Lee Dravis

The Future is Now

by Tim Matson

May 5, 2006

John Kolzig wants to move to the country. The country of Vermont, that is. And who can blame him? The United States of 2020 is a right-wing Christian fundamentalist dictatorship, the Constitution merged with the Ten Commandments, alcohol and unmarried sex outlawed, non-whites herded off to concentration camps, and every neighborhood stocked with a church deacon to spy on the citizens. Oh, you attend church on Sunday, or else.

Such is C. Lee Dravis' dystopian vision in "Burning Books on Fenwick Street". It's a compelling addition to the secessionist fiction genre, which includes Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia, Stan Barnett's Single Star Flag, Frank Bryan's Out, and, of course, Gone With the Wind. Getting there is half the fun, tracking Kolzig's journey from oppressive suburban Virginia to the embattled outlaw mountain Republic of Vermont, where a voluntary militia wages perpetual guerilla war against the U.S. military.

Dravis is a dutiful storyteller, mixing the conventions of a political thriller with a disturbingly plausible picture of the United States we fear we are becoming. Books fly off the shelves, not into readers hands, but bonfires of political incorrectness. Mandatory urine and breathalyser tests, along with loyalty oaths, keep the workers in line. Echoes of 1984 and Farenheit 451 rebound through the book, but instead of shopworn cliches they have an honest resonance.

Following a convincing setup, the seeds of Kolzig's escape are planted. His brother lives in Vermont and urges him to flee. After years of humiliating subservience, Kolzig feels the call of the wild. "I found myself daydreaming of slipping across the border, offering my dubious services to the rebels and tasting the freedom of that tiny sliver of land which stabbed down into the states like a dagger."

Kolzig, with his adulterous girlfriend and a small band of scruffy rebels, makes his way north, and there's enough suspense, fireworks, and melodrama to keep the pages flying. Unlike the books tossed on the bonfires of his Virginia suburb, Dravis' novel generates a fire of its own. File under escapism, for fun and inspiration.