The Long Loud Silence

"The Long Loud Silence," published in 1952, is the story of a soldier and World War II veteran, Corporal Russell Gary, who wakes up from a bender to discover half of the United States is dead and the other half is quarantined on the other side of the country (divided neatly by the Mississippi River) and, wouldn't you know it, Gary is on the wrong side and unable to flee to safety. Except the edition I read was a 1969 revised version released by Lancet (mass publisher of fine men's adventure novels in 75 cent paperback) in which Corporal Gary is a Vietnam veteran and the story is somewhat updated to 1960's era sensibilities. Corporal Gary is a cunning, cynical character who believes in the doctrine of every man for himself... which makes him a somewhat unlikeable protagonist. Wouldn't be so bad if he were a younger age, but this 30-year-old character is a classic men's lit hero, in search of food and women, and also a typical slacker Army-lifer type that was a common feature of military life during the Cold War. He despises civilians and wants nothing more than to get back to the Army routine of three hots and a cot plus weekend passes to the flesh-pots of the nearest base town. Alas, the Army has blown the bridges and sealed the border between east and west thus forcing Gary to survive in the desolated eastern USA, where small pockets of survivors hunt each other for food and the desperate fling themselves at the Mississippi barrier in the forlorn hope of either mercy or a quick death. This is a fun book to read and one of Tucker's classics of his sci-fi canon of work. The reader will note that Tucker foreshadows themes that appear in later, more popular post-apocalyptic books such as "A Boy and His Dog," "The Survivalist," and "The Road." And like his later, more well-known classic, "The Year of the Quiet Sun" (1970), Tucker's hero is a romantic at heart in search of a woman to share his post-apocalyptic world with... even though he is too cynical and insensitive to make it work. Wilson is a good writer, an author who also published in the mystery, adventure, and espionage genres. He should be read and his work is as good as his more famous peers such as Robert Heinlein. Tucker was a sci-fi fanzine publisher as well, and often the master of ceremonies at sci-fi/fantasy conventions. I've read a few reviews of this book in which the reviewer, using post-modern sensibilities, decries Tucker as a misogynist for his depiction of women as weak or desperate in his novels. That is laughable. Tucker is a product of his age, and had quite a following of female fans in the sci-fi fan-world in which he was a well-known celebrity. I can assure you, readers in a future, more grounded age will find our own obsession with woke-boss girls and triple-minority-multiple-pronoun characters to be equally tiresome... but I digress. All in all, I would recommend "The Long Loud Silence" to anyone who likes post-apocalyptic novels, 1950's Atomic Age Sci-Fi, and/or vintage men's adventure stories.

Wilson A. Tucker is a not very prolific sci-fi author. He has written a dozen novels and two dozen short stories. Nevertheless he managed to produce, at least, three great books in the field: "The Long Loud Silence" (1952), "Time Masters" (1953) and "Year of the Quiet Sun" (1970). This book was published when the Cold War was raging, as many of the lasts I've reviewed and show some of the cultural background of the time. Here the reader is presented with a world situated after a crushing blitz war. Corporal Gary has celebrated his birthday with a monumental drunkenness. How many days has he been unconscious? He couldn't say. But he awakes in USA's eastern half, devastated by biological and nuclear weapons. The Mississippi river is the unsurpassable border dividing America in two. At the west margin some organized Government still survives and a country free from pestilence. The very few survivors in the east are isolated and not permitted to come across. Gary is not a very nice character; he is prone to being selfish and ruthless. But he is a survivor whatsoever and his WWII experience enhances him to do this. He tries once and again to go west. Will he succeed? Read the book and find the answer. Reviewed by Max Yofre.

