Smallpox Books

This was an exceptional book, too real with possibilities to not be more widely read. Hopefully government planners are among those who have read it. Clayton Penhallegon

.........ARABEL while fiction, which is prone to demonize, depicts Islam in its plot with respect. Even the vicious and misguided Jihadist commandoes are portrayed in human dimension. Author Alexandra Paris poses her adversaries at war, Jihadists arrayed against non-Muslim Americans. I imagine ARABEL will be popular among my fellow Muslim-Americans. Religion is a force in this story. All faiths will find the author, a Roman Catholic, to be educated in Islam, Christianity and the unfolding world war. I recommend ARABEL as an important novel and offer a few, respectful corrections or additional views. This is possible because the novel incorporates some real events from the war.
.........In Author's Note on page 430, author Paris asks "Is this the key to understanding this epochal conflict?" She continues, that "Judeo-Christianity honors the Golden Rule," but "Islam's theology does not." On point, Islam does so rule. The common theme, central to conflict resolution, is "do unto others as you would wish them do unto you." The Hadith are Islamic rules, conduct prescribed from Muhammad's life, and second in importance to the Holy Qur'an. In number 13 of Hadith of Imam Al-Nawawi, a respected scribe, is recorded that Muhammad said "none of you believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself." Jihadists, a small minority of Muslims, would allege "brother" does not mean Christians and other non-Muslims. But virtually all Muslims believe one's "brother" refers to any of mankind.
.........AMAZON offers the world a splendid collection of non-fiction books on Islam. Perhaps the U.S.' foremost Islamic scholar is Professor John L. Esposito. One can browse AMAZON to buy his book, "What Everyone Should Know About Islam." Browse also a Canadian's best-selling new book. Irshad Manji's non-fiction is "The Trouble with Islam: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith."
.......... ARABEL is yet a wonderfully provocative fiction. While not offensive to peaceful Muslim faithful, and for one I'm not put off but rather appreciative, this novel is breathtakingly offensive to propagandists who grow like weeds. Alexandra Paris' fictional characterizations are like hot sunlight which disinfects some toxic larvae of political correctness. Viewed from the common-sensical Texas flat-lands, ARABEL fictionally suggests big-city Political Correctness ("PC") worsens our risks in this terror war.
.........1. GUNS NOT PC: HIZBULLAH ARSENAL ----- In ARABEL, Hizbullah shooters yet become weapons collectors. "Hizbullah's Brooklyn branch firepower includes automatic Ak-47-style rifles, hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenades or RPGs, lightweight Uzi machine guns and even a batch of Stinger missles." And, "important for the work of Arabel, her Hizbullah allies prepare for urban warfare." (Pg. 280)
......... ARABEL's Hizbullah crazies are based on the reality. Understand, we should, that Islam considers Hizbullah a criminal gang. They're Muslims, yes. Were not the old Mafiosa mostly Christian fellows? Religion is not responsible for such bad guys.
.........2. NO UGLY TRUTHS: EUPHEMISMS ARE PC ----- In ARABEL, the character Papravel "peevishly" argues with the character named Bly. Today is no time for PC euphemisms, he reminds. "Hell, Christopher, you know that unkind words and cruel language and free and ugly opinions can no longer be the U.S. problem...." And, "for us Jews, Christians and non-Muslims all," Papravel adds, "our problem now is not getting burned up, or beheaded, or blown up. Words of robust speech don't saw off a woman's head." (Pg. 132) Alexandra Paris' characterization "non-Muslims all" is misleading. These Jihadists attack civilization. Jihadists have killed untold thousands of Muslims.
.........3. BORDERLESS WORLD: POLITICALLY CORRECT ----- In ARABEL, the terrorist Akbar had written from Monterrey in Mexico. "She has set up a school, taught by a Lebanese man fluent in Arabic and Spanish." The character Bly, translating the terrorist's CD which NYPD had found, thinks of political "mobsters in Washington" who encourage illegal Hispanics. They "allow it by reprehensible refusal to guard U.S. borders." The novel's woman terrorist writes of "Jihadist...soldiers...across Mexican borders." One soldier "young Khalid" is "posing as a Mexican seeking work," being a graduate of ARABEL's Spanish "language school in Monterrey." (Pg. 198)
.......... Like everybody down south and west, not fat cats in agribusiness and politics, Muslim-Americans surely say right on, secure the Mexican border asap.
.........4. ADVERSARIAL POLITICS: PC ----- In various passages Author Paris truthfully depicts U.S. politicians at cross-purposes during wartime. Agendas and deceptions are characterized. Suggested is that deception extends to religion. In "Afterwords" of ARABEL is the fictional "Manifesto of Jihadist Action." The protagonist, Arabel Akbar, is its fictional author. One section is provocative. "...Muslims may deceive and breach contracts, so authorized by Islam whenever it serves JIHADIST expansion, in their... relationships with infidels [i.e., non-Muslims]." (Pg. 436)
