For anyone who hasn´t heard about it yet, this book is more relevant than ever and highly recommended:
The Camp of the Saints
Another summary:
Very controversial, disturbing book. Sometimes called racist, and I can at least see why some people would say that. The author tends to get carried away in his descriptions of the filth, the depravity and the evil leading to the fall. He doesn´t give a singel shit about sensitive reader´s feelings or opinions.
But those parts ought to be seen as exaggerations to really drive the point home, in my opinion. Doesn´t dilute the message one bit.
I found it to be more horrifying than any other work of fiction I have ever seen or read.
Unfortunately, what has been read cannot be unread.
Find more reviews here.
The Camp of the Saints
Quote:Quote:
The Camp of the Saints (Le Camp des Saints) is a 1973 French apocalyptic novel by Jean Raspail. The novel depicts a setting where in Third World mass immigration to France and the West leads to the destruction of Western civilization. Almost forty years after publication the book returned to the bestseller list in 2011.
Plot:
The Camp of the Saints is a novel about population migration and its consequences. In Calcutta, India, the Belgian government announces a policy in which Indian babies will be adopted and raised in Belgium. The policy is reversed after the Belgian consulate is inundated with poverty-stricken parents eager to give up their infant children.
An Indian "wise man" then rallies the masses to make a mass exodus to live in Europe. Most of the story centers on the French Riviera, where almost no one remains except for the military and a few civilians, including a retired professor who has been watching the huge fleet of run-down freighters approaching the French coast.
The story alternates between the French reaction to the mass immigration and the attitude of the immigrants. They have no desire to assimilate into French culture but want the goods that are in short supply in their native India. Although the novel focuses on France, the rest of the West shares its fate.
Near the end of the story the mayor of New York City is made to share Gracie Mansion with three families from Harlem, the Queen of the United Kingdom must agree to have her son marry a Pakistani woman, and only one drunken Soviet soldier stands in the way of thousands of Chinese people as they swarm into Siberia. The one holdout until the end of the novel is Switzerland, but by then international pressure isolating it as a rogue state for not opening its borders forces it to capitulate.
Another summary:
Quote:Quote:
The theme of the book is based on a moral quandary: What steps will a liberal society take to preserve its way of life? Is liberal society too humane and compassionate to protect itself from those who would undermine and destroy it?
The story begins with a compassionate step taken by the Belgian government, which announces that, to mitigate Indian overpopulation, it will adopt Indian babies and have them raised in Belgium. But the consulate is overwhelmed by poverty-stricken parents, and Belgium rescinds the policy.
But then, almost spontaneously, nearly a million starving, disease-ridden boat people — men, women, and children — board an armada of old freighters and other vessels and set sail from the Ganges delta for Europe. The ships reach the French Riviera on Easter Sunday. Raspail makes it clear that this horde has no desire to assimilate into French culture. Instead, they seek the plentiful material goods that Europeans have produced and Indians have not.
In Raspail’s telling, the confidence of the West — which was once called Christendom — has been undermined by multiculturalism and the like. Accordingly, hardly anyone is willing to say that this flotilla must be stopped. Instead, liberals and Christians foolishly embrace the idea that the onslaught of migrants should be welcomed into the wealth and comfort of Europe. Indeed, the French military is directed to attack those who seek to resist the horde.
Very controversial, disturbing book. Sometimes called racist, and I can at least see why some people would say that. The author tends to get carried away in his descriptions of the filth, the depravity and the evil leading to the fall. He doesn´t give a singel shit about sensitive reader´s feelings or opinions.
But those parts ought to be seen as exaggerations to really drive the point home, in my opinion. Doesn´t dilute the message one bit.
I found it to be more horrifying than any other work of fiction I have ever seen or read.
Unfortunately, what has been read cannot be unread.
Find more reviews here.