In The Country of Last Things - Wendy's Book Review

You would think that sooner or later it would all come to an end. Things fall apart and vanish, and nothing new is made. People die, and babies refuse to be born. In all the years I have been here, I can't remember seeing a single newborn child. And yet, there are always new people to replace the ones who have vanished. -From In the Country of Last Things, page 7-

Anna Blume arrives in an unnamed city to search for her brother - a journalist who has vanished without a trace. The city is one of unspeakable destruction and horror, where dead people lie in the street (either by their own hand, or from hired assassins, or from starvation or violence). Things disappear daily along with memories. To survive, Anna becomes an object scavenger, gathering up things from the past to sell for food and shelter. Who and what can survive in this bleak and desolate city? Paul Auster's novel is written from Anna's point of view - and presented in a letter she writes to someone in her past. For Anna, there is no going back "home."

In spite of what you would suppose, the facts are not reversible. Just because you are able to get in, that does not mean you will be able to get out. Entrances do not become exits, and there is nothing to guarantee that the door you walked through a moment ago will still be there when you turn around to look for it again. That is how it works in the city. Every time you think you know the answer to a question, you discover that the question makes no sense.
- From In The Country of Last Things, page 85-

Unable to go back, and uncertain about going forward, the reader learns how Anna survives and what she finds in a place where everything seems to be lost. The novel is not particularly hopeful - the characters not only lose the past, but also their faith.

"I don't believe in God anymore, if that's what you mean," I said. "I gave all that up when I was a little girl."
"It's difficult not to," the Rabbi said. "When you consider the evidence, there's a good reason why so many think as you do."
"You're not going to tell me that you believe in God," I said.
"We talk to him. But whether or not he hears us is another matter."
-From In the Country of Last Things, page 96-

The novel is well written and I found myself turning the pages seeking the same answers that Anna seeks. Auster offers a glimmer of promise - but, ultimately I finished the book with a feeling of disappointment.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

I finished reading Oryx and Crake maybe a month ago. It was the only title on my challenge list that I'd been dying to read, but I'd picked this book up a few months ago and just couldn't continue to read it. But I tried again, and the timing was right. I've only read this and The Handmaid's Tale by Atwood, but she has quickly become one of my favourite authors in the way her stories develop, the character's voices, her style of writing - it's all very beautiful and I am in awe of her.

I find it very difficult to summarize the plot, so I leave amazon to do that for me:

In the beginning, there was chaos..." Margaret Atwood's chilling new novel Oryx and Crake moves beyond the futuristic fantasy of her 1985 bestseller The Handmaid’s Tale to an even more dystopian world, a world where language--and with it anything beyond the merest semblance of humanity--has almost entirely vanished.
Snowman may be the last man on earth, the only survivor of an unnamed apocalypse. Once he was Jimmy, a member of a scientific elite; now he lives in bitter isolation and loneliness, his only pleasure the watching of old films on DVD. His mind moves backwards and forwards through time, from an agonising trawl through memory to relive the events that led up to sudden catastrophe (most significantly the disappearance of his mother and the arrival of his mysterious childhood companions Oryx and Crake, symbols of the fractured society in which Snowman now finds himself, to the horrifying present of genetic engineering run amok. His only witnesses, eager to lap up his testimony, are "Crakers", laboratory creatures of varying strengths and abilities, who can offer little comfort. Gradually the reasons behind the disaster begin to unfold as Snowman undertakes a perilous journey to the remains of the bubble-dome complex where the sinister Paradice Project collapsed and near-global devastation began.

This is a very chilling and upsetting story about the uses and abuses of science in regards to genetics, which isn't a subject I'm very familiar with (and Atwood doesn't, thankfully, spend a lot of time on the actual science-y bits) but the disasterous outcome of the novel seems entirely within our reach.

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

On a whim, I took out We from the library the other day. I wasn't sure I'd read it. I had this idea in my head because it's originally written in Russian and because I'd found it in the classics section, that it'd be difficult and dense read. I was mistaken. I finished this book in maybe three sittings and quite enjoyed it. It makes for a good precursor to reading 1984 which is still on my challenge list. I think the back cover says more about it than I can...

Set in the twenty-sixth century AD, Zamyatin's masterpiece describes life under the regimented totalitarian society of OneState, ruled over by the all-powerful "Benefactor." Recognized as the inspiration for George Orwell's 1984, We is the archetype of the modern dystopia, or anti-Utopia: a great prose poem detailing the fate that might befall us all if we surrender our individual selves to some collective dream of technology and fail in the vigilance that is the price of freedom.

Jennifer Government by Max Barry

I finished Jennifer Government last weekend. I wanted a title on my list that was sort of light-hearted and fun. My husband had read this book previously and he'd said it was funny and even though I know his reading style and mine are very different, I gave this book a chance.

