlightened leadership.

Snowball's reform succeeds so that newcomers from the surrounding areas begin to flock to Animal Farm for a taste of the good life. These refugees are given the jobs none of the old-timers want to do and live in the oldest dilapidated barns. The original loyal followers of Snowball move into choice property outside the crime ridden center. Snowball continues to expand Animal Farm bringing prosperity to his inner circle.

Winning a court case, Snowball gains control of the water rights. This leaves the Beavers with nothing but anger and frustration that leads to counterinsurgency with an opportunity to a better afterlife if they die for the cause of freeing the beaver woods.

John Reed provides an intriguing ironic follow-up to George Orwell's superb satirical personification of communism by applying the same cast to the personification of capitalism. Some diehard Orwellian fans will loathe what might seem as an assault on the author, but this reviewer believes that Mr. Orwell on THE WHOLE would have done something similar if he lived today. Mindful of a Jay Ward Fractured Fairy Tale involving Sleeping Beauty, SNOWBALL'S CHANCE is a strong satire of a strong satire turning Orwell on his head.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: Attacked by both sides
Review: I'd heard about the book from a conservative friend who read about it in the New York Times. He was seething over the idea and just hated this Reed, who he called a Marxist. A few weeks later, I was talking to an actual Marxist, who also was seething over Reed's novel. So, being a reasonable fellow, I decided to take a look. And I loved it. Totally rational assesment of what's going on. A must read.

Rating:
Summary: I can't believe it's not everywhere.
Review: Really, you must look at this book for your classes. High School and College. I have a freshman composition class that just went wild discussing this book. In twenty years of teaching, I've never seen my students so engaged in anything.

Rating:
Summary: Disgustingly disrespectful.
Review: This book is disrespectful to Orwell and to Animal Farm. Compared to other books in it's genre, especially Animal Farm, it is ignorant and lowly. I do not suggest reading it at all.

Rating:
Summary: My report
Review: This book was on a reading list for school, and I read it over the summer. I just got to give a talk about it, and it really surpirsed my teacher. I liked that the class got so excited about it. We got sorted into two camps right away, and things got really loud. And that was really great.

Rating:
Summary: My report
Review: This book was on a reading list for school, and I read it over the summer. I just got to give a talk about it, and it really surpirsed my teacher. I liked that the class got so excited about it. We got sorted into two camps right away, and things got really loud. And that was really great.

Rating:
Summary: Parody and Homage in one work...
Review: This was a book that was placed on the required reading list of my college English class, along with Orwell's Animal Farm. I found it an incredibly intriguing piece that both capitalized (no pun intended) on the uniqueness of Orwell's writing style (paranthetical phrases, etc) and pokes fun at it (there are quite a few silly songs and poems that the animals make up).

I think that it can be viewed from many different angles, especially if you see their Ferris Wheel as the Pentagon...think about it.