......... Granted, Jihadist killers such as these Al Qaeda rats believe this nonsense. Most Muslim-Americans yet reject such Qur'anic interpretation. Proof's everywhere. Five million U.S. Muslims don't deceive and breach contracts any more than their fellow Americans. And leading Muslim-Americans in media and politics depict honesty, brilliance and patriotism in this time of travail. Two sell much-praised books on AMAZON. Consider purchasing such, one by the very patriotic Dr. Fareed Zakaria.
..........His present best-seller is "The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad." ABC Television informs us. It does not deceive. And, since nine-eleven, its Sunday morning report features Dr. Zakaria. This Muslim-American leader, born in India, was educated at Harvard, and also is international editor for "Newsweek" magazine. Dr. Zakaria is anti-Jihadist, his faith in Islam and American democracy is great, and he consistently and truthfully informs Americans that Jihadists are criminal elements, that Islamic countries will reach peace when their citizens can vote democratically, and that Islamic religion is a peaceful faith. America's national leadership agrees point by point with Dr. Zakaria's protect-America analysis and advice.
..........The nation's leading young statesman has Muslim roots. Also an AMAZON.com author is U.S. Senator Barack Obama. The Senator's father, now deceased, was a faithful Muslim, a Kenyan man. Keynote speaker at the 2004 National Democrat Party Convention, Senator Obama, a Harvard-trained lawyer, is a proven American patriot. The Democrats may soon put him up for Vice President. One may purchase his book here at AMAZON. Browse for Barack Obama, author, his title being "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance."
.........5.. POLITICALLY CORRECT: GOVERNMENT DIPLOMACY ----- ARABEL'S character, "charming" Betsy Trotwood, is "the CIA's newest spy within the State Department." And, suggests the plot, "a bit of bureaucratic espionage is essential." According to Miss Trotwood, there is a truth. "The U.S. State Department is heavily staffed with officials who promote Muslim causes." These are U.S. officials? In explanation, thinks Trotwood, the "rich Saudis hire such turncoats when they retire from State. Big salaries are paid to grey-haired retirees provided, however, they have helped Saudi-Muslim causes in their earlier employment." (Pg. 164)
.......... These characterizations in ARABEL are likely true, "fictional" yet true to life. The Saudi royal family, books report, feverishly pay anyone who can help prop up their royal power. Such royalty is not authorized by the Qur'an. So believe the truly faithful.
.........6. CORRECT POLITICALLY: BASH-U.S. MEDIA ----- In ARABEL, the U.S. is bloodied and infected by Jihadist guns and smallpox. "Satellite television feeds flash from a dozen world capitals. The Jihadists' two-pronged U.S. attacks are smallpox and urban warfare." PC media in the U.S. play it up. "Reacting to the bloodied U.S., the news feeds show hundreds of thousands of Muslims cheering worldwide." In the novel, journalists report that "young Islamic interviewees want to sign up and go to fight the U.S. evil and cruel Jews and Christians." (Pg. 335)
.......... Fiction, yes, but plausible. Of Islam's l.2 billion faithful, polls show five percent are criminal Jihadists, betrayers of Islam's peaceful doctrine. Numerous, 60 million misguided persons, they are beaten down by dictatorships which democracy will pacify.
.........7. PC RADIO: ARAB AND U.S. REPORTERS ----- "Islam's media, Andy you know this," says the character Bly, "are government mouthpieces to organize Jihadist hatreds." The charming character Andy Hakim, a "Saudi diplomat", responds. "In the U.S. is same, Dr. Bly. Your Public Broadcasting System is mouthpiece for National Democrat Party and left-wing apparatchiks, and your talk radio is Republican mouthpiece." (Pg. 225) This passage in ARABEL is fictional but appears true..
..........8. CORRECT POLITICALLY: ILLEGAL BUT HARD WORKERS ----- The smallpox spreads in ARABEL. "Here at Queens Central we today closed our Emergency Room. It's been taken over by illegal aliens." So speaks the character Yoruba Lovejoy, the hospital's Public Information Officer. "Goodness!" she exclaims. "They come for childbirth. If they come, get smallpox here, the Mexicans will disappear and take the virus anywhere in the Americas." The character is outspoken. "Think on this," she urges. "Our meathead Washington politicians bring thirteen million illegal aliens to the U.S. Great smallpox spreaders. Get sick, play hide and seek with immigration police, infect other people, then maybe die." (Pg. 350) This unfortunate depiction seems entirely plausible.
........11. CORRECT POLITICALLY: UNITED NATIONS ----- Few recognize that over fifty of the raucous "nations" there are led by Muslim politicians. "The oil-rich Islamic states and their secular allies, such as France, propagandize U.S. voters to elect appeasement, pro-U.N. politicians." ARABEL's character, the CIA doyen and an old Arab expert, is Dr. Jane Smiley. Ignoring PC thoughts, she reminds her agents that "Islam owns the U.N." (Pg. 117)
.......... Author Paris' depiction here is true to life. Dictatorships, many of majority Islamic faithful, are numerous. This is why the U.N. is seen as corrupt. Its member dictators far outnumber its democratic members such as the U.S., Canada and the U.K.
..........ARABEL's fiction, grounded in religious conflict, is an educated thriller. On balance I strongly recommend this novel, provocative but respectful of Christianity, Islam, and some characters' horribly misguided warfare. If terrorists don't obtain nuclear bombs, or ARABEL's fictional smallpox, democracy's spread may yet bring us peace.

