Politics of power, dystopian futures rule Bainbridge Island book sales

In times of turmoil, many Americans turn to easygoing enjoyments.

Did not the Marx Brothers and folksy feel-good tunes rise to pop culture power in the Great Depression? Did not comfort food come to dominate the dining landscape post-9/11?

Is not our nearly decade-old love affair with “The Walking Dead” (2010-present), and the horde of awards heaped on “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015) and Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 post-apocalyptic novel “The Road” really just a dolled up obsession with simplification?

Sure, flesh-eating zombies and homicidal wasteland warriors are no fun, but at least you’re not stressed about paying your mortgage, mounting student loans or your insurance copay, right? Who cares who the president is when you’re roaming the harsh, blighted landscape of the world that was, banding together with other survivors to recreate society?

Simple, action-packed, delicious, hilarious: The point is, when times are harsh we don’t want to work hard for our fun.

Unless, that is, you’re a book lover on Bainbridge Island these days.

In that case, serious fare seems to be on the menu — and is, in fact, selling like hot cakes — and books that were once just homework assignments are now suddenly the cool kids in class.

It was at first just a smirk-worthy bit of news when the start of the Trump presidency seemed to begat the return of George Orwell’s “1984” to best sellers lists. The dystopian classic reportedly resurged in popularity first in 2013 after the news of the National Security Agencies run amok surveillance practices became public, and then it again topped the Amazon.com sales chart after Kellyanne Conway delivered the now-infamous “alternative facts” spiel.

But that was just the start. America, it seemed, was hitting the books — a few, at least — hard.

“The Amazon bestseller list is updated hourly, so it can swiftly track a surge in the book’s popularity,” NPR’s Lynn Neary recently reported. “A spokesman for Signet Classics, which currently publishes ‘1984,’ said sales have increased almost 10,000 percent since the inauguration and moved noticeably upwards [since Conway’s remark].”

The real difference is that this time Orwell’s classic is not alone in its renewed attention-nabbing.

“Lately the Amazon bestseller list has become something of a political barometer,” Neary wrote. “Congressman John Lewis’ memoir ‘March’ rose to the top after President Trump criticized him for questioning the legitimacy of the election. Since the election, ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ — a memoir that’s become a guide to working-class America — has been at or near the top of the list.”

Bainbridge bookworms seem to have leapt into this quickly deepening political pool with both feet, according to island retailers.

Raymond Gendreau, owner of Backstreet Beat, a secondhand book and record shop, said the uptick in his customer’s political interest was sudden — if not surprising.

“People are starting to pay attention,” he said. “I continually read about books because I have this shop and I kind of want to be ahead.

“Just by doing my normal perusing of the internet, the whole dystopia thing came up and I was going, ‘Oh, yeah. That makes a lot of sense.’”

Gendreau said though his stock changes often he typically keeps several copies of the more classic works of fiction on hand and there has been much more demand for them lately. He sold out of “1984,” and has just a few copies of “Brave New World,” “Animal Farm” and “Handmaid’s Tale” left as well.

Eagle Harbor Book Company has also “definitely seen a surge of interest among our customers,” said store spokeswoman Victoria Irwin.

“In terms of fiction,” she said, “‘Fahrenheit 451’ has been a best seller, but that may be partially aided by a school sale — still, we have sold over 20.

“Orwell’s ‘1984’ has sold over a dozen,” she added. “We’ve sold both ‘Brave New World’ and ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ in small numbers since the New Year, but still higher than in previous months.”

Even that level of increased interest might not be a totally accurate measure of the island’s political fiction appetite though, Irwin said, as it is to some degree curtailed by the realities of (limited) supply and (voracious) demand.

“Part of those lower numbers may be because we don’t usually carry more than one [copy] in stock at a time,” she explained. “‘Underground Railroad’ (by Colson Whitehead), ‘Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet’ (Jamie Ford) and ‘It Can’t Happen Here’ (Sinclair Lewis) have brisk sales. The first is a recent release with some big prizes under its belt, the other two are oldies that could be selling because of politics today.”

At the library, too, political tomes have proven a big hit.

“Kitsap Regional Library has eight print copies of ‘1984,” said Bainbridge Island branch manager Rebecca Judd. “All eight copies are checked out [and] there are 20 holds.”

As relevant as the high school English class staples and newer novels in that vein have become, nonfiction has proven even more popular with island readers.

“There seems to be a little bit more interest in that type of stuff,” Gendreau said of his store’s nonfiction “social/political” section, which includes works by authors such as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn and Paul Krugman, among others.

“People seem to come in here and they’ll go right to this section,” he said. “I think people are interested in trying to figure out what’s going on.”

Irwin agreed that overall island readers seem to prefer reality-based reading right now.

“Our best seller since January is Sarah van Gelder’s ‘Revolution Where You Live: Stories from a 12,000 Mile Journey Through a New America,’” Irwin said. “Part of the timing is coincidental [as] it came out in January, and the [Bainbridge-based] Yes! Magazine connection meant we had a very healthy book launch for her. But, trust me, it went well beyond what similar events for her have been in the past.

“People are really reaching out for solution-oriented stories like hers,” Irwin said.

Right on Gelder’s heels, Irwin said, is the aforementioned “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis” by J.D. Vance.

“It has been selling well throughout the election cycle, but really burst through the doors since January,” she said. “We’ve sold 35 since Jan. 2.”

Other nonfiction books that have been near the top of the store’s sales charts, she said, are “We Should All Be Feminists” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; “Thank You for Being Late” by Thomas Friedman; “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates; and “Tears We Cannot Stop: a Sermon to White America” by Michael Eric Dyson.

A proclivity to the political is not just a trend in adult readers either, Irwin said.

“Interestingly, children’s books on the general topic of dystopia, authoritarianism and suspending civil rights are hot right now, too,” she explained. “‘The Giver’ by Lois Lowry is a school read right now. ‘Dash’ by Kirby Larson, about the internment of Japanese American families during World War II, is also selling well.”

Even the stuff you couldn’t get people to read to pass a test in years gone by — dusty tomes like the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence — are flying off the shelves today fast enough to cause paper cuts.

“We had a customer order 30 copies of the pocket Constitution/Declaration to give out to friends in the Kitsap Indivisible group,” Irwin said. “We are currently out in the store, and it is back ordered many places, but we have a source and are scooping them up.”

Luciano Marano | Bainbridge Island Review Political books — especially classics like “1984” and “Brave New World” — have seen a marked increase in popularity as of late, along with many others and also more contemporary nonfiction works on the subject of culture and societal trends.