Marshmallow reviews The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders

Today Marshmallow reviews The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders, published originally in 2005.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like clever, thought-provoking books akin to those of George Orwell, then this is the book for you! 

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): Set in a truly bizarre world, this story starts in Inner Horner which is a nation literally so small that only one of its seven citizens can fit in it at a time. What do the other six unfortunate Inner Hornerites have to do in the meantime? They basically sit in this tiny area called the Short-Term Residency Zone, located in Outer Horner. The Outer Hornerites naturally feel very superior in comparison to their miniscule neighbors. Suddenly, Inner Horner shrinks to be even smaller so that only one fourth of a citizen can inhabit the nation. This turns out to cause quite the issue with the Outer Horner Militia who feel that this constitutes an “Invasion in Progress” as they say.

While the militia deliberate on what course of action to take, Phil comes in and suggests taxing the Inner Hornites for every day that they infringe on Outer Horner. Phil is described as “a slightly bitter nobody” who fell in love with Carol–an Inner Hornite who fell in love with and married another Inner Hornite, much to Phil’s despair. With the birth of her child, Phil’s despondency contorted to more closely resemble anger. Utilizing his constituents’ naïveté and gullability, Phil convinces the Militia that the Inner Hornites are inferior to the Outer Hornites, something that confirms most of the Outer Hornites’ inner thoughts.

As the book progresses, the Inner Hornites are treated increasingly worse and worse as Phil rises from a nobody to the leader of Outer Horner. While the characters are not humans (they are all amalgamations of objects, biological parts, and machinery it seems), the plot draws a line definitively parallel to some of humanity’s worst times. 

Marshmallow’s Review: This book was really bizarre. The world, the nations’ names, the characters are all just weird, but all this weirdness makes the book stand out even more in my opinion. There is not very much description of the surroundings other than it seems like Earth. There are trees and rivers and dirt and apparently a cafe in Outer Horner, but, other than that, not much else is given. The citizens are all described and drawn as being some sort of strange creatures, but none of them are the same. For example, the president of Outer Horner is described as “consisting of a jumble of bellies, white mustaches, military medals, and dignified double chins, all borne magnificently aloft on three thin wobbly legs.” Suffice it to say, they all look pretty unusual.

But the differences between us and them pretty much end there. Phil’s rise to power and the suppression of the Inner Hornites honestly follows the same course human history has too many times (this disturbingly reminded me of what I learned about pre-WWII Germany). I wonder if the weird descriptions of the characters represent some deeper analogy. The plot is intriguing and the ending was definitely very interesting.

I read The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil in an hour and five minutes, so it’s definitely pretty short. There are some drawings that made me feel like this book is a little similar to The Phantom Tollbooth. Of course one also cannot help but think of Animal Farm, another short allegorical tale about the rise of tyranny.

Overall, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil was a fascinating book and I would recommend it to almost all ages. It is slightly amusing yet intriguing in a bizarre way that is hard to explain; the way to best understand what I mean is to read it!

Marshmallow’s Rating: 100%.