Saturday’s Book: “War with the Newts” by Karel Čapek

Naomi's photos
Don’t bark up this tree – it’s shedding!  Naomi’s photos

My husband strongly recommended this book, but didn’t want to tell me what it was about. He claimed I need to let the story unfold without prior knowledge.

He was right.

I can’t tempt you by doing exactly the same, but really, don’t go reading too much about it beforehand, on the Internet.

On the dust jacket it says that the author was Czech, and died just before WWII. It also says that he was a pioneer in science fiction and invented the word “robot”.

So at first I thought the book was a catchy sci-fi story. Very easy to read and get into.

I was mistaken.

Think “scathing social commentary”. “1984” with a sense of humor. The story is very cleverly told from different points of views and different genres.

A lot to think about.

Haven’t quite finished it yet, but didn’t want to wait till next week!

2 thoughts on “Saturday’s Book: “War with the Newts” by Karel Čapek”

  1. One of my advanced groups gave me this as a present when I left IH Brno. I’d heard of Capek because he’s the person credited with inventing the word ‘robot’, but that was the sum total of everything I knew about him and his works. I agree completely that you shouldn’t know too much about the book before you read it. It was fascinating and thought-provoking, but pretty easy to read at the same time.
    Enjoy the rest of it!
    Sandy

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