A Canticle for Leibowitz
Ratings279
Average rating3.9
This was an excellent post-apocalyptic novel that handled themes of the separation between church and state, the role of Catholicism worldwide, and both the beauty and danger of knowledge with creativity. While I liked this book immensely, I found some of its nonlinearity and poorly introduced characters to be a bit confusion, which led me to re-read sections to figure it out.
SUMMARY: Walter M. Miller's acclaimed SF classic A Canticle for Leibowitz opens with the accidental excavation of a holy artifact: a creased, brittle memo scrawled by the hand of the blessed Saint Leibowitz, that reads: “Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels—bring home for Emma.” To the Brothers of Saint Leibowitz, this sacred shopping list penned by an obscure, 20th-century engineer is a symbol of hope from the distant past, from before the Simplification, the fiery atomic holocaust that plunged the earth into darkness and ignorance. As 1984 cautioned against Stalinism, so 1959's A Canticle for Leibowitz warns of the threat and implications of nuclear annihilation. Following a cloister of monks in their Utah abbey over some six or seven hundred years, the funny but bleak Canticle tackles the sociological and religious implications of the cyclical rise and fall of civilization, questioning whether humanity can hope for more than repeating its own history. Divided into three sections—Fiat Homo (Let There Be Man), Fiat Lux (Let There Be Light), and Fiat Voluntas Tua (Thy Will Be Done)—Canticle is steeped in Catholicism and Latin, exploring the fascinating, seemingly capricious process of how and why a person is canonized. —Paul Hughes
The world has gone through a nuclear war and lies in ruins. 600 years later some communities of people are forming, and one of them is a monastic order dedicated to Saint Leibowitz. He was martyred for his faith in the aftermath of the war and we are introduced to a novice of the order, Brother Francis. Francis stumbles into a buried fallout shelter and finds more of the writings of Leibowitz, but revealing them to his Abbot causes a crisis. Are they authentic? What do they mean? And what do they reveal about Leibowitz?
As the novel progresses we find that the history in the minds of the monks is not as they believe. They live in naivete about the past and its consequences. Their shared holiness, however, maintains them in faith and conviction.
The undercurrents of the novel reveal that Leibowitz was an engineer and his 'writings' are engineering and electronic diagrams. He was killed in a time called The Simplification where all educated people were seen as the cause of the war and were murdered by the survivors as they burned any surviving books and libraries. The monks were secretly finding and storing books and teaching themselves to read.
Part 1 of the book is the story of Francis. He is the sweetest and most wholesome person imaginable and he maintains his faith in his precious saint and lives in obedience to his Abbot through the political wranglings of his superiors caused by what Francis has found. The gentle humour that underlies much of the book is shown when Francis finds the fallout shelter. He knows that 'fallout' killed most of the world's inhabitants but he doesn't know what it is. He sees the sign 'Fallout Shelter' on the door and thinks 'That must be where a fallout is hiding. No way am I opening that door. It might still be alive and attack me.'
Part 2 of the book takes us another 600 years into the future. The monastery has expanded in numbers and the buildings have been fortified. Other communities have risen, one of them is the 'city' where ignorant and uneducated people have control over the political life, the other is a band of savages living in the forest. They waylay travelers and are known for cannibalism. The monks continue to struggle with interpreting the works of Leibowitz, but secular intellectuals from the city are now interested as they think there might be leads towards learning the technology of the past. The Abbott of this era is occupied in preserving the monastery and their saint in the face of the warfare that is looming after the city reinvents gun powder and muskets and can now move against the savages.
Part 3 takes us a further 600 years. Space travel has been achieved, technology is everywhere and the Abbott has a self driving car and his order has a starship ready to take missionaries to the colony worlds of Alpha Centauri. But technology also means the increase of nuclear weapons and an old threat reemerges. Much of this part of the book is taken up with discussions of morality and responsibility as the Abbot and his order struggle to maintain the beliefs that have informed their community life for centuries against the pragmatism of the city and a looming nuclear faceoff.
