Book Review: THE CHRYSALIDS by John Wyndham

The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"We are not dogmatists teaching God how He should have ordered the world."

I find it hard to believe that this novel was written back in 1955. It rings too true, too "now."

Fresh from reading about Oppenheimer and his atomic bomb, reading this felt like a sequel that has more realistic elements than fantastical ones. Religious paranoia, society's condemnation of anyone different, are rampant in this world as well as Wyndham's made-up, post-apocalyptic one.

When humanity nearly destroys itself after unleashing its weapons that assure mutual destruction for all sides, the world is vastly changed. Scrambling for order, survivors build settlements and wipe out any form of mutation, an integral part of evolution.

Our hero's childhood is one surrounded by religious sayings pasted all over his house: "BLESSED IS THE NORM, and IN PURITY OUR SALVATION" and "THE NORM IS THE WILL OF GOD."

When he dares to question, out of innocent inquisitiveness, he is punished harshly, and told: "You blasphemed, boy. You found fault with the Norm."

All his life he is told that anyone and anything who looks different must be destroyed, and best by fire. But then he discovers that he himself, and several others, possess an invisible gift that marks them out for destruction. Never mind that the difference is one for good, an improvement on the race. To hide a brightly burning light amidst the darkness, one risks being burnt.

And so we have the setup for one of the tightest and best written novels I've ever read. Part mystery, part thriller, and only partly scifi, it is as potent and powerful a critique of modern society as the best of them. And it's short enough to be read in one sitting!

The book had surprisingly beautiful phrases about God's role in a changing world: "God doesn’t have any last word. If He did He’d be dead. But He isn’t dead; and He changes and grows, like everything else that’s alive."

This book is a powerful call to review organized religion's stances on science and technology's myriad gifts, and a reminder that what authorities claim to be lawful is not always what is good.

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