THE LEMMING CONDITION

by Alan Arkin ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1976

The satire in Arkin's fable about a young lemming who questions and eventually escapes his species' periodic mass suicide is obvious and his implicit message commonplace, but Arkin has such a light touch and a sharp ear that he more than gets away with it. The crow who first starts Bubber thinking is an entertainingly flip sharpie, and then Bubber meets an old lemming hermit, a curmudgeon who provides some feisty reinforcement: ""If I'm going to commit suicide I'll do it when I damn well please, and not when someone blows a whistle."" There is amusing recognition too in Bubber's solid citizen uncle and blandly accepting cousin--but these lemmings are not just people in disguise; it's their animal natures that become awesomely evident when they all begin to station themselves tensely at their burrow doorways, and then slowly, blindly, to follow that biological imperative westward. The human/lemming parallels thus work both ways--but don't forget that Bubber successfully resists. A winner.

Pub Date: April 1, 1976

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 64

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1976

Categories: FICTION