I do like the premise of it... it's set in a near-future where America has taken over half the world and consumerism and marketing campaigns have gone wild. People take on their employer's company name as their surname and nearly everyone is employed and tax has been abolished which means public institutions like schools and the police have become corporate and reliant on funding either from a big business or on an individual basis.

It all begins rather grimly with a Nike marketing campaign for a new brand of trainers which sets off a complicated and sad group of events which really illustrate how little value is placed on human lives, on relationships and how greedy and self-obsessed this future has become.

Though I did find some parts disturbing in its accuracy, I found that the novel was a bit over-the-top, that none of the characters were likeable and the whole feeling of the book was that it was written by a man, for a man. I found there to be lots of unnessary violence and I wasn't too impressed with the dialogue. I struggled to finish the book but I don't regret the time I did spend with it.

The Road - Wendy's Review

He woke before dawn and watched the gray day break. Slow and half opaque. He rose while the boy slept and pulled on his shoes and wrapped in his blanket he walked out through the trees. He descended into a gryke in the stone and there he crouched coughing and he coughed for a long time. Then he just knelt in the ashes. he raisedhis face to the paling day. Are you there? he whispered. Will I see you at the last? Have you a neck by which to throttle you? Have you a heart? Damn you eternally have you a soul? Oh God, he whispered. Oh God. -From The Road, page 10-

Cormac McCarthy just won The Pulitzer Prize for The Road, a novel of profound bleakness and beauty which almost defies definition. I was worried about reading this book, which has garnered praise but has also been described as dark and depressing. It is dystopian literature which I usually avoid because the genre always struck me as so pessimistic. That being said, The Road blew me away and will make my list for one of the best books I've read in 2007.

The story appears to be a simple one: a father and his young son are traveling along a road somewhere in America after a devastating event which has killed almost every living thing and left the world in a gray haze of floating ash and weird weather. There are "bad guys" and there are horrors; there are moments of sheer terror which seem to be nightmares instead of actual life. Layered beneath this story is a larger story - one about a boy and his father and the love they share, one about faith and hope and the will to survive. It is heartbreaking and beautiful and written in an unembellished language which somehow makes it that much more powerful.

I found myself compulsively turning the pages, unable to stop reading the story. I would lay the book down, and then pick it up only moment later. Just a few more pages. McCarthy carries the reader along on this journey, looking for the hope around every curve in the road, holding their breath, wondering if God has survived the devastation after all.

McCarthy uses metaphor and symbolism throughout the novel - the fire which the boy carries inside him (is this spiritualism? hope? humanity?), and the road itself - to just name two. This is a deep book, one that deserves to be discussed and thought about. It is certainly worthy of the Pulitzer.

There are some wonderful reviews of this book out in the blogosphere. You can go here to read several in one place, and to take part in some interesting discussions of the book. Ariel at Sycorax Pine has written a stunning review of this novel.

Highly recommended. Rated 5/5.

**Read my original review of this book on my blog here.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Wednesdays are the days that Elliot goes to his grandma's house for the day, and I usually spend my freetime catching up on housework or laundry, but today was different. Today, I had The Road by Cormac McCarthy to keep me company. I stayed in bed all morning reading this haunting yet beautiful book. I could have wept, but I didn't. I almost couldn't. Here's what the front flap has to say:

A father and his young son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing but a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food - and each other.

I couldn't believe this heartbreaking world, set in a time after an unexplained catastrophe. With many forced to abandon their humanity to survive in this new world, a father and son try to get by and be 'the good guys'. Amongst all hopelessness and the surrounding devastation, this father and son cling to each other and their love for one another keeps them alive. Honestly, I can't recommend this book enough. Though incredibly disturbing in parts, this book had me gripped from the very first page.

***********************

Originally this wasn't a book I had intended to read for this challenge, but I saw it at the library yesterday and decided to pick it up, just in case. I'm so glad I did.

Michelle's List:

1. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

2. 1984 by George Orwell

3. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

5. Uglies by Scott Westerfield

6. Jennifer Government by Max Barry

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I finished another one. This time, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I'd been meaning to read this book for awhile, but I'd never gotten around to it until now. It's a fantastic book! And really powerful. It made me reconsider the amount of time I spend watching TV, it had me wondering if I really listen to the people I care about, it made me more aware of how little I am aware of current events. If ever a book made me really stop and think about my, then this book was it.

It's set in a future where books are banned and no one thinks for themselves in order to achieve happiness. No one listens to what other people have to say, everyone's lives are very superficial and based around silly nonsensical TV programmes. Life is very fastpaced and surrounded by noise and chatter and materialism.

The protaganist, Guy Montag is a fireman whose main responsibilites are to burn books and to burn the houses of people who still own books. He meets a strange girl who asks him unusual questions and helps him to realise that he isn't happy, he isn't in love with his wife, and this kicks off a very quick moving, scary novel.

I zipped through it really quickly, partly because of how interesting the subject was to me, and partly because of the style in which Bradbury writes which just forces the reader to continue. This is a very short novel, but I assure you, Fahrenheit 451 is one of those books that will stay with you long after you've read the last page!

