Make Mine Homogenised

Description

Make Mine Homogenized is a chapbook by Rick Raphael, a short and entertaining what-if novel, a book of speculative fiction that features lots of unexpected turns, charming characters and plenty of humor. The books that made Raphael well-known are Code Three and The Thirst Quenchers, this book published in 1969 being one of the author’s lesser known stories, but it is still typically Raphael – funny and exciting to the last word.

The story is about a dairy farm called Circle T Ranch managed by a widow called Hetty Thompson with the help of her assistant, Johnny Culpepper and a farm hand, the simple-minded, but loyal and hard-working Barney Hatfield. Everything goes well until the area of the farm is designated by the government for nuclear testing. The vehement protest of the local farmers is disregarded, the testing commences and strange happenings start soon – Hetty’s hens start producing golden eggs and the milk produces by her cows proves to have explosive qualities.

The story is more entertaining than scientifically based and it provides insight about how nuclear science and the related testing procedures were viewed by the people living in rural areas. The novel is populated by rational, down-to-earth characters looking for a way to understand what is going on around them and to protect their interests, but it turns out that the government officials and the scientists delegated to the area do not understand the testing process either, their pseudo-scientific explanations adding even more fun to the story.

Make Mine Homogenized makes an excellent choice to anyone looking for a quick and entertaining read for a lazy afternoon or a rainy weekend. The book is short, but the plot is well-rounded and the characters are complex and varied, each of them adding their own contribution to the satirical humor that pervades the entire story.
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