“BE NICE” -Astonishing New Novel
by David Portlock
Review by publicist, film producer (Lady Sings the Blues, Night of the Juggler), Jay Weston.
I am a voracious reader. I read a
few novels a month, much non-fiction, and so much more..stuff. In
college (NYU) I was a pre-med student but majored in English. When I
went to war in Korea in the early Fifties, I ran an Army newspaper
there and was a war correspondent. Returning, I became a successful
publicist, and among my clients were many famous authors, So you
might call me a ‘literary wonk.’
A few years ago a screenwriter whom I
knew slightly, David Portlock, wrote a collection of science
fiction short stories called “Polaris-10 Short Stories.”
While I am not a real sci fi fan, I recognized that this was
a brilliant, unusual writer and did a praiseful review of it.
(It is still available on Amazon, worth reading.) He had told me then
that he was working on his first novel, and I replied that I wanted a
first look at it when finished.
Thus, this week a copy of David’s new
novel was left by him on my doorstep. On Friday night I began reading
‘BE NICE’…..and didn’t finish until late Sunday
night. I have been in a stunned trance ever since, so moved
by this astonishing novel I was unable to even discuss it with him
until yesterday. Quite simply, BE NICE is the
most unique, brilliant mind-blowing work I have read in many years.
It is the work of a mad genius…so this is my ‘call’
to alert you that it is a book well-worth a few days (or nights) of
your time.
Quite simply, Be Nice begins
about a hundred years from now. We learn that sometime in the
mid-century a small group of kids (anyone under 35 is included) began
a movement called Be Nice, whose purpose was simply to
make the world a better, nicer place in which to live. They were
joined by more and more young people and the movement became a
massive world-wide phenomenon which eventually preempted the old
establishment. As the book opens, we meet seventeen-year olds Wallis
Barber and Janey Typermass, members of this worldwide youth movement,
Be Nice, a kind of planetary Arab Spring. The movement has
slowed climate change, halted the troubles in the Middle East, ended
racism, curbed religion, solved housing and food shortages, and –
as a result – controls the major cities of the world.
Along with their teenage friends (John
Tom, Becky, Pete and Abe) Wallis and Janey patrol the streets of
Santa Monica, California, brutally enforcing the policies of the
movement. Any expressions of racial hatred, religious demagoguery,
politics, the committing of a crime, results in severe and often
deadly consequences. But when Wallis and Janey begin to question the
violent tactics of BE NICE, their fragile and complicated world
quickly falls apart. Labeled as angry, emotional, and believers in the
old ways, they soon find themselves alone and on the run.
Friends, that’s the setup, but I
don’t think I can convey the fascination of the world that David
has created. His people speak in a futuristic version of slang
English…which I found amusing and enticing. (Much like Kubrick
created a language in his Clockwork Orange years ago.) There
is so much detailed, in-depth writing here that you will be engrossed
in the lives of our two lead characters and the people they
encounter…Native Americans, a Mexican cowboy, white supremacists, and
religious demagogues to name but a few.
This is the first review of this
book…and I urge you to go to click the link below and order a copy for 99 cents
on Kindle, about ten bucks in paperback. And, I suspect, you will encourage your friends
and family to do the same.
