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Fiction

Creepy dudes

Capturing a maniac’s fantasy

The First Friend by Malcolm Knox

by Alex Cothren
October 2024, no. 469

The First Friend by Malcolm Knox

Allen & Unwin $34.99 pb, 391 pp

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

Whenever I spot the new flyers of our university’s student communist club, all I can do is admire the gumption. Talk about seriously swimming against the tide, the political equivalent of hawking CDs in a Spotify world. When just broaching the topic of negative gearing can torpedo a major political party in this country, what chance is there that the kids are going to abolish private property altogether? The truth is that communism’s only active role in the West today is playing the bogeyman, a danger label to be slapped on anything conservatives find insufficiently conservative. See, for example, the current US vice-president, who had only to politely request a little more corporate tax, please, sir, and voila, she’s Comrade Kamala, cackling her way to the gulag.

 


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The First Friend by Malcolm Knox

Allen & Unwin $34.99 pb, 391 pp

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.


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