Olga Gardner GalvinRecensioni

This books shows how crazy society could be if everything was governed by political correctness. When reading it I thought it would make a great comedy sketch. I got tired of the characters after a while and didn't care what happened to them by the end.

When I first picked up The Alphabet Challenge, I wasn’t really sure what I was getting myself into. There were a lot of characters. Some of them had long names. The story made me a little uncomfortable and I was having trouble grasping it, but then something clicked and I never wanted to put it down. The Alphabet Challenge fast-forwards to New York City in 2061, a time of illogical politically-correctness and social welfare. It begins with Howell Toland trying to capitalize on the growing popularity of “minority” groups by creating the ABChallenge, an organization that claims to be aiding those who have been alphabetically challenged and discriminated against due to the positioning of their name in the alphabet (namely, from the letter ‘N’ to ‘Z’). This entrepreneurial risk begins as a means to end with the end being Howell never going second-class again, however he soon finds its not as simple as conning a lot of people and running off with their money to Australia. We see the formation of his group and the growth of his popularity, while also telling the intertwining stories of those aiding him, such as Lil, the former televised homemaker extraordinaire that got locked up for her insanely long flowers and Loveridge Weatherstonehaugh, the wanna-be acclaimed filmmaker just looking for her big break.

On the opposition is PeopleCare, a non-profit organization that manages most, if not all, of the “minority groups”, such as the Just Plain Stoopid People or People with Different Moral and Ethical Values. The founder, Mac, is on a warpath to take down Howell and gain control of the ABChallenge group. Mac is also steadfastly working on passing the Care Amendment, which would mandate everyone to care and respect everyone else in the name of equality and anti-discrimination.

2061 is a world filled with laws that mandate everything, from the exact formula for a banana split to a specially sanctioned place for smokers to go. It’s acidly funny but also leaves you with a vague sense of nausea when you’re done reading from the sheer truth of all the hysteria. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, but it simply adds to the inanity rather than detract from the reading experience. While The Alphabet Challenge is definitely a heightened version of our current reality, it’s unnervingly possible that we could find ourselves in this very position in 50 years. And yet, you still can’t help but laugh out loud about it.

The Alphabet Challenge
by Olga Gardner Galvin
ENC Press, 2003

I received this free ebook from ENC Press on Librarything's Member Giveaway

Some people in the future talk about the discrimination resulting from the first letter of the last name; the best is when the last name starts from A to N, between M to Z there are the Pariah. The ABChallenge group try to create disorder in this alphabetical order.

It takes a lot to understand this book, because the narrative style is full of dialogues. Lot of people talking. It's hard to follow this characters.

Some reader could drop this book after some pages, usually I read the book until the last page (or letter, even it's a Z) hoping for revival.
The Alphabet Challenge has been an hard challenge to finish it and so I founded the AABRRTUAB (All About Book Reader's Right To Understand A Book).

Gardner Galvin tells the story of Occam's razor: between different problem's solutions cut with a razor the complicated ones and take the easiest. Maybe this could be the theme of the next Gardner Galvin's book.

Another clue about this book is the theme of the satire: the author attacks something of which disapproves (here the alphabetical order and the need to establish bodies of people to defend some right) using irony and wits.

A final quote: 'Nobody has the correct answers all the time.' p. 80

I was a bit wary when I first started reading The Alphabet Challenge, as my past experiences with books written by individuals who also own, or have founded/co-founded, the publisher have been very miserable times.

My wariness abated, though, and I was treated to a story, quirky though it may be.

It is the future, but not too distant, and the US government has bent over backwards to ensure that everybody gets an equal shake at things. If you're different in some way, you belong to a certain group. People who are handicapped are "Differently Abled." People who lack intellect have "Alternate Wisdom." So on, so forth. And each and every person is to be treated exactly like everyone else, which is why handicapped parking spaces match non-handicapped parking spaces, and all buildings and rooms must be equipped for people of any non-standard state, or else face a discrimination shake-down by the wonderful, caring people at PeopleCare.

