The Midwich Cuckoos

On the sidewalk a dead cockroach slowly moves along on its back until you observe it properly and realize it's being pushed/pulled along by an ant, with another little fellow shuttling back and forth underneath to give a helping hand, a futile attempt to get the relatively giant carapace up a gigantic curb and eventually into its nest.

Human beings are similar; we cooperate as a collective to get things done and if anyone threatens the status quo we try to control or eliminate them for the good of everyone else.

The Midwich Cuckoos is a bit like that.

John Wyndham portrays the cuckoo children in the village of Midwich as a microcosm of society - when the cuckoo lays its eggs in another bird’s nest it eventually destroys the other chicks as it takes over from within, then spreads further and takes over the entire nesting ecosystem like a rampaging disease or undesirable weed.

I imagine Charles Darwin would have had a few things to say about that.

We’re told in the official description that all childbearing women in Midwich suddenly get pregnant, the book being told from the perspective of a man who witnesses this gradual and seemingly innocuous change that slowly gets out of hand, as the community slowly becomes aware that they’ve been invaded from within and need to take decisive action.

There’s an essence of 1984 by George Orwell from the perspective of living in fear and being powerless, and if you’ve read the The Day of the Triffids, it’s similar in terms of apocalyptic menace and scary scope where the threat comes from an unknown source, maybe outer space or Mars, which threatens to wipe out humankind.

And you’ll appreciate the reference to golden eyes as in The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, as well as tips of the hat to H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds and even a nod to Sherlock Holmes.

It’s a very political book with a distinct sense of us against them that explores the benefits and drawbacks of capitalism versus socialism, of existentialism and how close we are to tipping over the edge, written in a sometimes rather formal and crusty style that's a bit old-fashioned, nor is it exactly exciting and I would have liked more insight into the minds of the children and John Wyndham’s take on living as a collective from their perspective, but the overall message it gives at the end is strong.

Everyone is going about their own business in separate communities, but secretly we feel under threat and are ready and willing to stomp each other out.