Catherine's Reviews > Time of the Locust: A Novel
Time of the Locust: A Novel
by
by

This book was good. It illustrated the power that our minds have to help us transcend our circumstances. Sephiri, a young autistic child, struggled to connect with the world. His mother, Brenda was struggling to raise him on her own after his father was imprisoned. Sephiri separated the world into two places, the Land of Air, which was where his physical being was and where his mom, doctors, and uncle was, and the World of Water, which was where his mind was. Sephiri is nonverbal and his communication consists of screams, spinning, flailing arms, and screeches, which his mom and those in the Land of Air cannot understand. On the contrary, in his World of Water, Sephiri can communicate with words with the dolphin and the Great Octopus. His father, Horus, is imprisoned in Black Plains and is residing in the solitary confinement wing. He too exists in two separate worlds, the Amenta, which is the physical realm of Black Plains, and the Catacombs, where his mind takes him, and where he is eventually led to Sephiri's World of Water. Sephiri's uncle Manden, is seemingly stuck in the physical realm with no mental escape. He works as a subway employee in Metro D.C. Manden is haunted by his past, and wonders just how long he can keep going. The characters in this book are all trapped in some way, but Sephiri and his father find a way to escape their surroundings and connect with one another in a spiritual realm. This book is not about spirits, or ghosts and ghouls. It is a story about the power of our minds. I also learned something new. The warden of Black Plains had a framed photograph of Dr. Alex D. Biderman's Chart of Coercion. Biderman's Chart of Coercion was a delineation of tactics the Communists used on U.S. Air Force prisoners of war in North Korea. The chart consist of 8 methods that were designed to breakdown the mental fortitude of prisoners of war. In the book, the warden uses Biderman's chart to do just that, break down the will of the prisoners of Black Plains. Upon further research, Biderman's Chart of Coercion has been used to explain domestic violence, workplace bullying, and religious cult following. I found it very interesting to learn about this because I had never heard about Biderman or his work.
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