In this dystopian future, a man, Howell, after several get-rich-quick schemes are thwarted by PeopleCare, discovers that the way PeopleCare allocates its government grants is by alphabetical order, so as to not discriminate against anybody, due to race, religion, creed, or ability to file forms on time. Howell starts an organization, called The Alphabet Challenge (ABChallenge), and this group of alphabetically inferior people fight for their rights to be treated with the same respect and consideration as those whose last names begin with the letters A-M.

PeopleCare, of course, doesn't like this, as it's an organization outside of its control, and they don't like Howell for encouraging the members of the ABChallenge to actually stand up for themselves and get what they deserve.

So, it's a battle between fast-talking Howell and the powers that be at PeopleCare, in a story that is at times hilarious, and at other times too true to be funny.

Nevertheless, you'll enjoy this dystopia, as long as it never comes true!½

I got this book through the members giveaway programm, actually it was posted by the Editor ENC press.

I read many of the different reviews and agree: you can either love or hate this book. Myself? I'm among the lovers. I must say I finally found something fresh and amusing, a different way to picture our fragmented old and boring society.

The reading is simple and fast, the characters are not deeply described but the big picture made me laugh: it was sooo familiar, and ironic, and crazy and true.

I do not want to take a side in the politics involved, but I can say it is a good book.

Mrs.Gardner, when can we read your next one?

Absolutely hilarious and reads like watching a movie: fast, crackling dialogue, no time wasted on lengthy visual descriptions, just a few strokes to create your own mental picture. It's far from literary, and couldn't have been intended as such, but a highly enjoyable and original book. Like with all truly original books, some readers will hate it, but it's not for the lowest common denominator. Besides, it's political satire, and political satire will never be everyone's cup of tea.

If I hadn't promised to review this book, I wouldn't have bothered finishing it. I read quickly, but I'm moving and have very little time now. Wasting some of it on this book to get on to a book I'll enjoy was painful.

I was immediately happy to see the cover of the book, since I'm from New York and tend to really enjoy books based in Manhattan.

However, that's where my enjoyment with the book ended. I really didn't like the way characters talked all in one line like this: "Hi" "How are you?" "Good." "What do you think about..." It was very annoying.

Some of the main characters bothered me, but perhps Petey still going by Petey when he's an adult was part of my problem with him initially. I liked him a bit more as the book went on, but the other characters didn't grow on me much and I can't say I was interested in their plight in spite of the fact that my last name is near the end of the alphabet.

This book was definitely not my cup of tea.

So this is the kind of book rich people read? They truly are different from you and me.½

This is an unusual book in that the characters are not deeply mined, but then neither was Gulliver or anyone he's met on his Travels. The characters serve the purpose of helping the author create an in-depth portrait of a much bigger character: our dysfunctional society that's getting ever more dysfunctional by the day. Or at least one undeniable aspect of it: the attempts of well-meaning elites to kiss away every boo-boo, no matter the cost of unintended consequences. It's a funny, funny book - in the sense that it's both LOL-witty and weird - and while it's not everybody's cup of tea, kudos to Ms. Gardner Galvin for daring to write something different from the usual crap the bookstores are full of.

In 2061, in an extremely politically-correct America, a group of people who’re unfortunately stuck with N-Z surnames band and lobby together to overcome the inherently discriminatory alphabet. The novel – a dialogue-driven satire – consists of several converging storylines and provides example upon example of PCness taken to the extreme.

I was never fully engrossed in the story, but I did find many of the PC examples interesting.* They’re obviously representative of a ridiculously over-sensitive society, yet there’s still something maddeningly reasonable about them. In a way, alphabetical order is unfair, and the parent-child relationship is oppressive, and its not far-fetched at all to imagine it taking lobbyists, meddling senators, and the legislative arms of government to set these types of inequities straight. All this is good stuff, but somehow the story doesn't do these themes justice.
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*Some examples:

PC Example 1

“Any parent-child relationship is, by definition, child abuse, because a child is so oppressed in our adult-dominated society that she can’t possibly have any free choice” (92)

PC Example 2

On the discriminatory nature of home-schooling: “Because if educated parents were allowed to . . . educate their kids at home, then ignorant parents would also have to be allowed . . . But then children of educated parents would grow up . . . better-educated than the other children. So it would be . . . unequal opportunities. Federal crime. Ten years in jail.” (210)

PC Example 3

“Ah! But how can you cross one street vizout discriminating against ze other?” (213)

I really wanted to like this book. I thought the premise was really strong. However, I just couldn't get into it. I tried to get past the second chapter several times, and I coulnd't do it.

