The Answer: A Parable for Our Times

Written by Philip Wylie

Narrated by Joel Grey

A parable from the 1950s that is just as relevant today.

It's the 1950s. After a nuclear blast in the mid-Pacific, a Thoreau-reading American Air Force General makes an unexpected and troubling discovery: In a flowery field on a tiny island in the middle of a vast ocean, is an angel— its beautiful face frozen in a death mask and its huge wings wrapped around an inert body. As the general ponders this mystery, the Soviets discover their own angel after a similar nuclear test in Siberia. Are these twin phenomena a ploy in the ongoing hostilities between two international powers? Or has divine intervention pointed the way toward a new political era?

Out of the confusion and dismay provoked by the discovery of these ethereal messengers comes a message both simple and profound. Originally published in 1955, this enchanting, sometimes chilling novella tackles a question that has plagued humankind since civilization began: How can we live together in peace?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Phoenix Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 1, 1996
• ISBN: 9781597778442

Philip Wylie

Philip Wylie (1902–1971) was a prolific writer whose work spanned a range of genres from men’s adventure and detective stories to science fiction and social criticism. Several of his novels, including When Worlds Collide, Night Unto Night, and Los Angeles: A.D. 2017, as well as the Crunch & Des stories, were adapted as movies and television shows, and his novel Gladiator is considered one of the inspirations for the iconic character Superman. Wylie was also a commentator on American society. In 1942 he published Generation of Vipers, a bestselling book of essays that attacked the complacencies of the American way of life. His novel The Disappearance presents a dystopia in which men and women vanish from the perception of the opposite sex, allowing Wylie to explore the issues of women’s rights and homosexuality. Wylie recognized early the potentially catastrophic effects of pollution and climate change and wrote both fiction and nonfiction on those topics.

Reviews for The Answer

[johngrant1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This (not very long novella) was separately published in hard covers back in 1955. It's an antiwar fable and has survived the passage of time quite well. After each of two US and Soviet H-bomb tests an injured angel flutters from the sky and dies. Two different political systems must endeavour to cope with the implications, and in the event both fail. In a way Wylie was doing the same sort of thing as I did more recently in my own novel Leaving Fortusa, using fantasy in a sciencefictional setting to work out moral/ethical questions, although otherwise the works are extremely different. I can't think why it took me so long to get round to reading this little book, which I bought nearly a decade ago.

[aulsmith · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I loved this as a kid, and rereading the ending now, I can see why. For a kid growing up in the Sixties, waiting for the bomb to drop, this was a very hopeful book. I suspect it would seem very dated now. -- Billie