Book Review: The Unit: A Novel by Terry DeHart
Review by Scott Lefebvre
“In a post-nuclear world, family is everything.”
I received this book, submitted for review through a friend.
I received three books at the same time and decided to go for this one first, since I’m a fan of post-apocalyptic films and fiction.
It’s a story about a family, headed by an ex-military father, trying to survive in a post-nuclear attack United States.
I was eager to involve myself in the story and it began at a brisk pace, taking you directly into the lives of the family in their journey across northern California.
The author uses the device of telling the story from the perspective of the different characters of the family and also the perspective of the people that they interact with on their journey.
This device has been used successfully in many noteworthy works of fiction, but the author seems to only really be confident in the masculine voice and the female characters read as contrived mother/daughter stereotypes attributed with the thoughts and actions that would be attributed to them by a male author.
I got about halfway through and the novel just completely lost my attention. The author provides far too many coincidental opportunities and dues ex machina plot points, and after one too many, “Thank God Almighty that we managed to scrape past that last potentially life-ending event.”, I lost interest in the plight of the family, since there was no question who the heroes of this story were.
The novel serves as a cautionary tale, and is most easily compared with The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006). It’s not my knee-jerk reaction as a reviewer to try to find a recognizable piece of media to compare new media with, but the comparison is unavoidable to anyone that was aware of the preceding book.
The best description of The Unit would be to describe it as being if The Road was written at a young adolescent reading level, with enough rape, murder, and other violence to make it unsuitable for adolescents, told from the perspective of a militant survivalist, with a side of Christian dogmatism.
I always try to provide some topspin when I’m reviewing a book that I didn’t enjoy as much as I expected to, so here’s the topspin.
This book is perfect for the militant survivalist in your family, or the perfect gift from a militant survivalist to members of his family to prove that there are other people who are equally concerned about a looming collapse of American society and have just as little faith in human nature and the capacity for people to work together to try to overcome circumstances that would otherwise be potentially overwhelming.
It’s also perfect for people that like post-apocalyptic themed media, but heard that The Road was too depressing, or saw the film adaptation of The Road and tried to pick up the book, but, finding themselves incapable of appreciating literature, were unable to appreciate it.
Or, lastly, it’s perfect for people that read The Road, and wanted to read more post-apocalyptic fare, and were in the mood to read something written at a young adolescent reading level, with enough rape, murder, and other violence to make it unsuitable for adolescents, told from the perspective of a militant survivalist, with a side of Christian dogmatism.
In brief, if you haven’t read Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, do.
If you have, you might like this book too if you’re in the mood for some light reading.
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