(Reviewed by JD Jung)
“…bicycles are stupid. It makes no sense to ride a bike when there are so many parking lots designed just for cars. If you don’t drive a car, you’re wasting parking spaces. …. If everyone rode a bike, we wouldn’t need to have wars to get oil from other countries, and then the military would have nothing to do. It would be totally wasteful. “
Yes, Miles Bennell, a 24 year old assistant manager at Burger King is sick of many of the people in his hometown of Beaverton, Oregon. They’re passionate about about the environment, like go to art galleries and foreign film festivals, whereas he likes to watch TV, drink beer and frequent Hooters.
Right when he thinks that it couldn’t get any worse, he discovers that his friends and others like him are starting to read books and discuss ideas. Miles thinks that they have been duplicated by aliens. Hooters has closed and fast-food chains have been replaced by healthier options.
Should he and those not yet duplicated, call the President and tell him that “aliens are destroying our minds with books and creating exact duplicates of us that talk weird and hate TV.”?
More importantly will Miles be able to save the country or will he be converted to one who believes that we need to prevent global warming and destruction to the environment?
Though the title, Invasion of the Dumb Snatchers –taken from the movie, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”—may not be one to draw readers, the book is definitely worth picking up. It’s wildly humorous and kept me laughing out loud throughout the entire book.
It’s also very telling. Maybe we shouldn’t listen to the scientists. After all as Miles’ uncle said, “Denial is the only solution that absolutely works. It’s the surefire solution to every problem. If we deny the problem, then there’s nothing to solve.”