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick

This marks my first book read for the Dystopian Challenge, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. I'm not entirely sure why I chose to read it, I've never really been interested in robot-type science fiction.

It was OK. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it. It's the book that Blade Runner was based on, and while I know I have seen the film, I don't remember the details so I went into reading this book without much of an idea of what it was about apart from the fact that it was set in a dystopia. I hadn't read anything by Philip K. Dick before, and possibly this wasn't the best book to jump in from?

It's about a bounty hunter in a future covered in radiactive dust where having a live pet is the ultimate symbol of prestige and all animals are sacred, even spiders. People are encouraged to emigrate to Mars where they would be given an android servant. Some androids escape and try to live amongst humans on (what's left of) Earth. Rick Deckard is set the task of 'retiring' 4 such androids but questions the moral implications.

To be honest, here's where I get quite confused with the story. I understand that Deckard questions his humanity in killing the androids, especially after his encounter with a beautiful android, Rachel. But I didn't get the significance of Deckard's depressed wife, Mercerism, the 'chickenhead' character. Maybe I wasn't as involved in the storyline or the characters as I could have been, but it all just baffled me. The writing was easy enough to read, and I sped through the book quickly, but I didn't take in much of it unfortunately.

Cloud Atlas - A review by Wendy

If we believe that humanity may transcend tooth & claw, if we believe divers races & creeds can share this world as peaceably as the orphans share their candlenut tree, if we believe leaders must be just, violence muzzled, power accountable & the rices of the Earth & its Oceans shared equitably, such a wold will come to pass. -From Cloud Atlas, page 508-

David Mitchell's novel, Cloud Atlas, is at once brilliant, far reaching in scope and immensely creative. I read this book like an addict - hanging on the words, seeking the answers, caught up in the worlds Mitchell flawlessly creates. I feel like I could re-read this book several times and continue to find new meanings each time. David Mitchell is a newly discovered author for me - and I am in awe of his talent. I will most certainly be reading his other two novels -Ghostwritten AND Number9Dream - in the very near future.

Cloud Atlas appears to be six seemingly disparate stories, but they are woven together and connected as the novel progresses. Tucked into the stories, Mitchell alludes to the novel's structure at least twice.

Spent the fortnight gone in the music room, reworking my year's fragments into a "sextet for overlapping soloist": piano, clarinet, 'cello, flute, oboe, and violin, each in its own language of key, scale, and color. In the first set, each solo is interrupted by its successor: in the second, each interruption is recontinued, in order. -From Cloud Atlas, page 445-

One model of time: an infinite matroyoshka doll of painted moments, each "shell" (the present) encased inside a nest of "shells" (previous presents) I call the actual past but which we perceive as the virtual past. The doll of "now" likewise encases a nest of presents yet to be, which I call the actual future but which we perceive as the virtual future. -From Cloud Atlas, page 393-

Confused? Don't be. Mitchell brings it all together in an incredible symphony of writing brilliance. Not only does he create memorable characters, he weaves his words like a painter - fabricating beautiful descriptions of setting.

The tropic sun fattens & fills the noon sky. The men work seminaked with sun-blacked torsos & straw hats. The planking oozes scorching tar that sticks to one's soles. Rain squalls blow up from nowhere & vanish with the same rapidity & the deck hisses itself dry in a minute. Portuguese man-o'-wars pulsate in the quick-silver sea, flying fish bewitch the beholder & ocher shadows of hammerheads circle the Prophetess. -From Cloud Atlas, page 37-

I was excited to see Eva van Outryvede Crommelynck (a wonderful character from Mitchell's latest novel, Black Swan Green) make an appearance in this one as a young girl. It gives me some cautious hope that in a future novel we might seen the dynamic and lovable Jason Taylor again!

A common theme in Cloud Atlas is that of power as a destructive force. Mitchell writes:

'What drives some to accrue power where the majority of their compatriots lose, mishandle, or eschew power? Is it addiction? Wealth? Survival? Natural selection? I propose these are all pretexts and results, not the root cause. The only answer can be 'There is no "Why." This is our nature.' 'Who' and 'What' run deeper than 'Why.' -page 129-

AND

The will to power, the backbone of human nature. The threat of violence, the fear of violence, or actual violence is the instrument of this dreadful will. You can see the will to power in bedrooms, kitchens, factories, unions, and the borders of states. Listen to this and remember it. The nation-state is merely human nature inflated to monstrous proportions. -page 444-

Ultimately, Mitchell evokes a world where all humans are connected - like souls which 'cross ages like clouds cross skies.' This is truly a beautifully written novel which will stay with the reader long after the final page has been turned.

Highly recommended.

Read the original post of this review here.

Review by Mercy's Maid: 1984 by George Orwell

My Review for 1984

Lisa,

If you want this done differently, feel free to edit it or let me know what you want me to do.