This is the first book I have read by Olga Gardner Galvin and, I must say, it will not be the last.

Set in a future not too distant from our own, the United States in The Alphabet Challenge has almost become paralyzed from political correctness. Everyone considers themselves a victim of something. Everyone is entitled to reparations for their suffering and for equality, meaning if someone else has it, everyone else should have it also.

Earlier this year, my husband and his aunt were discussing legislating equality. She said, “Yes, you can.” Tom came back with, “Then I want Paris Hilton’s lifestyle.”

This is EXACTLY what this book is about. In it, the gridlocked, 4-party government and PeopleCare, the victim groups’ watchdog, are trying to and have mostly accomplished just that – the legislation of morality. I was amused by just how many different kinds of “survivor” organizations that Ms. Galvin could list in her book and, in different spots, I’d have to put the book down and giggle or groan at the organization mentioned.

At the beginning, Ms. Galvin has set her goal of explaining the nature of victimization and what it does for people. By the end, she has very much stated her case and shown the ridiculousness of trying to legislate morality and equality.

The main character is Howell Langston Toland, who has just gotten out of jail for “assault and not recycling glass bottles.” He’s looking for a get-rich-quick scheme so he can move out of his friend’s apartment and take his ex in-laws to Australia. So he concocts an idea: he would start an organization for people whose last names start with the last half of the alphabet (M – Z) because, since the world is set up for things to be in alphabetic order, these people are victims of discrimination.

His idea, while it sounds a bit strange to us, is wildly popular in this futuristic Manhattan and Toland begins to rake in the cash. But instead of taking off with his friends to Australia, he sticks around to see how much he can make. In doing this, he begins to see the “role” he is playing as the leader of this group and becomes frustrated with the entire situation.

It’s not long at all before PeopleCare and the government start trying to take over because Toland begins to tell his followers they are responsible for their own lives, not the government and definitely not PeopleCare.

I enjoyed this book. As I stated, Ms. Galvin does her part to explain both sides of this argument. While reading the book, in many ways, I was reminded of another Russian woman who came to America and saw the potential within it: Ayn Rand. However, thankfully, Ms. Galvin is a touch more succinct than Ms. Rand was – there are no 90 page speeches on Objectivism in this book.

I definitely look forward to more of what Ms. Galvin will produce.

Today's political correctness in the United States media has been transformed into laws in the near future, proclaiming that everyone has equal right to protest everything and that nobody is better than anyone else. Discrimination has been outlawed. People with disabilities are no longer called 'handicapped', but 'Individuals of Different Abilities' and males interested in males are no longer called 'homosexual', but 'Androcentrically Focused Males'. These groups are overseen by PeopleCare whose alturistic job is to make each group gets the same amount of attention devoted to it. However, when Howell Toland concocts a plan to get rich quick so he would never be subjected to second-class anything by preying on the New York City citizens' insecurities of being last in the alphabet, PeopleCare is outraged that an organization is outside their jurisdiction-er, care. So they plan revenge.

The story has a great premise to it: how today's society of uber political correctness could monstrously go out of control. However, it was hard to figure out the plot of the story and there was a lot deus ex machina kind of resolutions throughout the novel. The story also felt disjointed, the characters' stories didn't interconnect with eac other nicely. I did like Toland and Clayton a lot, but their characters weren't as fully developed as they could have been. Overall, interesting premise and there are some good messages in the novel, the style just has to improve.½

I loved this book. The story is a satirical account of society several years in the future. Political correctness and big brother intervention have gone amok. The story is both humorous and frightening. The changes in our society during the past few years, particularly ignoring the rights of the many in order to avoid offending the very few (as if being offended is in itself traumatic and horrific), appear to be precursors to the development of a society such as the one described by the author.