.......... The eighteenth and last chapter of ARABEL juxtaposes, on final page, Muslim Arabic poetry and Christian psalms. (P. 428) Translated, the poetry fragment from the "Diwan of Al-Mutannabi", as in the terrorist protagonist Arabel's mind, states as follows. "I blame not those who fear and hate me," nor "do I deny that I brought plague to them." This novel closes with the Latin words "levavi oculos". I lift up my eyes. From the 121st Psalm, the Christian response is that the "Lord is my defense and protects me from my enemies," and "He safeguards my soul, this day and evermore."
..........When I browse AMAZON.COM for "Islam," I find hundreds of titles, a fantastic shelf of books, largely all newish, post nine-eleven. Most all are non-fiction. ARABEL seems to be the first novel centered on this terror war. I'll next buy from AMAZON a non-fiction, factual book. I'm still pretty ignorant about my own religion.
..........A relative served recently in Afghanistan's war zone but has finished his tour. The war against terror seems "over there," far from the U.S. ARABEL yet gives closer intimation of Apocalypse, a final war, a concept in Islam and Christianity I know, and probably in Judaism. The plot-line in ARABEL generally involves Islamic Jihadists, very competent and fearless. These extremists bring weaponized smallpox and conventional weapons to bear on New York and the U.S.
.......... The conflict unfolds amidst some really graphic violence, aggressors and defenders duel, shadows and light swirl by, and good and bad people fall. ARABEL concludes in the snowy Alps of Switzerland, Part Three's Chapters titled "Hunters" and "Hunted."
.........This novel is very good, as in entertaining. Moreso, ARABEL is very important, as in meaning to our daily lives. Is this indeed the first novel, the first full-length fictional treatment of the war? But, these insane Jihadists did destroy the World Trade Centers, maybe three thousand Americans ripped, blown up, burned to death. Alexandra Paris' novel is important as a reminder, when no other novelist will do so.
.......... Why is this, why so little new fiction based on this terror war? Is there some sort of suppression going on? I've quit trying to understand some related things. For instance, why network television seldom reruns any film of the Trade Center' attack even when the news is about it. And, why, if we're at war, the government refuses to secure the borders so that civilians volunteer to stand guard. But ARABEL in erudite and sometimes horrendous detail brings the war back to America. A timely reminder. Also important is the novel's spiritual and cosmic context.
..........ARABEL's author's blurb says she's a poet. Maybe the word-windows that appear, posing spiritual darkness and light are Alexandra Paris' poetic tendency. The thrilling, terrible human conflict portrayed --war issues of human viciousness, life and death -- are foreground to a sense of cosmic, spiritual war underway. Let me parse Chapter One. There are eighteen chapters, and Afterwords which include a moving Author's Note (P. 430) followed by a disturbing yet fictional "Manifesto of Jihadist Action." But the spiritual word windows seem to give me a context, as one who believes in God and Paradise, to this terror war. I pray, literally, that these Hizbullah Jihadists don't start car-bombing Main Street, U.S.A. Or worse.
..........But, back to Chapter One, a brief look into some windows across the cosmos and spiritual domains. It is this, the poetic passages, that will cause me to reread from ARABEL in the future. Not everything is explicit, not everything is action, boom, scene ended, imagination not required. Alexandra Paris, the author, in places invites one's imagination.
..........EVERYONE BLIND.....When the protagonist Christopher Bly had met Osama bin Laden in Kenya, Bly was shown the Jihadist leader, in the early 1990s, by Bly's intimate friend, an Israeli Mossad agent. Ana, her name, had provenance in tragedy. Bly evaluated the troubled woman's demons as created from the "Biblical Old Testament law of an eye for an eye." A scholarly CIA agent, Bly's a spiritual sort, and he concluded Ana's misery was that the old law was "already leaving everyone blind." (P. 3)
