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Feb 2023
9:35pm, 3 Feb 2023
52,375 posts
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McGoohan
Proper review. Despite what I said above, I found the book quite compelling in a lot of ways. It reminded me vaguely of Cormac McCarthy's The Road in which the father is trying to persuade himself and the boy that they are 'carrying the fire' when his actions reveal he is just as bad as the other surving packs of humans.
I suspected as soon as Rodger was being invited along to the brother's place that there'd be trouble at t'farm before the end. As such I suppose that was the theme of the novel: all ties of family and friendship will go to the wall when society collapses.
In general, Christopher is a good writer and the narrative rattles along with John losing another piece of decency with each chapter. So the basic plot and the underlying themes are wrapped around each other quite nicely.
Less good - the 'must you be so beastly Clive' moments that date certain parts of it quite badly. My anti-semitism detector was fired up as well. Every pre-60s book we have in this group has such a moment. (There's a 'jewish-looking' businessman worried about 'his business', i.e. money, at the first blockade.) Quite a few 'Women are such silly things, aren't they?' moments too.
On the whole though I thought this had dated less badly than the other dystopian fiction we have read (Fahrenheit 451 and High Rise).
This has a 7/10 from me.
I'm quite looking forward to Fried Green Tomatoes now as this one was pretty bleak.
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Feb 2023
10:38pm, 3 Feb 2023
59,784 posts
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LindsD
Agree.
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Feb 2023
4:35pm, 6 Feb 2023
13,319 posts
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Little Nemo
Overall this was a great book but I did have some issues with it.
Firstly a minor point - would society break down that quickly?
More serious was the attitude towards women in it. Not sure if it was a product of its time or a conscious decision by the author but there were several disturbing incidents. The rape of Ann and Mary and how there was almost no reaction to the trauma of it, the shrugging of the shoulders over Pirrie murdering his wife and then just letting him choose Jane (who is still a child) as his new wife. I found it quite chilling how few rights women would have in this world.
Apart from these issues I enjoyed it and it was a thought provoking read. I liked the first part which I thought had strong similarities with how the Covid outbreak developed, especially the idea of British superiority and then the complacency to how serious it was going to get.
I didn't realise that most of the book would be about the journey to the farm but once I had got used to this I liked the minutiae of the travelling. Some of it was very brutal but you could see the logic for the group behind it. I wouldn't survive in this sort of world and I don't think I would want to!
Thanks to Bint McSkint for choosing it, it's a classic that I would probably have missed out on otherwise.
I gave this book an 8
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Feb 2023
5:05pm, 6 Feb 2023
13,320 posts
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Little Nemo
Lots of interesting reviews! I agree that Sci-Fi seems to date quite badly but I thought this stood up quite well apart from the social stuff.
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Feb 2023
6:50pm, 7 Feb 2023
22,112 posts
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Columba
"More serious was the attitude towards women in it. Not sure if it was a product of its time or a conscious decision by the author but there were several disturbing incidents."
Product of its time, I think, Nemo.
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Mar 2023
12:22pm, 14 Mar 2023
28,080 posts
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Serendippily
I fear it says a lot about my mood that i enjoyed this. Very crisply written. The old fashioned falling apart down strict gender lines but without all that shakespearian staggering around soliloquising. Sorry not sorry
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Mar 2023
12:26pm, 14 Mar 2023
28,081 posts
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Serendippily
I loved Linds comment on Janet and John, it’ll be the grammar that goes last clearly
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Mar 2023
12:28pm, 14 Mar 2023
28,082 posts
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Serendippily
I felt hydrogen bombs wouldnt be the most failsafe way of rejuvenating the land myself
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Mar 2023
12:41pm, 14 Mar 2023
28,083 posts
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Serendippily
I also enjoyed Columba’s point about potatoes being the only route, nothing else for it, and nothing else growing in its place. I have a bit of death of grass and the moss and the dandelions are only too happy to oblige. But i did kindly presume it was a byproduct of the cure to leave nothing but dust behind
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Mar 2023
1:33pm, 14 Mar 2023
60,518 posts
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LindsD
 am pondering what it means that FGT was too twee for you and dystopian Janet and John was right up your alley
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