Brilliant! The Alphabet Challenge portrays New York City in the year 2061, at a time when political correctness and social welfare have been escalated to levels of absurdity. The U.S. Congress, supposedly locked in permanent, four-party gridlock, still manages to find the consensus to constantly add more and more federal laws protecting people from all sorts of discrimination and oppression, both real and imagined. In a world where driving without insurance will get you a slap on the wrist, but failing to recycle empty bottles or comply with zoning regulations will get you years in prison, Howell Langston Toland is trying to make a living. All he wants is to earn enough money to move with his ex-in-laws to Australia and to live a first-class life there, free of the oppressive regulation of the United States. He starts an organization called The Alphabet Challenge which promotes the equality of people whose names begin with letters in the second half of the alphabet. His attempt to scam people out of their money earns him national fame, a fight with the omnipresent corporation PeopleCare which resorts to strong-arm tactics to maintain control of the nation’s many activist groups, and an activist group of his own that he can’t seem to get rid of.

The Alphabet Challenge combines humor, potent social satire, and a very creative history of the U.S.A over the next fifty years to create a politically-charged, clever and hard-to-put-down story! This is a promising first effort by Olga Gardner Galvin, and I look forward to her future literary efforts.

Great read for those who enjoy satire. (Of which I am one). While a humorous read, it is actually a bit scary--because I can totally envision a world just like this eventually if political correctness continues as it is...and besides, do you really like having to make decisions or take responsibility for yourself?

Book Description (publisher):

"Set several decades in the future, the nearly unrecognizable Manhattan is made kinder and gentler by PeopleCare, an umbrella organization of myriad victims’ rights groups whose members work their fingers to the bone to make caring, compassion, and lowest-common-denominator equality a federal law, now that they have already fought for and won their campaigns for federal prohibition on smoking and obesity, among other unhealthy things.

Enter entrepreneur Howell Langston Toland, who has learned absolutely nothing in the seven years he’d spent in jail for failure to recycle empty bottles. To cash in on the prevailing zeitgeist, he creates a new category of victimization, which encompasses the broadest audience yet. Threatened by the brazen invasion of its turf and the sudden popularity of the new cause, PeopleCare mounts a counterattack against the upstart. Toland, meanwhile, succumbs to the more natural for him entrepreneurial mode of thinking, urging his annoying followers to become self-reliant so that he may cut them loose.

Vicious politics ensue . . . "

Hilarity also ensues...if you like Tom Robbins, among others of the same vein, then this book will be a welcome addition to your collection and I think you should read it ASAP.½

The Alphabet Challenge is the story of a future world in which political correctness has been taken to an extreme level. Everyone has to be careful not to offend anyone else. PeopleCare helps makes this possible, by passing laws that cater to all groups--some of which include People for the Right to Wear Fur If It's Cold And They Feel Like It, Individuals of Different Abilities, and Single Mothers Whose Wealthy Lovers Try to Squelch Their Fiercely Independent Spirit. When one man decides he need...more The Alphabet Challenge is the story of a future world in which political correctness has been taken to an extreme level. Everyone has to be careful not to offend anyone else. PeopleCare helps makes this possible, by passing laws that cater to all groups--some of which include People for the Right to Wear Fur If It's Cold And They Feel Like It, Individuals of Different Abilities, and Single Mothers Whose Wealthy Lovers Try to Squelch Their Fiercely Independent Spirit. When one man decides he needs to make some money, he invites people to join the Alphabet Challenge, a group designed for people with "oppressive" names. They fall for it, and pay him money in the process.

This book is an excellent satire. In this day and age people are constantly worrying about ensuring rights for everyone, always wondering if someone might be offended by various terms. Yes, it is important to care for others, but sometimes it makes you wonder: how far can it go? The Alphabet Challenge answers that question, making for an insightful and entertaining read.

Olga Gardner Galvin’s "The Alphabet Challenge" depicts our world’s future as one that has transcended discrimination of all kinds, becoming compassionate and overly sensitive to the needs of the population. It is the PeopleCare organization that has acquired a monopoly on care activism and that runs the business of caring. It has possibly more control over laws regarding fair and non-discriminatory practices than the national four-party political system. PeopleCare works to level the playing field so that every group of people has an equal access to life and happiness. However, while it works to create progress for groups like “People for Free Orange Juice for Everyone,” it must also assist the needs of “People Against Citrus Fruit.”

