Parallel Lines

Rizk, in his debut, warns of the coming destruction of the country unless its hapless citizens rise up and repent.
Debut author Rizk, who once taught calculus to Chinese exchange students in Englewood, New Jersey, reveals little else about himself in this diatribe against greed, immortality and pervasive government corruption. His historical narrative comes no closer to the present day than the pernicious behavior of the two Bush administrations; the last decade goes largely unmentioned. But the book’s theme, which draws heavily on biblical prophecy in the Book of Revelation, is clear: Unless societies and their leaders execute justice, then doom is inevitable. The timing of the destruction, Rizk says, will depend on when less than a handful of godly people can be found in a city or a state, and when God finally runs out of patience. However, there will be warnings first, the author says, such as when terrorists made an abortive earlier attempt in 1993 to take down the World Trade Center before it finally fell in 2001. Although the book tries to be enigmatic, it broadly hints that the Babylon prophesized to fall in the Book of Revelation precisely fits the profile of modern-day New York, right down to the seven letters in each name. The author’s fervent hope, he says, is to get his message out that repentance is the only real homeland security before powerful forces intercede to shut him up. This brief book has the quality of a New York City cab ride, during which the driver holds forth while the passenger listens with varying levels of interest and credulity. Some moments have a distant ring of truth, as when Rizk suggests that debates about abortion never mention that “unmarried women like to have sex.” However, the book then moves into moral zealotry, as it goes on to say that “their gods are their bellies and fornications are their glory.” The author also notes that Harvard and Yale “sell their degrees to anyone who can pay”; many people who have applied with money in hand, however, would not agree.
A fulfillment of the author’s desire to publicly speak the truth as he sees it.