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Back in the USSA
 
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Back in the USSA (Hardcover)

by Kim Newman (Author), Eugene Byrne (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 356 pages
  • Publisher: Mark V. Ziesing (Oct 1997)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0929480848
  • ISBN-13: 978-0929480848
  • Product Dimensions: 24.3 x 17.5 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 864,133 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #20 in  Books > Horror > Authors > Contemporary Authors > Newman, Kim
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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Dark satire on US/UK culture, 21 Jul 1999
By A Customer
While it's adequately believable as alternate history, "Back in the USSA" is primarily satire. The role reversal between USA and USSR puts a mirror to the real world: to especially telling effect when there's no change. For instance, "In the Air" has a lot to say about the double standard that makes people see identical behaviour - platoons of children in military uniform honouring war heroes, and saluting the flag - as healthy patriotism in their own country, but sinister militaristic indoctrination in another. Other targets are the US Vietnam movie mythos ("Teddy Bears' Picnic" features classic English comic characters conscripted to a British Indochina war); British royalty ("Abdication Street" is a bad-taste mimic of the Charles/Diana wedding); and the late tycoon Robert Maxwell. This may not be to your taste; many of the TV and movie in-jokes are far more accessible to UK readers. But if it is, you'll find it a wonderfuly dark and witty take on the major events of this century.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars the best Alternative History since Guns of the South, 21 Mar 1999
By A Customer
This novel is a complete trip thru the history of the United Socialist States of America. You heard me correct, Eugene Debs lead a revolution and established a socialist republic during WW1. Byrne and Newman paint a vivid picture of an America that could have been. Their use of characters both real as well as fictional is incredible. This is a must read for anyone interested in Alternative History. It is much more than a novel. This book deals with British and Russian involvement in the Vietnam War, the Great Purges of Capone's dictatorship, to the creation of the Common Wealth of Independent North American States. I highly recommend it to anyone.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Back in the USSA is a hip alternate history ride., 7 Jun 1998
By A Customer
The premise is that Teddy Roosevelt was assassinated by Annie Oakley after a successful presidential win by the Bull Moose Party. His Vice President, millionaire Charles Foster Kane (yes, watch out for the fictional characters who appear in the narrative as well as the historical ones who appear in new personnas), plunges the USA into a disastrous early entry into the Great War. This leads to a violent Revolution and the establishment of of a new Socialist state in America, while Russia evolves into a constitutional monarchy.

This is quite a trip! The book is told in the form of separate narratives, from the young Buddy Holly under the regime of Chairman Capone (the USSA's Stalin), a wonderland mirror version of the Untouchables and the Grapes of Wrath, a tale about Ed Gein coldcut supplier to the Party big-wigs, the British experience in the Vietnam War ("Teddy Bears Picnic" -- a wonderful sequence), television under the csar during a Royal Wedding, and much more.

Newman and Byrne are mishugah, and I like it.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars There is an alternative
How can you not love a book with an episode set in Vietnam (as fought by the British) where the heroes/anti-heroes are the Likely Lads, Jennings and Darbyshire and Just William,... Read more
Published on 5 Nov 2003 by Jonathan Hall

5.0 out of 5 stars Darkly comic satire on our century
While a readily believable alternate history, "Back in the USSA" uses this scenario as a vehicle for a wonderfully dark and funny satire on the 20th century. Read more
Published on 9 Jul 1999

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