Book - 37, The Flame Alphabet

The Flame Alphabet (2012)

by 

Ben Marcus

Book Read: 09-14 November 2015

Note Written: 24 November 2015

'The Flame Alphabet' is a novel which I would like to call 'heavy' or 'well-laden'. It takes you to a world which is absurd and scary. 'Thought-provoking' would be an understatement for the novel – it was more like 'thoughts-provoked-and-put-in-a-blender-forever' for me, if there's something like that. 

The Flame Alphabet tells the tale of a time when language has become toxic and slowly kills all people except children. At first, I thought that the toxicity mentioned could be an allusion to adolescence, a period where parents and children are in constant conflict with each other. The worlds of children and adults are very different, and understanding of each others' space, scarce. On further reading I realized the author isn't going in that direction. 

The Flame Alphabet was scary and haunting at times and towards the end I felt the stuff almost chocking me; I became scared of the possibility of the events. What if, language, communication, thoughts, all become toxic? A terrifying thought to ponder upon. We are doomed to wait for the paths that our destinies show us, like for Sam in the novel - we are in a quest for things that we love, or need. We humans are nothing but infinitesimally small parts of the universe and there is the sword of uncertainty hanging above all our heads, as individuals as well as a collective human race. We are insignificant.