It was only after reading the book that I found that the author had been a rear gunner of a bomber in WW2 and on one mission they'd bombed a monastery in Italy. It had a profound effect on him and he converted to Catholicism after the war and struggled with PTSD and depression. 1959, the publication date, was also a time of great fear in America (I'm not American) and children used to do attack drills and were taught to hide under their desks etc. For me, sixty five years later and on the other side of the world, the story still hits hard for its literary value and without the undercurrent of fear that fueled American life when it was written.
Painting religion as something good is really some speculative fiction.
That's as close to DNF as they come
Books have genuinely never been more important. Never before has a story told with a timeline like this ever been paced this well
I gave this book a read after repeatedly seeing it listed as one of the “greatest science fiction stories of all time” in several different places. Quite frankly, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
Overall, it's a good enough read. I can see why it's considered an “important” book, and why it would have caused such a splash when it was released, what with its themes of nuclear holocaust and the conflict between Church and State. And, while those conflicts are just as important today as they were then, the book feels somewhat ... dated, nonetheless.
Anyways, the plot in a nutshell: we are given three interconnected short stories, all taking place in the same post-apocalyptic future. Through them, we see how humanity manages to bring itself up out of the ashes, and into the next nuclear holocaust centuries later. The idea of the cyclical nature of time has never been more depressing.
It was the very definition of “just ok”
Basically.
Man builds stuff
Man argues about stuff
Man blows stuff up.
And on it goes, normally in the name of religion.
On the whole I was massively disappointed, especially as this book appears on so many lists of dystopian books you must read before you die.
“Blasphemous old cactus.”
I am neither religious enough nor science-y enough to get the most out of this book. I feel like the author was trying to be too coy at burying a message about mankind being doomed to repeat the past and morality and other dense topics, but forgot to include a cohesive story to tie it all together.
The book takes place in post-WWIII America, after a period of time when books, learning, and science was rejected. Monks in monasteries gather what's left of knowledge, painstakingly record it by hand in books, and quietly file it away in libraries to be recovered later. If this sounds familiar, it's because the author was trying to get you to see early on that history repeats itself. You'll see this theme again and again and again. The book follows one of these monasteries through the years, the Order of St. Leibowitz. Important, key knowledge is recovered (I guess, science-y terms are used liberally throughout this book), and we track what changes are wrought by this discovery. Technology slowly comes back, and we keep our eye on this monastery and how it changes (or doesn't) with the times.
The author makes liberal use of time jumps throughout the story, making it hard to remember who was who when looking back through the years, and also giving the story a layer of complexity it didn't really need. I was lost for large parts of the middle book, where the author takes a long period of time to not explain science-y things and also establish some conflict within post-apocalypse America. There's lots of references in here that went over my head, presumably because I'm not quite as up on my religious doctrine as maybe others might be.
It's kind of a convoluted mess I didn't really enjoy. The beginning had promise, but then we time jumped and I lost what interest it had built up. By the time we got to it, the ending was fairly predictable. Lots of people like this book, but I guess I just wasn't one of them.
Torn on this book. Given its publication date definitely a milestone in the post-apocalyptic novel. It has aged only around the edges (his belief in the lack of strength of mutual deterrence has not been born out) but so many themes have been picked up by others for their post apocalyptic novels. Heck, the step between QAnons and the Simpletons is the smallest of hops. I loved the first two parts and but the third part had me grinding my teeth at the Prior's argument on euthanasia. This book will appeal to Umberto Eco or Neal Stephenson readers
You'll rarely hear me say I can't put a book down (mostly because work), but with a four-day weekend, I plowed through A Canticle for Leibowitz.
This is a cautionary tale about the centuries after World War III (written less than two decades after entering the nuclear age) when a second Dark Ages has fallen on the world and a monastery has taken as its mission to preserve what it can of history and knowledge. What's poignant about that is the monks don't understand what they're preserving. They just know they must preserve it for the future. Even though it was written more than 60 years ago, its reads like a contemporary best seller. Amazing how timeless the writing is!