..........GHOST SHIPS.....The terrorist protagonist is an Arabian woman, her name eventually found as Arabel Akbar. She infiltrates the U.S. in mid-winter, a protected secret passenger aboard a freighter captained by a philosophical Dutchman. As the skipper John Baptist Pim, on a wretchedly cold and dark night, guides his ship into New York Harbor, the man feels cosmic forces at work. "Behind, he senses the great sea, ...sweeping easterly, the same waves that had rolled old ghost ships, back toward Europe." (P. 5).
..........GOYLEM..... Beyond Chapter One, I must note, Arabel is considered a ghost-like "goylem" by the character Milo Magnus. A Jew, this NYPD detective would tell Dr. Bly that a goylem is a creature from Hebraic mythology, a non-human created with powers to change form, and intended to wreak destruction. Arabel, it turns out, is a trained actress, multilingual and a master of disguises. America's high-tech search tools fail. She is very low-tech, below the radar.
..........LORD OF DAYBREAK.....Arabel has also been a journalist, a columnist in a Jihad-promoting Egyption newspaper. Her persuasive techniques include translating the grotesqueness of American rap lyrics to rouse her readership, and using poetry in her columns. "At daybreak, praise Allah," she writes. A CD she's lost at a crime scene is translated by Bly. "I seek refuge in the Lord of the Daybreak," she continues, seeking Islam's protection from "the evil of intense darkness" and from "the evil of those who blow on knots...." (P. 10)
..........TWILIGHT ZONE.....Christopher Bly, as Arabel's adversary among many, works in an Arabic translation bureau for the CIA. His office becomes home to documents, books and various writings, even autobiographies of great yet dubious Muslim leaders. These cause him to wonder if "history, stripped down," is the "autobiographies of reprehensible madmen?" (P. 18) And such Arabic to English translation bureaus? "All are rooms of lonely facts, he has said, some vanishing to twilight zones?" (P. 18) One notes that the author of ARABEL, Alexandra Paris, is a fan of Rod Serling, the American creator of the wonderful television series, the "Twilight Zone." Does author Paris see reruns of the program, among America's finest, on Dutch or Swiss television? The reference reappears later in the novel, as to "cold night winds," from the twilight zone.
..........CHILDREN SCREAMING.....As Arabel Akbar first walks ashore, onto Brooklyn's waterfront, she thinks of "pleasure and pain" as to definition of what is "good and evil." The Muslim Jihadist muses that since "its youthful balance, ...the ever-quickening U.S. is driven...by secular materialism." I know that Islamic doctrine urges the inner eye, looking within oneself to one's spirit, and moreso than looking outward to material things of the world. Are we Americans as visitors see us? Arabel Akbar is no tourist. "The visitor brings pain." (P. 24) On the sleet-swept waterfront, "children are hear screaming under the stairways." (P. 25)
..........DARKSIDE.....Further in Chapter One, the Christian Dr. Bly chats with the character Reginald Slothrop. A tormented spy, Dr. Slothrop holds a divinity degree from Yale University. I believe that the Prophet Muhammad received from Allah Qur'anic verses of peace in the "Mecca period", the verses I believe. I also know that in Medina he conveyed to the memorizing mind of Muhammad some verses which ratify serious aggression, the Jihad verses. Peaceful Muslims all reject the Jihadist war verses. Bly rightly observes with Slothrop that, from "Islam's darkside, the Medina shadows, step new surprises...." (P. 27)
.........MUHAMMADAN ANGELS.....The reader is signaled the plot's direction. The terrorist Akbar knows that her "own secret...seeks many thousands of dead New Yorkers," while across the U.S.' "unguarded borders, Hizbullah commandoes would soon stream...to kill thousands as well." Then, the author's voice suggests, as "Muhammadan angels, the commandoes would one by one stagger to death, falling illuminated from tenement roofs, splayed in alleys, and splattering against shattering glass walls." (P. 30) So ends Chapter One.
..........Spiritual and cosmic forces swirl throughout this important war novel. And in the far cosmos Muhammad and Jesus Christ, two very different forces, together endure. Who are their respective servants, the children of light or the children of darkness? I click five stars for ARABEL by Alexandra Paris. "Children are heard screaming under stairways...."