For well over thirty years, my mother told me of a post-apocalyptic book where the Mississippi River became an uncrossable barrier between the contaminated Eastern US, and the pristine West. She finally procured an old, disintegrating paperback copy for me to read. Originally written in 1952, my edition was based on a re-write Tucker did in 1969, incorporating references of the Viet Nam war.Most of the great post-apocalyptic novels have had films made of them so that new generations of readers could be redirected to the books and generate interest in the book and the author's other works. Examples that come to mind are Stephen King's `The Stand', the Philip Dick short story `Second Variety' (`Screamers'), H.G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come' (`The Shape of Things') and `The Time Machine', and Neville Chute's `On The Beach.'Sadly, though, Wilson Tucker's account of an Army recruiter surviving an atomic/biological attack on the USA doesn't have that 21st Century video version pulling in the book fans. The book has gone out of print.Cpl. Gary wakes from a birthday bender on the wrong side of the Mississippi River after the nuclear/biological attack. He thinks that because he is a member of the US Army, that his comrades on the Western side of the River will welcome him home with open arms. Before he gets a chance, he sees these same soldiers will shoot anyone from the East who dare to try to cross over.The rest of the story is about how Gary tries to adjust to the changes that the apocalypse has brought ----hunger, loneliness, mistrust and survival. Gary evolves from a not-too-likeable fellow into a clever, practical, but solitary survivor. Considering `The Long Loud Silence was written fifty years ago, Tucker employs some memorable scenes and images in the book that still haven't yet been lifted (or `borrowed') by subsequent writers. There's a scene where chase a little girl is pursued through the woods by desperate hunters, an idyllic time spent with friends on a Florida Beach, and other interactions with humans affected by the apocalyse. But I won't spoil it for you. If some of the situations and images seem trite, dated or `done before', it is because so many other writers have shared those same images. Tucker was one of the first writers of this genre, and if you are a loyal Apocalypse fan like me, are lucky (or persistent) enough to find a copy of the book, it's well worth the read and the addition to your library.

One morning Corporal Russell Gary wakes up in a dingy hotel to an eerie silence. The United States, or, more accurately, the land east of the Mississippi River, has been attacked by atomic bombs and biological weapons. This devastated portion of the United States is now under quarantine. No one gets out, no one gets in.Gary is now faced with a battle for survival. Trapped in a world returning to barbarism, he's determined to find a way of crossing the river and returning to the civilization that still exists on the other side. But the biological weapons have left Gary and the other survivors infected with plague germs. Anyone who tries to cross the river is killed by the soldiers guarding the bridges, for fear of spreading contamination. Gary is trapped between armed soldiers on one side and lawless violence on the other. Over the months, things go from bad to worse..."The Long Loud Silence" was written in 1952, the same year the United States detonated the first hydrogen bomb. The novel is grim but not as bleak as some of the other books in the genre. In fact it's quite optimistic in some ways. The novel is set in the 1950s. Corporal Gary is a World War Two veteren. That experience gives him an advantage over the other survivors he is trapped with; he knows the tricks of survival. One expression Gary is fond of using is "hell of a note". Was the author afraid of using profanity? It's an expression I've never heard before. It sure gets used a lot, though.The cover artwork shows a muscle-bound, macho-looking guy in a ripped shirt holding a gun. Behind him is a stylized mushroom cloud. The only thing I have in common with this character is that he has the same birthday as me. He was celebrating his birthday and recovering from the resulting hangover when the attack happened. That's how he got into his predicament. It just goes to show that getting drunk is a stupid thing to do. You can spend the rest of your life paying for it.Although this is a good book, an even better one I can recommend is "The Death of Grass" by John Christopher. That too involves unseen atomic weapons and a struggle for survival.

I read this book 20 years ago, or more, and at the time I thought it a good effort in the post-apocalyptic genre. I gave it away, or lost it, or whatever, but since then it's resurfaced over and over in my mind, and the feel and mood of the book have if anything grown stronger over the years. A gloomy, frightening book that ends with a sliver of hope. One of the few novels that have forced me to think about growing older.....

No other author has gone to trouble to rewrite his own work, not once but several times to make it more current. His purpose is clearly to introduce to new generations a frightening view of tomorrow. If you thought 1984 was dark, The Long Loud Silence is midnight in the graveyard. Superbly written and fast paced, it sweeps you along into a terrifying escape adventure. As one of the few who survived the ultimate bomb, Corporal Russell Gary is cut off from everything and everyone he knows and "No-man's Land" is the Mississippi River. Survivalists can use this for their Bible. Anyone that enjoys a good story can find it here.