The Body Snatchers

This is my second read-through, and really it's 3.5 stars. It's hard to rate this on its own merit at this point, as I'm a huge fan of the 70s adaptation and I've seen the 1956 one many times. Additionally, this book has entered the culture in a way that makes it hard to separate the text from the influence it's had. It's also dated at parts, which is not a surprise but can make it a bit hard to get through. This time reading it, however, I'm convinced it's doing some subversive things regarding gender that are perhaps not intentional but fascinating.

I'd grown up here, from boyhood I'd known every street, house and path, most of the backyards, and every hill, field and road for miles around.
And now I didn't know it any more. Unchanged to the eye, what I was seeing out there now - in my eye, and beyond that in my mind — was something alien. The lighted circle of pavement below me, the familiar front porches, and the dark mass of houses and town beyond them — were fearful. Now they were menacing, all these familiar things and faces; the town had changed or was changing into something very terrible, and was after me. It wanted me, too, and I knew it.

I don't think I've ever seen any of the film versions of "Invasion of the body snatchers", but this is the original novel, set in 1953 show more and published in 1955. I like how the prejudices of the time actually come in handy when fighting the body snatchers, and I loved the downbeat ending, as the remaining aliens gradually die off and are replaced by newcomers as the town of Santa Mira slowly comes back to life. show less

This was a surprisingly good horror novel. I have watched the movies and, lets be honest, from the very title reader is aware of what is the main twist here.

But it is in the way story is told that I truly enjoyed it. Told from the perspective of a local physician we follow what at first seems like to be a mass hysteria slowly becomes a palpable danger which unfortunately our heroes cannot fight, let alone defeat because ... they just cannot. They can resist it and they can slow it down but for all means and purposes infiltration is just too good and too thorough to be stopped. Also the very nature of the infiltration is such that not once our heroes start to question themselves - is it what they see and witness real or not.

One of the show more comments I read for the book commented about one of the discussions in the book where there is mention of the weight of the sun-light but, if we put aside rather clumsiness of the explanation (which again for me is all right because these are discussions between laymen) what is described as a motor that spreads the invasion is nothing more than a form of solar sail. Another great concept here is the way copies are made - pure genius if you ask me. No need for physical contact or drawing blood, no aliens popping up from chest-cavity. The very process is the ultimate horror of all, waking up completely changed, feeling same but also completely different. As I said, excellent idea.

And while narrative flow is at times a little bit slow, novel itself aged more than well. And yes, after reading the novel I have to say no movie did it justice yet, they did capture the paranoia but the novel is much more terrifying than the movies in the sheer level of despair.

Recommended to fans of SF and horror. show less

For a sci-fi novel to still be entertaining and not feel particularly dated over fifty years later is definitely an achievement. The menace that The Body Snatchers builds is still palpable today. With interesting and entertaining leads the much imitated (and indeed re-released) Snatchers is a solid piece of history that should be in every readers to-do list. It's relatively short, although larger than a novella, and refuses to outstay its welcome by remaining sharp and to the point at all times. Go on, invest a couple of hours with it - it won't even feel like nostalgia.

It was never clear to me what the body snatchers were doing with the bodies they snatched, and the ending is ridiculous, but I still liked this tale of small-town American conformity undermined by extraterrestrial conformity quite a lot.

The Body Snatchers - Jack FInney
Published in 1955 and now in the sci-fi Masterwork Series; The Body Snatchers is a title more famous for the number of film versions (four at the last count). It is certain that more people will have seen a film version than will have read the novel and so readers like me will probably be approaching the book already knowing much of the story, however they may well be surprised by this tightly written little novel. Much like H G Wells' novel War of the worlds which had a distinctly provincial feel despite it's title (the action takes place in rural suburbs outside London); the Body Snatchers is confined to small town America and although the story has global implications they are not explored in the show more novel.

There is enough background to the story to make this more than just a plot driven science fiction caper. There are no super-heroes or even heroes, just a small town doctor faced with some extraordinary events that he cannot explain which seem to be changing the people with whom he lives and works. Miles is recently divorced and the events in the town bring him into the company of Becky a friend from his school days and a love story develops. Although the story does eventually lead to a couple against the rest of the world scenario, the rest of the world is the town of Santa Mira
and so Finney is still able to keep his story well grounded with some keen observations about life in the town. This observation about the lack human activity in his town leads Miles to feel very uneasy about his situation.

"We might have been on a finished stage set, completed to the last nail and final stroke of a brush. You can't walk ten blocks on an ordinary street inhabited by human beings, without seeing evidence of say, a garage being built. a new cement sidewalk being laid, a yard being spaded, a picture window being installed - at least some little signs of the endless urge to change and improve that marks the human race"

Finney also finds the space to observe through Miles how a black shoe shine boy (Billy) can occasionally let the bitterness come through at the condescending way he is treated by the white folks which makes Miles despair of the human race. This is however a story about the strength and qualities of some human beings who are prepared to fight for their way of life, even when others appear to have given up. It is a good subject for a movie and Finney provides a good dose of mystery and suspense leading up to the denouement, and even though you might know what that is; there is still much to be gained from reading this novel. Characters are well drawn and there is something consoling when reading through a familiar plot line just to see how it all works out in the novel. A four star read for me. show less

Miles Brennel is a small town, old fashioned doctor, the kind who used to make house calls. He still stores files detailing the aches and pains of much of the towns residents in one of the rooms of his house, a house he inherited from his father. The town. The town is sleepy and insular. The story opens with Miles seeing his last patient of the day, a sprained thumb, the kind of mundane, simple problems Miles is used to treating.

So, when Becky Driscoll shows up and tells Miles that her aunt is certain that her unle is an imposter, Miles is faced with something completely outside his realm of experience. More and more residents report similar fears that their loved ones have been replaced with exact duplicates and Miles refers them to a show more psychiatrist. Little does Miles know that the psychiatrist is not the person he used to be.

Eventually, Miles and Becky learn that the towns residents are slowly being replaced with duplicates grown from seed pods from outer space. The pods, interested only in the survivial of their own species, replace humans, assimilating their memories, experiences, and motives with the human host's, taking control of the human. The only real difference in the human experience after replacement is a curious lack of emotion and will. This difference is ultimately what helps Miles and Becky focus their defiance.

Escaping from the replaced town residents, Miles and Becky stumble on a field of newly grown pods, ready for distribution to the rest of the country and world. They set fire to the pods and the pods, in an act of survival, begin floating up and back to outer space to visit some other unsuspecting planet.

Most of the film adaptations of Finney's story focus on the paranoid, conspiratorial nature of the townspeoples efforts to replace everyone. Many of the early literary criticisms boiled the story down to a McCarthy era, anti-Communist allegory. The story that shines through to me, however, is a more basic one - a battle against outside societal influences which tend to numb our own personal human experience - the destruction of human interaction and community.

Many will discount this book as pulp sci-fi. But there is a lot more here to appreciate for the careful reader.

4 bones!!!! show less