.........Paris, as in France. A friend had been there, and I browsed "Paris" at Amazon to buy my a book gift about the city. Instead I bought author Alexandra Paris' ARABEL. Some say novels of late are mostly frivolous. Lots of serial-killer plots, goofy sex, drugs and technological gizmo elements. ARABEL is something else. It's 448 pages on a deadly serious plot-line. This novel is not frivolous.

.........Widely respected novelists include Amazon authors Graham Greene, Paul Theroux and Nelson de Mille. In ARABEL, the European author, Paris, combines their traits. Like Greene she portrays people facing evil while seeking spiritual redemption. As does Theroux, author Paris portrays settings well and seems expert on human meanness and a certain dementia in everyday life. And she thrills and seems prescient, a predictor of things to come. Maybe. Take DeMille. He forecasted September 11, 2001. A year earlier, in DeMille's THE LION'S GAME, his character who's a police official looks at the World Trade Centers from his office window. A plane is seen. He then thinks that "jetliners are little more than flying bombs...." Did Osama bin Laden take notes? Now we meet Arabel and her sack full of smallpox virions in this new novel. The following paragraph is from pages 270-271.

........."MANHATTAN, February 20, Wednesday, 7:00 a.m.... A pedestrian is bundled against wind and cold. Arabel has begun her third day of dispersing. The smallpox demons are being sprinkled in 27 sites.... She'd had a young man during the night. The Plaza Hotel. He watched from shadows, he of hard and chisled body, while she dressed this morning. He said her sleep clattered with unfamiliar voices. She didn't tell him she'd just poisoned 250 people the day before. He said there's no mercy in her silence. She heard a roaring in her ears. Believing him, she left money and closed the door...." It turns out that the mere "250 people" poisoned are "vectors" or plague-carriers. And "each victim as vector, the terrorist knows, would infect perhaps 18 other people on average....Invisible respiratory haloes...would touch hundreds. Tens of thousands, if one's good at arithmetic."

.........It's a privilege that Amazon affords. Publishing a review, readable instantly in places like Paris or across town. I've this graduate seminar, and a book review's soon due. So here's a serious effort, for seminar and Amazon. Let me share how ARABEL's plot works. Does Arabel Akbar live, perhaps next to bring a nuclear device our way?

.........Bad news is ARABEL's smallpox will kill one in three persons, gays with HIV and immune-weakened persons, but good news is vaccine can reduce infection. Bad news is vaccine is in short supply. Good news is this novel has an endnote alone worth the price. The endnote reveals the "Manifesto of Jihadist Action" and the fearsome QUR'AN-based guidelines for world domination. This novel poses no gratuitous coarse language, violence or sex. Certain coarse language is expurgated. However, it does treat very dark issues of war, religious strife, life, and death. Compare Graham Greene, Paul Theroux and Nelson deMille. See also, and one also can buy these on Amazon, the holy BIBLE and Islam's holy QUR'AN.

.........Weaponized smallpox, weak U.S. counter-terrorism protections, and lethal Islamic Jihadist forces -- these three conditions of fearful consequence undergird ARABEL. The story centers in New York City, while the protagonists draw upon experiences in sites scattered in Indonesia, Asia, Africa and Europe. ARABEL Akbar is an Islamic Jihadist terrorist. Her duties are lethal, first of personal vendetta, to kill the CIA operative who murdered her twin sister on the Aegean island of Corfu. Her Jihad assignment is unleashing of the plague of smallpox and presenting of demands to U.S. leadership.

.........New Yorkers, bloodied on nine-eleven by airborne Jihadists, are initial victims. In three parts, the novel's Part One, of eight chapters, is "Vendetta." Part Two, entitled "Jihad" in eight chapters tells of the terroristic smallpox epidemic in New York City. As the terrorist does reconnaissance, her presence, duties and identity are revealed to Christopher Bly. He had been terminated from the CIA in the early 1990s. An erudite Middle Eastern expert, one fluent in the Arabic language, Bly was displaced by glitzy high-technology intelligence. After nine-eleven, he is rehired to head one of several translation bureaus, his in Manhattan. ARABEL's vendetta target, Stephen Blackpool, like Bly had left the CIA to join the faculty at New York's Columbia University. Part Three takes place in Switzerland, dénouement. Alexandra Paris lives in Bern, Switzerland, and in reading the last two chapters, I felt like I was walking its streets.

.........Part One opens with ARABEL's clandestine entry aboard a ship owned by Osama bin Laden. A secret passenger aboard the freighter "Elizabeth," she comes ashore at Brooklyn's docks. The "apparent seaman" is one who "turns and walks down a tenement street... lethal invader...of the Great Satan." Part One ends with Professor Blackpool's assassination in Central Park, with the "great heart of Stephen Blackpool -- killer of Marzia Akbar and her two children, husband of Eleni, beloved father of young Moses and Ruth...shutting down."

.........Part Two as "Jihad" poses eight chapters of ARABEL's undetected spreading of the smallpox disease. Her tactics are successful, the terrible viral disease being spread into "Battery Park General Hospital." Even after her accurate mugshot is televised on "America's Most Wanted," the terrorist eludes capture. She is a trained actress, multilingual and a mistress of disguises. Her disguises include "a young German male of post-modern sexuality," a bag-lady with missing teeth, and a bent-over stroke victim.

