A curious book, which defies narrow categories, [A Canticle for Leibowitz] contains elements of satire, science-fiction, fantasy, humor, sectarian religious propaganda, and an apocalyptic "utopian" vision. Although much of its meaning can be discerned by any perceptive reader, it can be better understood with a few footnotes which place it in the context of recent "Catholic" writing. (pp. 213-14) Because characterization in satire does not present a particular person so much as i...

Up until [the publication of A Canticle for Leibowitz] Miller had been regarded, in Sam Moskowitz's words, as "the perennially promising author." An engineer-turned-writer, he had published some forty-odd stories in the major science fiction magazines in the Fifties; several were chosen for anthologies, sometimes of the best stories in the field, but many of his tales are rather conventional and far from distinguished. "The Darfsteller," a story about a human actor struggl...

Critics and reviewers have busied themselves in listing the various themes which lend substance and depth to [A Canticle for Leibowitz]. Stanley J. Rowland (The Christian Century, May 1960) [see excerpt above] has noted the thematic treatment of the issue of euthanasia and of the conflict between church (spiritual) and state (temporal) authority. Edward Ducharme (English Journal, November 1966) [see excerpt above] has claimed that "Miller's narrative continually returns to the conflicts betwee...

The greatness of Miller's accomplishment [in A Canticle for Leibowitz] lies not in the mere telling of his marvelous story. After all, television, the movies, and hundreds of science fiction yarns have told the story of Man's folly several times well and many times poorly. And, while A Canticle does have nice touches of humor and irony that the others may lack, the narrative is not significantly above the level of the rest. Rather, the achievement lies in Miller's skillful handling of t...

Failure to place A Canticle for Leibowitz … in its genre has caused some uncertainty and confusion in its reviews. Therefore we should first appreciate what kind of novel it is, realizing of course that all works in a given art form partake of common denominators, precluding a rigid boundary between kinds. With this in mind we can say that A Canticle for Leibowitz belongs in the same category as Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Orwell's 1984, and contemporary works such as Nevil ...

[A Canticle for Leibowitz has] a special dreadfulness: the idea that the insanity of war is chronic, that man will return to ashes what he raises up from past ashes, until he is no more. Beginning six hundred years after the "Flame Deluge," Miller's episodic narrative carries the reader through twelve centuries of recovery to the beginning of another Deluge, one which, if not the last, will teach men nothing, but will only rewind the clockwork of futility. (pp. 151-52) No doubt Miller&#...

When Canticle first appeared, seven years ago, it was compared to Brave New World, 1984 and On the Beach. But in one way Canticle is more satisfying: it puts its theme in theological perspective. The critics praised it, faulted it for being "too Catholic," and have generally ignored it since. Yet the paperback—with a seared monk on its cover, transfigured against the blazing wreckage of civilization—has passed from friend to friend. Now it can be read not just as a piece of brill...

["A Canticle for Leibowitz"] is an extraordinary novel. It is apt to arouse either enthusiasm or distaste, but little middle ground opinion. It will be a most unusual literary experience even if you don't like it—but already it has made this reviewer and many other readers enormously enthusiastic. It is projected into the future—it has elements in common with science fiction, yet it would be quite impossible to classify it narrowly as such. It is fanciful, yet as deeply tr...

[A Canticle for Leibowitz] is a curious and original and very serious book, and it will be so satisfactory to the right reader that I think a warning is in order: though the action takes place in the future, and though a space ship takes off on the final page, this should not be confused with what is usually called science fiction. In a way, it is a cautionary tale about man's perennial inhumanity to man, and the invevitable use he will make of scientific means to that end. But even this is not Mr. M...

[A Canticle for Leibowitz, a] very good, partly humorous historical novel, is about the role of the Church as the preserver of wisdom and spiritual life in dark ages, but its era is in the future rather than the past. (p. 632) The telling of the story is intelligent, skillfully oblique, and often funny. Mr. Miller evidently knows a good deal about the language and protocol of the Church, and he cleverly adapts its forms—such as prayers and official pronouncements in Latin—to the pattern of his...

Mr. Miller is a fine story teller at his best—which is in the opening section of ["A Canticle for Leibowitz"], depicting the medieval reprise. But when his time-machine shifts gears into the neo-Renaissance, it stalls in a bog of quasi-historical novelese. These chapters are overrun with thanes and clans and polyglot hugger-mugger concerning a baronial type named Hannegan II, who operates out of the Red River country, and has designs on the states of Laredo and Denver. A graver misdemea...

Without question A Canticle for Leibowitz is a most remarkable novel. The style is sharp, exact, completely individual, and above all alive. And the scale is huge—embracing life present, life past, and life future. Mr. Miller looks at life from the different angles of God and scientists and poets and priests and the Wandering Jew and—believe it or not—he makes sense out of it, and beauty too. Some critics have talked about this astonishing novel in terms of science fiction. That is an i...

["A Canticle for Leibowitz"] is a work of the Imagination…. Miller, who is a dull, ashy writer, is forced to depend, in addition to his conjuring tricks, on heavyweight irony: A scientist founds the monastery; the monastery guards the very knowledge that leads to rediscovery and repeated annihilation; the Memorabilia are the principal baggage the monks carry when they leave the earth. But irony, after all, is only a kind of high-toned mockery. It entertains but it changes nothing. (pp. ...