Response
In 1975 Time Magazine panned the novel as a "bilious tirade" that only required a response because it "arrives trailing clouds of praise from French savants, including Dramatist Jean Anouilh ('A haunting book of irresistible force and calm logic'), with the imprint of a respected U.S. publisher and a teasing pre-publication ad campaign ('The end of the white world is near')". The December 1994 cover story of The Atlantic Monthly focused on the themes of the novel, analyzing them in the context of international relations.(This was at about the same time that The Social Contract Press chose to bring it back into U.S. publication.)
In 2002 Lionel Shriver described the novel as "both prescient and appalling," certainly "racist" but "written with tremendous verbal energy and passion." Shriver writes that the book "gives bilious voice to an emotion whose expression is increasingly taboo in the West, but that can grow only more virulent when suppressed: the fierce resentment felt by majority populations when that status seems threatened."
William F. Buckley, Jr. praised the book in 2004 as "a great novel" (though incorrectly stating that the refugees are from Africa) which raised questions on how to respond to massive illegal immigration. In 2005 the conservative Chilton Williamson praised the book as "one of the most uncompromising works of literary reaction in the 20th century." In 2001 the liberal Southern Poverty Law Center reported that the novel had been published five times in the US and was "widely revered by American white supremacists and is a sort of anti-immigration analog to The Turner Diaries."
The book returned to the bestseller list in 2011.
Read more about this topic: The Camp Of The Saints
Famous quotes containing the word response:
“I’ll never forget my father’s response when I told him I wanted to be a lawyer. He said, “If you do this, no man will ever want you.””
—Cassandra Dunn (b. c. 1931)
“Because humans are not alone in exhibiting such behavior—bees stockpile royal jelly, birds feather their nests, mice shred paper—it’s possible that a pregnant woman who scrubs her house from floor to ceiling [just before her baby is born] is responding to a biological imperative . . . . Of course there are those who believe that . . . the burst of energy that propels a pregnant woman to clean her house is a perfectly natural response to their mother’s impending visit.”
—Mary Arrigo (20th century)
“... the most extreme conditions require the most extreme response, and for some individuals, the call to that response is vitality itself.... The integrity and self-esteem gained from winning the battle against extremity are the richest treasures in my life.”
—Diana Nyad (b. 1949)