.........The scenario is frightening in its plausibility. Islam's Jihadists deliver an ultimatum to the U.S. government: withdraw U.S. forces from the Middle East, and compel Israel to commence dismantling its settlements toward evacuation of occupied Palestine territories within three days. If not, weaponized smallpox will be disseminated beyond New York City in all fifty states. Part Two unfolds during the New York City epidemic as the CDC defensive plan is effected. Failed containment of the lethal disease is against a backdrop of enforced quarantine areas which devolve into urban warfare when possibly infected residents resist orders not to travel. As well, a Brooklyn Jihadist group kills thousands of terrified New Yorkers by bombs and bullets. I most strongly recommend this fierce novel. Its plot instructs us on real-life threats to families, civilians no longer safe. May I recall my friend was there? If one could only endure the French. Maybe Paris, as in France, is yet safer for now than life within the Great Satan.

..........Before 9/11, I doubt I'd have bought ARABEL. I then had no fear of Islam's Jihadist killers. Now, four years later, I suggest anyone seeking to understand this war should buy this translated book. Is ARABEL indeed this war's first novel? I find it is realistically scary, riveting, and a page turner. Alexandra Paris, the author, yet uses several devices to lighten the darkness.
..........In the musical "Mary Poppins", a lyric of universal truth is that "a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down." ARABEL's plot is quite medicinal, a fictional warning, a bitter prophylactic to us in the non-Muslim U.S., slandered by Jihadists as the "Great Satan." (A Christian, I despise and fear Satan. I infer that Islam and I worship different Gods. My home is the "Great Satan"? I think not.) The author yet leavens this grim medicine with timely passages of dry wit, a literary sweetener sprinkled through the frightful plot.
..........ARABEL benefits from several helpful customer reviews. One might read them all. They describe the plot elements. I am here interested in one of the author's quirky, yet graceful ploys, among several, which leaven the grimness. I write of author Paris' pizza-guys, their "Pakistani Pizzaria" being a small but "famous" Manhattan business.
..........I'm as well interested in the grim prophylactic-medicine aspect of ARABEL. I've a thought on how the novel's "Manifesto of Jihadist Action", an afterword's murderous set of quasi-fictional ideas, is seemingly balanced in the plot by a lethal Christian doctrine.

..........l. ARABEL's LEVITY..... At Part One's conclusion comes the funeral of the ex-CIA agent Stephen Blackpool. He'd unintentionally killed Arabel's maternal twin, Marzia, on the island of Corfu. Arabel in turn has brutally assassinated Blackpool in New York's Central Park. The character Christopher Bly has attended the funeral.
............... Later "THAT FUNERAL EVENING," a morose Bly "FINDS SADNESS." Homeward-bound, "DOWNSTAIRS ON...SNOWBOUND WINTER STREETS," he finds "CARS IN WAITING LIKE THE DEAD...." Now appear the Islamic pizza-guys.
..............."'If you can READ this you're too damn CLOSE,' warns the bumper sticker. The car's door reads `Pakistani Pizzaria'." (end quote)
.........The German playright Bertolt Brecht dangerously poked laughter at the evil Adolph Hitler. Brecht has an admirer in the author of ARABEL. Alexandra Paris would agree with Brecht's recorded wisdom that "he who laughs has not yet heard the bad news." E.g., a major character in the novel is a German journalist, who's traveled to New York to report the urban warfare and smallpox outbreak. Mephisto is a pizza fan. The following excerpt poses a laugh followed, as Brecht warned, by bad news. (I note that in ARABEL is expurgated its infrequently indelicate wording.)
..............."He's in his news bureau on West Forty-Seventh Street. Eric Mephisto has an empty stomach in a littered newsroom. He orders from the Pakistani Pizzeria. A skinny Pakistani, who speaks the King's English and doesn't eat his fatty product, delivers a pizza.
..............."'THE BIG CITIES OF AMERICA ARE BECOMING THIRD-WORLD SH-T HOLES,' asserts the ill-tempered Pakistani. `I SOUGHT ESCAPE FROM SUCH A SHI-T HOLE.'
..............."'YOU'RE BEING A NASTY BIGOT,' suggests the German, astonished.
..............."'WHATEVER,' says the Pakistani. `BIGOTRY STARTED A LONG TIME AGO. NOBODY KNOWS WHERE. I THINK,' the pizza guy concludes, `THE MISERABLE FRENCH STARTED IT.' In agreement now, the immodest German tips the man well." (end quote)
..........Except for dwindling admirers of France, this humor is much needed levity. Then, just as warned by the playright Brecht, the bad news, the war. "OUTSIDE, BLOWN DOWN FROM THE BRONX HILLS, THE PAKISTANI SMELLS THE BLUE SMOKE, ACRID AND FOUL, SWIRLING DOWN FROM BURNING BUILDINGS."

