Klik op een omslag om naar Google Boeken te gaan.
Bezig met laden... The Resistersdoor Gish Jen
Books Read in 2020 (925) Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. This book had the beginnings of many interesting ideas, but doesn’t follow any of them through. It felt muddled, like it couldn’t decide which way to go. I was most captured by the idea of the “surplus” (the oppressed class) being forced to be consumers while the “netted” (the chosen) had to constantly be producing. I would have been interested to see the idea of consumerism as oppression explored more, but it never went any deeper. While the book seemed focused on the character of Gwen, it was being told in first person by her father, making Gwen always feel distant. The technique of using messages from and recordings of Gwen to fill in information felt frustrating and contrived. All in all, this was frustrating to read and felt like a waste of many promising ideas. Stressful to read because her dystopia seems so possible. It gained momentum as it went so that I was reading the end in great suspense. At times the pov felt limiting and occasionally the world-building it felt a bit forced but for the most part I got thoroughly swept up in the way Jen creates her scenes and characters, and the end was strong, especially for me as a parent -- and as a potential member of this future world she creates. This is a decent (not extraordinary) read except for three things: (1) I don't care for baseball, (2) this read more like a YA novel than I expected / than advertised. (3) The whole "like my mom used to say" trope followed by some trite, inane, and useless saying got old very quickly. It's too bad though because the premise was smart: when AI takes over, a new form of segregation is created between the Netted (the still-necessary humans) and the Surplus (whose jobs no longer exist and are deemed unretrainable). To keep the social order in place, the Surplus are drugged and winnowed into mediocrity, constantly under the surveillance of the Autonet (nicknamed Aunt Nettie by the Surplus) while being told that they "always have a choice". AI totalitarianism in the context of climate changed (more hinted at than fully explored) should have made for a better story. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
PrijzenErelijsten
An audacious wonder of a novel about baseball and a future America, from the always inventive and exciting author of The Love Wife and Who's Irish. The time: Some thirty-five years hence. The place: AutoAmerica--governed by "Aunt Nettie," an iBurrito of AI algorithms and the internet, in a land half under water. The people: Divided into the angelfair "Netted," whose fate it is to have jobs and live on high ground, and the mostly coppertoned "Surplus," whose jobs have been stripped and whose sole duty now is to consume, living in plastic houses that talk and multi-colored houseboats at the water's edge. Neither group is happy. The story: A Surplus family--he was once a professor, she is still a lawyer--has a girl child, Gwen, who's born with a golden arm. By two she can throw her toy animals straight to the same spot every time. When AutoAmerica and ChinRussia decide to revive the Olympics, suddenly Gwen, who's been playing in the Resisters League her parents have organized, is in great demand. Soon she's at angelfair university, Net U, falling in love with her baseball coach and facing questions of "crossing over," while her mother and her "group" are bringing charges before the botjudge about Surplus rights. An amazing story of a world that looks only too possible, and a family struggling to maintain its humanity in circumstances that daily threaten their every value as well as their very existence. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
Actuele discussiesGeenPopulaire omslagen
Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
Ben jij dit?Word een LibraryThing Auteur. |
It is a waste of time. ( )