These were The Road by Cormac McCarthy
1984 by George Orwell
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Wool by Hugh Howey
Dystopia is defined by the Oxford Dictionaries as 'An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one. The opposite of utopia. It's extremely difficult to imagine a realistic dystopia because we're so tempted to create a caricature'.
Some of the comments by those who read these books:
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
- Sheila described it as a harrowing story, just a few survivors after the world has been blown to smithereens. A father and his son are always hiding from other survivors who roam around in marauding gangs. There are touches of love throughout the book, the father lives for the boy and to get him to survive. A story of man's inhumanity.
- Laura thought it relentlessly depressing but beautiful writing. There is a tender relationship between the father and son who is full of compassion and wants to take care of other people.
- Julia mentioned the format of the book, no chapters, lack of grammar, lacking some punctuation. Despite the conditions they found themselves in, they always found food, although it was becoming more difficult.
- Anne thought the son was traumatized by their situation and was worried that the father was turning into one of the bad guys!
- Jasmine commented that in Dystopian stories there is usually some hope but here there was none. The father knew there was no hope.
- Judy J wanted more details of the situation, what had caused the apocalypse, where it had taken place and more about the characters of the father and son.
- Jo thought the book depressing but one of the highlights was time the father and son were able to spend in 'the bunker' and enjoy a better range of food and such luxuries as a bath.
- Diane found the book uplifting. She worried about their fate and continued to read on for fear of what might happen to them.
- Maree was amazed at how the man and his son survived injuries, illnesses, dangers from other people, lack of food and water etc. They were totally drained and devastated but uplifted by love and a little hope.
- Rosemary and Judy also read the book and joined in the discussion.
- Connie found this book thoroughly depressing in that you could see what was happening but you don't want it to happen. She thought that every generation looks after itself so she can't worry too much about the future. She has more hope than they have in the book and that each generation will work it out as best they can.
- Ed enjoyed reading it.
- Kris found it interesting that the author was a socialist. She thought the novel was bleak but not graphic like so much of today's writing. It is surprising and frightening that so much of what happened in the book is happening today. You always hope there are good people in the world.
- Judy D thought the book showed the negative side of politics as being dark and depressing. Everything was controlled by the state and there was a need to destroy the past and feelings.
- Jasmine noted that the society was very patriarchal, squashing newness and creativity.
- Laura added that 'power for power's sake' was one of the themes of the book.
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
- Laura explained that 98% of the population died within 48 hours due to swine flu. Society broke down and survivors started wandering and forming into small communities. The story follows a traveling troop providing music and theatre. When you take away all societal norms you only have human nature left.
- Prue found it difficult to get into the book, but after much discussion was encouraged to persevere with it.
- Tam loved it and couldn't put it down. She commented on a number of examples symbolism. Shakespeare - art survived the plague and gave beauty to people and lifts their hope. Survival is insufficient, is life just about survival? What does sustain us, fame and beauty or relationships? Community survives because of relationships.
- Diann thought the book made us realise how fragile our civilization is where one catastrophe could destroy it. Natural disasters happen every day. The reality is how to survive them. The book is fantasy reading, but it has elements of reality for us today.
Wool by Hugh Howey
- Diann explained the setting for the story - a number of very large cylinders are in the ground and stratas of society live there. All seem to be happy and it's a very beautiful place. The characters and the plot are defined early in the book and nobody knows what is outside. She didn't find it depressing, but described it as uplifting.
- Wendy thought the first section was very good having been originally written as a short story and self published on the internet. The characters were well described. But as new characters arrived in the second section, the book lost sequence and its flow. Control was maintained over the people through lack of knowledge (as in 1984), they never knew what happened outside. When reading these types of books you have to suspend logic and accept that this is how things are done.
- Laura commented that there was a 3 class system as in '1984'. Peace was maintained by keeping the people ignorant but happy even with limited resources. Everything was restricted, even access to other levels so people couldn't intermingle, were kept apart and couldn't ask questions. It sets up an interesting world.
- Prue enjoyed this book and mentioned others in the series and that a movie version of the story will soon be available. There was much tension in the book as some people were becoming wise and questioning things. This was frowned upon. There was an interesting twist at the end.
BOOK CLUB NEXT MONTH ~ STORIES FROM THE TUDOR PERIOD