..........2. ARABEL's GRIM CONFLICT.....As for many infidel Americans, this world war frightens me. Our World War Two enemies did not target civilians such as me. Soldier fought soldier. These cowardly yet clever Muslim Jihadists avoid military defenses. They aim to kill unarmed civilians. This means me. Some levity, such as the pizza-guys of the fictional "Pakistani Pizzaria," leaven the fright in the novel, but the novel's fictional projection remains grim. As counter-balance to the "Manifesto of Jihadist Action", I yet find in ARABEL a doctrinal response from us in the U.S., the Jihadists' targets and their enemies.
..........At the time of Arabel Akbar's soldiering for Islam, Jihadists are directed by clear-cut religious and ideological guidance. In ARABEL's Afterwords, this guidance is specified, written, in the fictional "Manifesto." Christianity in opposition can juxtapose no such detailed manifesto. Led by the U.S. and the U.K., early espousing a secular, freedom-motivation, religious opponents of Jihad are individual and private in their religious motivations. (I here write of the real world.)
..........In two renowned Christian principles -- while not an efficient manifesto -- are yet formidable motivation. The first principle, early held in private by Christian soldiers, is awareness from the Bible's Book of Ephesians at 6:12. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places." Islam's millions of Jihadists, contend Christian soldiers, are sent from the rulers of darkness. The enemy is thus identified.
.......... What's to be done? It is on to the war. And the Islamic Jihadist aggressors are deemed most profoundly sinful. The Christian soldiers' response is authorized by the Christian God. The "wages of sin is death...." Romans 6:23. The Jihadists who wage war must be put to death.
. ..........In ARABEL, these two Biblical principles -- from Ephesians 6:12 and Romans 6:23 -- are contended by the character Jane Smiley. She speaks in conversation with the characters Bly and Papravel.
..............."'MY DEARS,' THE DOYEN CONTINUES, `WE CHRISTIANS NOW WRESTLE NOT AGAINST MERE FLESH AND BLOOD BUT AWESOME ISLAMIC AGGRESSION PROMISING US PERPETUAL DARKNESS. AND I AGREE...THESE JIHADISTS ARE A SINFUL CROWD. THEIR WAGES MUST BE DEATH...'"
..........A dose of Biblical medicine? In grim times, I recommend ARABEL most highly for Muslims of peace and for us Christians and infidels, now playing too much defense and not enough offense. One Jihadist nuclear bomb within the U.S., and all our lives will worsen, badly and forever.

P.S.Harmyk has an incredible ability to make subject matter, in this case, The Bay Of Pigs and how it relates to modern terrorism, not only interesting, but fast-paced and very sexy. Can anyone please tell this publisher, The Outlet Press, to hurry and get this third book, "Stalkerazzi", out!!!

I loved Harmyk's "Say Goodbye to Johnnie Blue" so I had to read his next book, "A Wind Through Paradise". This is a tale of political intrigue, some real history, love, betrayal, adventure...this book's got it all. Harmyk has a gift.....his writing is so descriptive, you feel like you're a part of the adventure! Get ready for a great story.....and some surprising twists and turns.

I gladly recommend Mr. Harmyk's latest thriller. Thanks to Mr. Harmyk I was riding "A Wind Through Paradise" from the first chapter to the last. I enjoyed the book immensely and can't wait for the sequel.

Peter Harmyk has provided the reader with a clear microcosm of the Bay Of Pigs fiasco interwoven with an exciting "thriller" plot. His writing style provides a fast paced scenario with very "believable" circumstances highlighted by precise and descriptive sensory images. A "great read".

In A Wind Through Paradise, Harmyk introduces an immediacy and a novelty to the world of suspense and political intrigue. Harmyk's writing style ushers you breathlessly from the opening pages to the very last, lending unique and very personal voices to all of his characters. As exciting a read as it is entertaining, A Wind Through Paradise comes highly recommended.

What an interesting and informative text this is. It is well indexed and a very engaging read. We are going to enjoy referring to it for years to come.

If the name Benjamin Waterhouse doesn't sound familiar immediately, it's because he's a 1754-born doctor who introduced vaccination to the U.S. and promoted the procedure around the country - yet was scorned by the Boston medical establishment. DR. BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE: A LIFE IN MEDICINE AND PUBLIC SERVICE reviews his many achievements, the controversy surrounding them, and his pioneering popularization of the study of natural history in New England. Despite his many achievements, it's surprising to note this is the first major biography covering his life and work - and provides a wonderfully in-depth, rich survey of his accomplishments and times.

This was a remarkable book. The author was able to explain microbiology, immunology, the history of smallpox, and the development of a vaccine with wonderful clarity. I highly recommend this book for kids (and adults) in 4th grade and up!

Before reading this book I might have written that I was informed about Dr. Jenner, smallpox and its history. After reading it I realize how ignorant I was. I saw the book in my grandson's school library and chose it to preview for bias and the interpretations that frequently replace knowledge in today's children's books.

The author, a retired history professor, has written a book that begins with a discussion of cells,bacterial and virual disease and ends with a convincing statement about the dangers facing us today as a result of the disappearance of small pox throughout the world.

