12 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
Praise Ford and pass the soma
Date of Review: Aug 21, 2000
I stumbled across this book on the family bookshelf after some of the other kids in English class did a book report on it. I figured I might as well try it. I had managed to read at least half of 1984 after all.
If you've read 1984 and Brave New World, perhaps you share my relief at finally finding a book about the future that isn't weighted down by pure chunks of political statement. Sure, BNW had a message. But at least it doesn't sacrifice entertainment to give that message like so many other books in this genre(1984 and Anthem to name a few...)
The characters, for one thing, tend to remain constant(unlike the sudden, painful ending of Anthem's narrator). While John the Savage and Helmhotz enjoy reading Shakespeare together, the arrival of this new and slightly forbidden poetry doesn't stop Helmhotz from finding Juliet's plight ridiculous and laughable(A mother and father--obscenities!--trying to force a girl to have someone she didn't want? Especially when she was having someone else she preferred?) Bernard, meanwhile, the pseudo-protagonist, wavers from rebellious to sullen and afraid of recrimination, not much of a hero, but what can you expect from someone who's had alcohol dropped into his blood surrogate?
This could just be my warped sense of humor, but bleak future and all, the book is still good for a few laughs...wait until you see what Our Ford--or our Freud as he sometimes liked to be called--did with Georgie-Porgie...Still, even with some humor sprinkled in, there is excellent, chilling prose, with descriptions of savage life that could very well make you almost wish you'd been raised by the state--even with the subliminal messages and a dozen identical siblings.
If you haven't read it yet, read it. It's a wonderful book and if nothing else, you'll at least know what an epsilon is.
