Books matter! Literature can influence the course of a nation’s history.
The world will long remember Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn for exposing the tyranny of 20th century Bolshevism.
In novels like “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” “Cancer Ward,” and “In the First Circle,” the dissident Russian author honoured ordinary people who had extraordinary reserves of courage and resilience.
The Will to Fight Back
Some 20 years after Solzhenitsyn’s death the Western culture of liberty is in deep trouble. National borders are collapsing and civic institutions have been captured by woke Marxists, authoritarian bureaucrats, self-serving tech wizards, and carbon-control lunatics who are determined to impoverish the next generation.Although many have concluded that resistance is futile, some have found the will to fight back. Among the latter is a promising Canadian novelist by the name of T. K. Kanwar. In recent years he has produced two influential volumes in what he calls his “Endgame Collection.” A review of his first novel, “Identity Crisis,” appeared in The Epoch Times on March 29, 2022.
Mr. Kanwar develops authentic characters who see through disinformation and resist the orthodoxy of the state. The main protagonist is Jack Nolan, a modest young deliveryman whose father and grandfather were active conservatives before the Great Reset of 2030.
As a consequence of his family history, Jack Nolan begins his adult life with a reduced social credit score and a limited ability to use the digital currency authorized by the PSA. The action in the novel picks up when agents of the “Federal Department of Justice and Compliance” conduct an armed night-time raid on Jack’s small apartment.
Jack is arrested for sharing a skeptical remark about climate change on social media and colluding with his late father’s Christian pastor who lends him a copy of The Holy Bible. The lead “Justice and Compliance” agent tells Jack: “There is a reason we don’t want Christian Nationalist texts disseminated out in public. Given our country’s shameful past, we need to be extra careful.”
After his arrest, Jack is held in a New York City “re-education centre” where Aida instructs him that: “Climate change is a global challenge” and “Christian religious practices can lead to exclusionary experiences for citizens who do not share the same beliefs.” Jack is told that he must undergo a complete re-education program before PSA federal statutes will permit his release.
The drama accelerates when Jack partners with a disaffected PSA agent to plan an implausible escape from the detention facility. Their perilous flight to a free rogue republic near Yellowstone National Park keeps the reader turning pages well into the night. Kanwar’s novel would make a great film. It’s a thriller from beginning to end.
Throughout his cautionary tale, the Canadian author demonstrates a sincere concern for the future of American liberty.
He begins his novel with a prophetic verse from the Book of Jeremiah: “Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?”
“Younger parents aren’t sure that an unambivalent appreciation of America is the right thing to teach modern children. And as for those who create the popular culture, well-grounded patriotism is no longer the style. Our spirit is back, but we haven’t reinstitutionalized it. We’ve got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom - freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It’s fragile; it needs protection” said the president.
Novelists Can Move Hearts and Minds
Today, opinion polls indicate that seventy-plus percent of Americans believe their country is on the wrong track. Watching the abuses of justice that have occurred during the 2024 election cycle many citizens suspect that the police state imagined by T. K. Kanwar is already upon them.Novelists have a unique capacity to move hearts and minds in ways that can’t be achieved by professors and politicians. Given the distinct possibility that we are watching American freedoms disappear in real time, it’s worth hoping that Mr. Kanwar’s books receive more attention in the USA.
Uplifting novels like “The World We Deserve” merit a high place on American reading lists.
