Iron Heel -any thoughts?

[Ben G]

I recently wrote a book review of the Iron Heel over at Spike Magazine; which can be found here:-

http://www.spikemagazine.com/0806-jack-london-iron-heel.php

I would be intruiged to feel what other readers think of the book. In the UK where I live, the book has only just gone back into print after many years, which I find staggering. It seems to have a very low profile indeed, most UK readers of "Call of the Wild" have never heard of it. I presume it has not been quite so neglected in the US, and wonder if it has caused more of a general critical "feel" which seems absent here.

As I say in the review, I feel it has major flaws, principally in its characterisation, but is still a great work, and that its prophetic reach has been incredibly overlooked. Any thoughts?

[kev67]

Alexei Sayle refers to this book in his memoirs, Stalin Ate My Homework. Apparently it persuaded his father to join the Communist Party. It sounds pretty interesting. He says Iron Heel was different to his other books, which were often adventure books or featured animals. This was a political story set in the future. I gather there are two narrators. The first is an academic from 400 years in the future, who discusses a recently discovered manuscript, written by a communist revolutionary about events that happened in the 1930s (which, I assume, was still in the future when Jack London wrote it). A revolution against a capitalist oligarchy has already been betrayed once, and we surmise from the academic narrator that the second attempt was betrayed too. Alexei Sayle related how his father had taken part in The General Strike of 1926 and had felt betrayed when the unions called off the strike after a few days.

[kev67]

Iron Heel is mentioned by George Orwell in his essay, Wells, Hitler and the World State. He wrote, "A crude book like The Iron Heel, written nearly thirty years ago, is a truer prophecy of the future than either Brave New World or The Shape of Things To Come."