The book is full of Latin references from Catholicism and The Bible that relate to the story, which forces you to slow down if you reference everything. Do it. It's worth it! Wish I hadn't found this full reference after I was halfway through the book!
https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/10/12/study-guide-for-walter-m-miller-jr-a-canticle-for-leibowitz-1959/
A weird mix of stories, although this is kinda sci-fi book the third story (actual sci-fi) was the hardest to read, and the reason I'm giving it 4 instead of 5 stars. This is a very unique post-apocalyptic Catholic sci-fi where history seems eerily bent on repeating itself. Miller's trilogy encompasses three separate stories loosely tied together, but able to be taken/read independently.
Darkly humorous, satirical, poignant. Not really the sort of book I usually like, but definitely one I'm glad I read!
Highly recommended!
A slog of a book, very so, but is so unique in itself.
The following are probably one of the best lines I've ever read in a SF book:
“We are the centuries.
We are the chin-choppers and the golly-woppers, and soon we shall discuss the amputation of your head.
We are your singing garbage men, Sir and Madam, and we march in cadence behind you, chanting rhymes that some think odd.
Hut two threep foa!
Left!
Left! He-had-a-good-wife-but-he
Left!
Left!
Left!
Right!
Left!
Wir, as they say in the old country, marschieren weiter wenn alles in Scherben fällt.
We have your eoliths and your mesoliths and your neoliths. We have your Babylons and your Pompeiis, your Caesars and your chromium-plated (vital-ingredient-impregnated) artifacts.
We have your bloody hatchets and your Hiroshimas. We march in spite of Hell, we do– Atrophy, Entropy, and Proteus vulgaris, telling bawdy jokes about a farm girl name of Eveand a traveling salesman called Lucifer.
We bury your dead and their reputations.We bury you. We are the centuries.
Be born then, gasp wind, screech at the surgeon's slap, seek manhood, taste a little of godhood, feel pain, give birth, struggle a little while, succumb:
(Dying, leave quietly by the rear exit, please.)
Generation, regeneration, again, again, as in a ritual, with blood-stained vestments and nail-torn hands, children of Merlin, chasing a gleam. Children, too, of Eve, forever building Edens– and kicking them apart in berserk fury because somehow it isn't the same. (AGH! AGH! AGH!–an idiot screams his mindless anguish amid the rubble. But quickly! let it be inundated by the choir, chanting Alleluias at ninety decibels.)
Hear then, the last Canticle of the Brethren of the Order of Leibowitz, as sung by the century that swallowed its name:
V: Lucifer is fallen.
R: Kyrie eleison.
V: Lucifer is fallen.
R: Christe eleison.
V: Lucifer is fallen.
R: Kyrie eleison, eleison imas!”
Side note, the way Miller found death and looking at this book and see how he wrote the discussion about euthanasia is indeed staggering. Depression devours.
A Canticle For Leibowitz is a novel that spans roughly 1,800 years and is split into 3 parts. It takes place after a nuclear war has left the world devastated and humanity is left in a new ‘Dark Ages'. We follow the Order of Leibowitz monks as they take on the mission of preserving human knowledge from prior to the ‘Flame Deluge' (their name for the nuclear war that left humanity scattered and devastated.)
Let me start off this review by saying I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH.
I've been very interested in dystopian science fiction recently and this is the most unique novel I've come across yet. This book was so hard to put down once I started reading it and I finished the final section in roughly an hour because it was so engrossing ..
The aspects of this book I particularly enjoyed was how it was separated into the three parts and how we could see humanity's progress in slowly rebuilding themselves. I loved the philosophical ideas regarding science and Christianity. This novel requires us to ask ourselves important questions like: Is it possible for human free will to change the course of the future or is history destined to repeat itself? A truly interesting perspective on human nature and one of the best novels I've read in a very long time.
*i apologize if this review is poorly written and all over the place it's the first one I've ever written
I had read this many years back and recalled thinking it a very good Sci-Fi novel. I have no reason to change my original rating.
Interestingly I do not recall thinking too much about it as a complex book of religious, Roman Catholic at least, thought back then. It was just post apocalypse full stop. But after finishing I was reading about the author and his participating in the bombing of Monte Cassino in WW2. For a deeply thoughtful and religious man his telling of an apocalyptic tale makes a lot of sense considering the horrors that he was present at and witness to. Well worth a reread after all these years.
