Book of the Month -- Cry Wolf: A Political Fable

By pure luck, I stumbled into author Paul Lake, the poetry editor of First Things, and then read his novel Cry Wolf: A Political Fable.

Cry Wolf is a 21st-century update on George Orwell's Animal Farm. Political correctness, upside-down notions of "fairness," and the prodding of the sophistical Owl ("the Professor") lead the orderly "Green Pastures Farm" from good intentions to a total breakdown of society and a return to the wild. Any one who inhabits academia, with its identity politics and speech police, will appreciate this fast-paced novel.

But you don't have to be in higher education to appreciate how Cry Wolf satirizes larger trends in American society. The peddler of iPhones, Steve Jobs, insists that "people don't read anymore." For those who do read books, check out Cry Wolf at Amazon or your local bookstore.