The Syndic
First edition, 1953
The Syndic (1953) imagines a future North America divided between two sprawling criminal organizations, the Syndic on the East Coast and the Mob in the West, both of which have long since replaced conventional government as providers of order, vice, and social services. Kornbluth treats the premise with satirical lightness, though a darker current runs beneath the novel's humor. One of the book's central tensions emerges when the Syndic, confronted with a genuine external threat, resists transforming itself into a militarized security state for fear of becoming something it was never meant to be. This explains why the novel has often appealed to libertarian readers, even though its political conclusions are a bit more ambiguous than that reading suggests.
Hardcover. First Edition, First Printing. Octavo, cloth. New York: Doubleday, 1953. #10633.
Small store sticker rear paste down, else very good in very good dust jacket with wear and shallow chipping along edges. No substantial loss and jacket is bright and attractive.
Hardcover. First Edition, First Printing. Octavo, cloth. New York: Doubleday, 1953. #10633.
Small store sticker rear paste down, else very good in very good dust jacket with wear and shallow chipping along edges. No substantial loss and jacket is bright and attractive.
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