Cycling to Asylum by Su J. Sokol – Book Review

c2a-full-coverSokol’s love for cycling, activism, social rights, law and family is evident in this, her first novel. I enjoy detecting a person’s passions through their writing. I also enjoy a story that stretches my own imagination of a place I call “home.” This novel did that. It scared me. And, I loved that.

Cycling to Asylum takes place in a New York City of the near future… a New York City that is hostile and authoritarian. A New York City that is worthy of escaping. This is not at all my NYC experience today, nor how I feel about my home city, but to be honest I can’t exclude this as a sustained possibility one day. I experienced, first-hand, a chaotic pre- and post-9/11 NYC. I know my memory is not great, but I am pretty sure I am not fabricating memories of police tanks in my neighborhood and fires set by squatters just blocks from me as I grew up. I have watched hovering police helicoptors beam lights onto rooftops and into apartments right from my bedroom window. My pupils have seen the riot gear policemen in all public places, from Times Square to Zuccotti Park to right outside the Baskin Robbins ice cream shop that used to be at my corner.
East 13th street tank. Photo by John Penley

For you who have the courage and passion to protest, you are even more exposed to hostility. In this novel, NYC’s balance is off, protests are sparked by those who disagree with invasive technologies, demonstrations are loaded with people looking for something to believe in, and they are assaulted, stripped of dignity and basic freedom. If this was your reality, which it is in so many parts of the world, what would you do?

If you have battled and been injured, do you keep fighting, give up, give in, or flee for safety? What would you do about your family? Your children? Would you do whatever it takes to ensure the freedom and safety of your family? How would you get your children to understand why they are being ripped out of their own world? How do you leave beloved friends behind? As you endure your healing and feel like “damaged goods,” do you have someone closeby to tell you that “you may be damaged but you are not goods?”

Cycling to Asylum details a family of four’s escape to freedom, crossing borders from a world with sickly boundaries to a new one of hope. All stealthily done on bike.

The understanding born within me as I reviewed Cycling to Asylum: Find your freedom. Find a way. Seek “asylum” from your hostile external environment so that you can experience a peaceful *internal* environment. Because only until you have created inner peace within yourself, can the concept of “world peace” even be considered , or ever achieved.

The question born within me as I reviewed Cycling to Asylum: Would I be brave enough to do what this family had to do in order to live the rest of their lives in safety, and hopefully, peace?

So that’s the long review. Here’s the short one:

Cycling to Asylum by Su J. Sokol is a four-stringed journey about struggle and freedom told via the lives in a family fleeing from the harsh treatment of a politically troubled New York City, to Montreal, their city of hope. This gripping, yet moderately-paced work of future fantasy writing succeeds in detailing the multi-faceted family dynamic experience that would occur in any relocation situation. Throw in the “lives are in danger” element and you will find yourself turning pages faster than your imagination can keep up. I found myself feeling grateful that my New York City was not like the one in the story, but soon I realized that it was not that far away of a possibility. What I yearned for a bit was to be left with stimulation for myself to be inspired into action. I was, however, left with immense gratitude and appreciation for those who literally bleed for a cause.

Now, please buy a copy of  Cycling to Asylum and read it. I really need someone to discuss it with!

Visit Su J. Sokol’s website at www.sujsokol.com

Please visit Deux Voiliers Publishing for ordering information
www.deuxvoilierspublishing.com

** Come to the New York launch of Cycling to Asylum at the Community Bookstore in Park Slope on June 24th, 2014. **

For details on how to have your book reviewed and shared by Healing House Publishing, email cynthia@healinghousepub.com

Author: Cynthia Cherish Malaran

Founder of Healing House Publishing and Dedicated to Healing, Health and Happiness.