War with the Newts Book Review

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As I continue on my TBR journey, I find myself picking up books I didn’t expect to read. Also, books I didn’t expect to find. However, I want to continue reading older science fiction, and that means picking up books by authors I previously never knew. This next book is one of those books. I decided to read Karel Čapek’s War with the Newts, a 1936 satirical sci-fi novel. Let’s get into the review.

Some background: the book first appeared in 1936, written by Karel Čapek. Originally written in Czech, the book bears some similarities to Čapek’s drama R. U. R. about robots. The book itself, divided into three books, includes no true protagonist. Instead, the book uses various characters to discuss the eponymous newt race and their exploitation. But I get ahead of myself. Here’s a quick summary of the beginning:

The book opens with Captain van Toch, a sea captain who arrives on his ship at an island in the Indian Ocean. He plans to continue pearl farming because of the booming industry back in Europe. However, he uncovers a race of giant newts that seem to possess some human-like intelligence. He realizes he can use them for obtaining more pearls, but in the meantime, he introduces them to knives, marking the first tool the newt race possesses. The book unfolds into more stories and perspectives as the newt race evolves and begins to spread, leading to the newts’ exploitation and the eventual “war.”

I’ll start off by saying that I appreciate this book for what it is. It’s first and foremost a satire, touching on themes of the Other, types of exploitation such as colonialism, and even segregation. The newts become a metaphor for people who have been colonized and see the loss of their culture, for one. They also become a metaphor for Black Americans seen as scapegoats. It’s especially interesting when you learn that this book also appeared in 1936 during the rise of fascism in Europe. This point becomes especially important in the book. Čapek saw what was happening in Germany and created a story that depicted the follies of fascism in a way that leads to a ridiculous but also all too real conclusion.

However, it also took some time for me to get into the actual story. The book begins pretty slowly, and while it establishes van Toch as a character and sets up the first scene with the newts nicely, it took me some time to get through it. I did, however, enjoy the book’s structure. Without a clear protagonist, the book transitions from one viewpoint to another in a way that capitalizes on all the major themes the book presents. It wouldn’t have been as effective otherwise if, say, the book only came from van Toch’s perspective. Additional viewpoints, such as historians, mean we got a lot of interesting information about how the world views the newts as a whole, which contributed to the satire of how the newts are viewed as the other.

In the end, the book reminded me a lot of what I discuss in my thesis! I talk a lot about the concept of the Other, and this just reminds me that I need to get back to writing. See you all later this week for another blog post! Happy reading!

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