In between is the most thrilling story about the efforts of an ordinary boy who became a man whose efforts positively altered the lives of hundreds of millions of people. His personal qualities were a curious mind; the ability to observe; his dedication to his work; his confidence; and perserverance.

The reader learns of the treatment of small pox prior to Jenner; of the various experiments leading to the development of the vaccination; of the objections by recognized leaders to Jenner's work and the ramifications of the eradication of smallpox.

This is a thrilling story for the young scientist, but the book is written so well that all children (and adults) will be enthralled.

Dr. Jenner is shown to be one of a handful of men who have altered the course of history and the lives of hundreds of millions of humans. The discussion of disease; medical techniques of the past; how one became a physician; historical differences between surgeons and physicians; the nature of opposition to ideas; the development of an idea; the personal characteristics that result in radical change; the importance of observation, thought and experimentation; the reality that the recognized establishment in an occupation is often ignorant and resistant to change are all presented in an engrossing and unsensational manner.

The social effects (Native American exposure to small pox) are presented in a straight forward manner allowing a thoughtful child to open his mind to the concept of historical consequences without imposing blame or guilt.

The discussion of medical experimentation; its evolution and ethical problems provide knowledge to a child that will be used later when a child reads and thinks further.

I so admire the authors use of language and ability to discuss complicated issues on a child's level with sophisticated insight that I am buying other of Dr. Marrin's books.

The author takes the life and times of Edward Jenner and lulls the reader into a trance. We learn about the origins of smallpox, the various intersting people and places involved in the history of this devastating disease Then we learn about Edward Jenner and his successful vaccination from cowpox.

The story is written in a unique style that goes from the present back to the past in a seamless storyline.

Excellent work.

GLS

The depth of the author's research on Dr. Edward Jenner, (THE MAN WHO SAVED THE WORLD FROM SMALLPOX) is nothing less than awesome------and must surely represent this author's "MAGNUS OPUS" in which the reader can share. A modern day reader with a non-scientific or medical background learns of the unspeakable ravages the smallpox malady had on individuals, nations, and even great tides in history.

The background, hardships, and accomplishments of Dr. Edward Jenner, a British physician two centuries ago, are unfolded by Dr.George Smith, a current U.S. physician, in the format of an after dinner fireside chat at an old, royalistic mansion in rural England on the occasion of the 180th anniversary of Dr. Jenner's death. The participants are four couples, each of whom has extensive and varying scientific/medical backgrounds, and each is well versed with Dr. Jenner's quest, hardships and obstacles, as well as his achievements that led to the elimination of the smallpox horrors from this planet.

As presented in the fireside chat format, the reader becomes a listener in a VERY EDUCATIONAL AND CAPTIVATING TALE.

From the first page to the very last, this book was great! There was suspense and horror all wrapped up in this story. I really loved it and I plan on buying more books from S.K. Epperson.

Evidently this author is an undiscovered talent! You're really missing out on this one if you haven't read it. It's the story of a normal, everyday neighborhood and the things that go on are grisly! It might make you wonder about your own neighborhood. Strange happenings. Strange characters. Unlikely situations that you might think could never happen in your own neighborhood - BUT DO!! If you want to know more. READ THE BOOK!

A 'terrorist-induced' epidemic using biological weapons - most likely smallpox - is almost certainly about to happen.

The Illuminati need to destroy & ressurect the nation in order to bring about the New World Order in accordance with Masonic 'Ark Mariner' traditions of Enoch & Noah.

This may be the most important book you ever read.

I reccomend reading "The New World Order", also available bere.

As a colleague of Dr. Melnick, I am delighted to be able to provide the most positive review. This book serves well both as a primer for PCPs on the general subject of biological, chemical, and radilogical terrorism and as a quick reference. Beyond its target audience, other medical and public health professionals, including EMS professionals, will find this volume very useful.

The book is well organized with concise sections where appropriate for each disease or agent on microbiology and epidemiology, presentation and treatment, post-exposure prohylaxis, and prevention. The illustrations are useful aids in differential diagnosis, and diagnostic, lab evaluation, and treatment information is given in clear tables.

The ease with which RDDs (dirty bombs) can be constructed and the recent federal full-scale exercise scenario makes the chapter on radiological terrorism timely.

The chapters on mental health issues related to terrorism and the key link between public health response and the PCP are welcome and emphasize matters often ignored.

This volume is a worthy contribution to the preparation of PCPs and others to deal with terrorism threats. Dr. Melnick's style is easy to read and conversational, making this book on a very dark subject a pleasure to read.

This is a very concise, structured and informative little book. It was the first of its kind to introduce me to the field, and it was a really good pick by my history professor. Thoroughly recommended to every college student or history enthusiast who wishes to never see and think of history in the same manner again.

this is a fascinating book. well written, easy to read and absorb. very informative. a book that all need to read at this time to educate ourselves on the subject of smallpox and its history from early times to its eradication from the world.
i higly recomend it.