Cruel Are the Times
Date
2014-06-04
Authors
Israel, Ken
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Abstract
In this novel, Clay Cropper is figuratively marooned in a city psychiatric hospital where he meets his love, Claudia, an affluent, passionate girl suffering from schizophrenia. His love for her arouses a desire to embrace humanity that collides with his desire to corrupt it. Upon leaving the psychiatric ward Clay and his compatriot, Roger, a physically and psychologically disfigured veteran, along with Jesse, a mercurial young woman with her sinister eyes on Clay’s heart, embark on a dark and dangerous path of organizing violent resistance in the form of riots that quickly grow out of their hands. As the city burns, Clay, Roger, and Jesse are forced to confront their true natures as they sink deeper and deeper into the violence and destruction they’ve wrought upon the city. In the end, only Claudia’s love can redeem Clay from the horrific crimes he’s committed against humanity. A contemporary reimagining of Paradise Lost, the novel investigates man’s darkest nature and what it means to be human.
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Keywords
Ken Israel, Riot, Resistance, Novel