I don't think this is a spoiler, but just in case...
Was I the only one who was really bummed that Francis got made just when you started to like the guy?
It always amazes me how certain books seem to continue to be relevant in the moment. I finished reading this book as the Pope is traveling through the US, the Congress is split over the Iran deal, and we may be electing a crazy man or woman to lead our country. It is amazing how you can see past events forming to produce the events we are living in today. Oh, and I'm talking about the book too.
Once I figured out that this was basically three short stories put together through the buzzards, I settled in and enjoyed it a lot more. Take a chance to read or reread this. I audiobooked it, and I think that helped. Oh, and everybody dies, again!
First published in 1960, A Canticle for Leibowitz is set after World War III which has left the planet a radioactive desert. Civilisation is rebuilding itself, and monks keep and illuminate relics from the past. The structure of the story is in three parts titled: “Fiat Homo”, “Fiat Lux”, and “Fiat Voluntas Tua”. Six centuries separate each of the periods:
- Part 1 gives is a back story to the post apocalyptic world.
- Part 2 shows humanity embracing knowledge.
- Part 3 shows humanity more or less back to where it was before the atomic desolation.
The link between these three separate stories is a monastic order. This simply wasn't interesting to me. Many of Miller's attitudes and ideas also haven't dated too well. For example, we have space ships, translation machines and driverless cars. Miller also embraces racism and sexism. We have savages whose ancestors were Indians, a male only priesthood, sly Asian enemies, and the females are either mothers, wives or Sisters.
The cynical story is slow paced, dense and bleak, with the occasional flash of humour. The moral of the book is that humans are too stupid to learn from our mistakes. The third part of the book, includes a debate between future Church and state stances on euthanasia, a thematic issue representative of the larger conflict between Church and state.
I found A Canticle for Leibowitz to have literary aspirations which fell far short. The long-winded plot is nebulous, weak and uses Latin and ecclesiastical minutiae as a way to get its point across. There didn't seem to be much character development either. Finally, there are no references to the modern day, which make it difficult to conceptualise the horror of this world. This is an essential part of good post apocalyptic fiction.
Sorry to be negative but I just couldn't get into it at all.
There are some books that are called “classics,” but you don't really understand why until you read it and feel that you've been changed. You know, for certain, that even though the themes have been played again and again, that the story is as everlasting as the bricks in an ancient abbey. I'll save the rest of my thoughts for the Sword & Laser recap, but I'm glad that we've also read [b:The Sparrow 334176 The Sparrow (The Sparrow, #1) Mary Doria Russell https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1230829367s/334176.jpg 3349153] as an interesting comparison on the themes in both. Fantastic book, even if you don't speak a lick of Latin!
Executive Summary: I've never had the best luck with Sci-Fi classics, and this one was no different.
Audio book: I heard many people say the audio for this book was bad. I'm not sure if it's a different version, but I thought it was fine.
Tom Weiner does a pretty good job. The only real drawback for me was all the Latin. I'm told the text has footnotes to help with that. If so, this version either didn't have them, or simply weren't read.
Full Review
I largely found myself bored by this book. I don't like post-apocalyptic books to begin with. I generally haven't enjoyed many classics of sci-fi either. So this already had two strikes against it.
I will say that it's well written, and had a few interesting characters. The story picked up in the middle, but I never really got sucked in. I was most intrigued by the old hermit. He never seemed to be explained to me though. It's certainly possible that since this is a more literary book, he was some kind of allegory that I just didn't get.
Despite the main characters all being Christian monks, I didn't find it very preachy until the last few chapters. At that point I was pretty much just ready to move on though.
There is a lot to discuss from the book, but I already feel like I spent enough time on it. I can understand why this book won a hugo, and was discussed in school. It just wasn't for me. Your mileage will likely vary.
This was an interesting book and I am glad it was a book club pick (S & L). The outlook of the book to me felt refreshing and slightly depressing. I hope the portrait of humanity was not accurate, and the fact that there wasn't already mass nuclear annihilation is a good start.