Gardner Galvin’s novel points out the absurdity of caring for everyone, attempting to bring advances to different groups of people who have conflicting goals. It also makes explicit the horrors of assuming a group identity over an individualistic one. The “group” becomes more important than the individual within it, therefore resulting in the needs of the person being neglected. After all, red meat cannot be made legal simply for one “uncaring” individual in society. Such an occurrence would deeply offend those groups of people opposed to eating meat. It is bad enough that chicken, although socially stigmatized, can still be legally acquired.

This hilarious, satirical, and eye-opening novel is witty and engaging. At a time when we are also working to combat social injustice and all forms of discrimination, Gardner Galvin’s work reminds us that while, of course, we must not overlook the needs of our neighbors, we must also not be afraid to have a dissenting opinion. It also reminds us that life, in general, is not fair, and it is close to impossible to protect everyone. We simply have to persevere and work for what we need in life as an individual. A powerful message, "The Alphabet Challenge" also insists that we cannot wait for someone else to do the work for us.

I read this book in just a few days. It was easy to love the characters and impossible to put down. It continually surprised the reader with the ridiculous ways in which “caring” has turned into: tattle-taling non-recyclers into jail, thriving in the black-market sales of sugar and butter, and pushing smokers towards designated smoking areas at the very edges of society. The people of this world must walk on eggshells to ensure that their actions do not offend others, and they must do so by giving up their own personal freedoms.

I've spent the past week reading "The Alphabet Challenge" by Olga Gardner Galvin and found it completely brilliant.

One word: hysterical. Totally and completely hysterical. And I mean that in both the “haha, can’t stop laughing” and the “unmanageable fear” sort of way that my Merriam Webster describes.

In this future, people care. They care so much that you can’t do anything for yourself anymore, and why should you? You don’t know how to take care of yourself, but that’s OK, because that’s what PeopleCare is for. They’re there to make all your decisions and totally control every aspect of your life.

Think people who eat meat are insane? There’s a group for that (People for Complete Coexistence with Animals). Think you should be allowed to steal, beat, and rape? There’s a group for you (People with Different Moral and Ethical Values). Think recycling should be a choice? Sorry, that’ll get you five years in lock up. Think you should be allowed to park where you want, eat red meat, or educate your own children? Sorry, but no, you can’t do that anymore. It’s not fair to everyone else. It hurts them and the way they want to live. You’ll have to give up all of your wants and needs and personal rights for the greater good.

It’s OK though, because PeopleCare cares for people.

(In that future, I totally want to be their ad writer.)

Howell Langston Toland has finally had enough. Sentenced to a group home (Adjusted Environment Home) because his parents decided to home school him, and then sentenced to seven years in jail for not recycling and committing grievous bodily harm (tired of being robbed, Howell put cement on a window sill and stuck broken glass in it; poor thief cut himself trying to break in and immediately turned Howell in for his crimes), he decides that it’s time he gets his and starts the ABChallenge, a support group for those who have spent their entire lives being treated like lesser beings because their names start with a letter between N and Z. He’ll collect a small donation from everyone who has ever been treated unfairly because of where they fall in the alphabetical queue, make a fortune, and then run off to live in Australia, where it’s still legal to sunbathe, eat read meat, and have an opinion of your own.

I know, it’s got to be a joke, right?

Not in this future world, it isn’t. Most of America has been brainwashed into believing that it’s not their fault, no it’s the other guy’s fault and dammit, laws need to be passed against them so that you can have a fair shake. No matter that it’s asinine and stupid, it’s the way it has to be so that everything is equal.

As ridiculous as this novel is (and I mean that in a good way!), it’s frightening when you think about how things are changing here, now, ever so slightly starting to resemble things in "The Alphabet Challenge." True, we can still make most of our own choices, but look at what’s going on in the food and restaurant industries. Health care. Education. Exercise. I’m not saying that I think all of the changes are for the bad, but I do think it’s a slippery slope we’re on and satire or not, this book has a point.

The day I wake up in America and find out chocolate has been outlawed, or God forbid, salt, I am totally moving to Europe, where they’ll still be allowing such hedonistic, evil, unfair things.

Read "The Alphabet Challenge". Then join me in my consumption of chocolate and salt. At the same time. (They're totally delicious together.)