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bufobufo's review against another edition
dark
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Read to see if it was fascist based on the back and the first few pages I read in this nice used bookstore. It was and wasn't. Despite being unrelentingly grim, there was something kind of pleasant about it as a vision of dystopia from the 60s, without our improvements or our fresh horrors. As relevant as it was regarding wealth inequality and authority and american consumption, you can tell it was written without thinking much about surveillance technology! That and its visions of racism and sexism-- e.g., some character tension in the book comes from women seemingly being able to work only as homemakers or kept women, and the city seems to be completely segregated (in the structure of the book, too-- Billy's narrative drives the book forward even as he stays very separate from everything else. All the other people of color briefly featured are resigned peons). The cranky old man sets out all the themes of the book pretty baldly: the big eating the small, the failure of america, a little environmentalism, the importance of birth control. Blessedly the latter did not enter eugenics territory.
I get the idea that perhaps one of the main characters had to be a policeman for there to be anything like a plot, and not with any one political message in mind like the rest of the book seemed to-- the 'thin blue line' concept is in there nearly word-for-word, and our guy is so overworked and everyone is ungrateful and the department is underfunded etc etc, but its also written outright that the police aren't helping anyone or solving anyone's problems, simply serving order and the wealthy and the white.
It's a funny read trying to divine the political and moral messages. It feels as if it was written to impart the author's feelings and ideas, but apart from the extremely unsubtle birth control passage I found them kind of hard to parse! In any case, don't read this if the concept of overpopulation distresses you (newer things may be soothing, tho, malthus was wrong!). Do read if you like grimy streets and depressing meals. I liked how there was a simultaenous sense of scale and claustrophobia.
I get the idea that perhaps one of the main characters had to be a policeman for there to be anything like a plot, and not with any one political message in mind like the rest of the book seemed to-- the 'thin blue line' concept is in there nearly word-for-word, and our guy is so overworked and everyone is ungrateful and the department is underfunded etc etc, but its also written outright that the police aren't helping anyone or solving anyone's problems, simply serving order and the wealthy and the white.
It's a funny read trying to divine the political and moral messages. It feels as if it was written to impart the author's feelings and ideas, but apart from the extremely unsubtle birth control passage I found them kind of hard to parse! In any case, don't read this if the concept of overpopulation distresses you (newer things may be soothing, tho, malthus was wrong!). Do read if you like grimy streets and depressing meals. I liked how there was a simultaenous sense of scale and claustrophobia.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Racial slurs, Police brutality, and Murder
Minor: Domestic abuse and Drug use
Domestic abuse doesn't feature heavily, is mentioned surrounding the one main woman character. I feel like there should be a content warning for just being real stressed and poor