A review by kandicez
Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney
3.0
I love the innocence of science fiction written from the late 40's to about the mid 60's. This was a perfect example of that style. Written in 1955, references were made to the early 70's as the future. It's so entertaining to see how the "future" looked to these writers. We're all familiar with the idea of "pods from space" replacing human beings with- well, who knows what, quietly, quickly, and without a lot of fuss. The whole premise is that someone "get's wise", and tries to stop it.
There were descriptions in this book that gave me literal chills. I'll have to look for more of Finney's work. It's easy to see why this book has spawned the movies and re-makes it has. What's being done to the human race doesn't hurt, and is barely noticed. How terrifying to know something very bad is happening, but be unable to convince anyone of that. THEN, you finally convince someone, but...what's to be done? When our laws and system of morality encounter something so foreign we have no black and white way to deal with it...we improvise.
One of my favorite passages in the book is where a main character, Becky Driscoll, explains the stereo-types held as common belief about women in the 50's. She describes what men expect a woman to do during a fight- stand there, against a wall, wide eyed, hands to mouth, unable to move. She then proceeds to say that this is a result of movie watching. No REAL woman would act that way, it's just what we, as a society have been taught to expect. The fight takes place, and as a women's right precursor, Becky kicks some ass! This scene takes place near the very end of the book, and despite her having acted very, very "feminine" the rest of the story, this one scene made me love her. It may have been worth reading the rest.
If you've seen the move (any of them) you know the ending is usually portrayed as hopeless. Not so with Finney's book. I prefer HIS ending.
There were descriptions in this book that gave me literal chills. I'll have to look for more of Finney's work. It's easy to see why this book has spawned the movies and re-makes it has. What's being done to the human race doesn't hurt, and is barely noticed. How terrifying to know something very bad is happening, but be unable to convince anyone of that. THEN, you finally convince someone, but...what's to be done? When our laws and system of morality encounter something so foreign we have no black and white way to deal with it...we improvise.
One of my favorite passages in the book is where a main character, Becky Driscoll, explains the stereo-types held as common belief about women in the 50's. She describes what men expect a woman to do during a fight- stand there, against a wall, wide eyed, hands to mouth, unable to move. She then proceeds to say that this is a result of movie watching. No REAL woman would act that way, it's just what we, as a society have been taught to expect. The fight takes place, and as a women's right precursor, Becky kicks some ass! This scene takes place near the very end of the book, and despite her having acted very, very "feminine" the rest of the story, this one scene made me love her. It may have been worth reading the rest.
If you've seen the move (any of them) you know the ending is usually portrayed as hopeless. Not so with Finney's book. I prefer HIS ending.