Two Dystopian Visions

I recently read Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart. This novel takes place in NY and Europe in the not too distant future and paints a pretty dark picture of where American values are heading. The US is in sharp economic decline and gets bought out (literally) by the new powers, China, Saudi Arabia and Norway (Norway? really?) In Shteyngart's vision, the social networking/information technology trend has gotten to the point where no information about each citizen is private any longer. Everyone has IPhone-like devices called apparats. Information about each person, ranging from credit score to triglyceride levels, is available to anyone and everyone instantaneously. Your credit score flashes from "credit poles" as you walk past them. The enemies of the state are not terrorists or communists, but rather, Low Net Worth Individuals. The book is satire and the premise is over the top. However, it is close enough to the top that you can imagine all these things coming to pass. This is the true brilliance of this book. Shteyngart is making a scathing comment about the surrendering of our privacy and obsession with social status and possessions. It is heavy stuff, but his use of humor keeps things from bogging down and getting sanctimonious. I give this hipper-than-thou tome three out of four stars.

The other book I recently finished is the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It is a teen novel (with no wizards or vampires). I mentioned this book in a prior entry so I won't say much more about this book except that I highly recommend it to fans of science fiction. If you liked A Wrinkle in Time as a kid (or adult), you will like this book and will want to read the two sequels.

I participated in a book discussion of the Hunger Games with a number of adults and pre-teens. The comments and observations from the children were truly fascinating. They really understood some of the nuances that lay beneath the surface of the story.