Customer Reviews

Friday

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

After reading many of the reviews here, I note that opinion seems divided on whether it's truly a good Heinlein book or not. Most still consider it a pretty fair Heinlein yarn, and yet all the reviews I read missed one of the main points of the novel--which is the main reason why it's so interesting--whether it's a great Heinlein novel or not.

Many have already commented on the various themes of the book, most of which will already be familiar to Heinlein fans. The one that was new was the bigotry against the main character, an artificial and genetically enhanced human. It seems most readers found this reaction unlikely, although this theme pervades the entire work. One reviewer asserts that it's even the primary idea of the whole book.

Another important theme is the revolt against authority which many Heinlein readers will certainly know from his other books such as The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Double Star, Citizen of the Galaxy, Stranger in a Strange Land, Sixth Column, Revolt in 2100, and others.

The theme of the competent man also takes center stage in this book, another famous and familiar Heinlein theme, although in this book it's a competent, genetically enhanced female.

However, all these interpretations, although true, miss one very important point. In Heinlein's novels, the world is often a very unstable and even dangerous place--but there is always hope, and optimism that conditions will be better in the future. Often the main characters in Heinlein's books are intimately involved in the struggle to overthrow oppressive governments--and usually succeeding--and thereby creating a better life for themselves.

So no matter how precarious and dark life in the present might be, Heinlein always had hope for the future and seemed confident that humans would throw off the yoke of oppression, establish a better society, and basically good would win out over evil. But in this novel, he appears to have at least partly, and perhaps substantially, abandoned that hope in favor of a much darker and more dismal future for humanity, at least on earth. Better prospects can be found off-planet on several newly colonized worlds.

The evidence for this isn't hard to find, but is scattered throughout the book in various narratives, and in conversations between Friday and her boss, Dr. Baldwin. By the way, Kettle Belly Baldwin has not appeared, to my knowledge, in another Heinlein book since Gulf, published in 1949. However, all of the other characters are new. So one of the charms of the book is that one gets to meet a lot of new characters, making this book different from almost all of Heinlein's later output, and an old but memorable character is brought back to life in a new context.

But getting back to my point, Heinlein makes it clear the earth is economically and politically deteriorating, with most of the world now completely Balkanized into hundreds of small, petty states, each with its own unpleasant idiosyncrasies. Heinlein says most of these small states are faceless ciphers, with a few larger, powerful states remaining.

The U.S. is no different, being divided into several smaller sovereign states, along with Canada. But these smaller states are often co-belligerants or are at war with each other. It's said that peace rarely lasts more than a month. In one coup that occurs in the Chicago Imperium by militant Republicans, Democrats are rounded up and executed--including their children down to the age of 14.

Another alarming idea is that the large international corporations, such as IBM or the Shipstone Corp., are also participants and instigators of these wars, and sometimes wipe out entire cities, such as Acapulco. These corporations are hard to fight, since they have no single geographical location, and in the book, the internationals seem to be winning over the real or geographically "localized" countries. These super corporations are completely ruthless and immoral and killing for hire and mass murder by them are common.

Heinlein holds out little hope the situation will ever improve; he sees elected officials as venal and corrupt parasites feeding at the public trough and mouthing fatuous platitudes for consumption by an impotent and perhaps naive public, a much darker and more cynical interpretation of politics than that depicted in Starship Troopers, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, or Double Star, in which, if I remember correctly, one character remarks that politics is the only game a mature man can take any pleasure in.

Even con artists and grifters Heinlein sees as more noble--at least they're hardworking independents who aren't on the dole and are trying to earn an "honest" living. :-) Government and personal corruption are also ubiquitous. The police are not to be trusted in the book, and disposing of them if possible is considered a good idea--as long as one can get away with it, of course. For a client who is powerful and wealthy enough, even physicians can be made to arrange for a certain patient to "die" on the operating table. In fact, almost no one in any position of authority--except Friday's boss, Baldwin--seems to be trustworthy.

In conversations with her boss, Dr. Baldwin, he tells Friday she needs to get off planet because of what's happening on earth and asks her how one can tell if a society is truly sick--that being when normal conventions of politeness and manners have deteriorated into rudeness--which the people now take as a sign of strength. In the book, the good people always seem to be on the run and are persecuted, while the evil flourish unhindered. An epidemic of cholera or bubonic plague that could kill millions is predicted, possibly because of a conspiracy. But Baldwin sees this as a social good since cities are so overpopulated and dysfunctional already that thinning out the population--however it is achieved--is a worthwhile goal.

So overall, it seems a darker and more pessimistic future than anything Heinlein had ever imagined before. But one of Heinlein's strengths is his ability to create believable alternate realities--which again comes through here--however dark and depressing it might be. Whether it's one of his greatest books or not, I think it counts as an unusual and worthwhile Heinlein book because of that.

This late-period Heinlein novel is at least better than the one it followed (_The Number of the Beast_). Most of it is fun to reread.

The protagonist here is an Artificial Person (AP) named Friday Jones, who works as a courier for the organization headed up by Hartley 'Kettle Belly' Baldwin (last seen in the 1949 short stort 'Gulf'). Friday's very cool all around but she has a little self-esteem problem owing to the fact that much of the world thinks APs aren't genuinely human.

Well, of _course_ they are; they're genetically engineered to be able to outperform us ordinary mortals in strength, speed, and intelligence, but they're human (genetically and otherwise) all the same. (So you should ignore reviewers' comments describing Friday as a 'cyborg'. She's no such thing.) And that's really the heart of this novel -- Friday's long and sometimes excruciating journey to _belonging_. (In this respect, the novel very nicely _undoes_ all of the Uebermensch crap Heinlein wrote in the 1940s.)

That's the heart, but the novel has a couple of spots on its soul. As other readers have noted, Friday's response to her rape (and her rapist) is more than a little jarring, and I don't think it's possible to explain it away as a result of her upbringing and genetic enhancements. And I could have lived without the several pages of astrogation and starcharts (although I do enjoy Heinlein's little doodle of a centaur).

The sequence of events starts off well enough, but it sort of rambles and meanders. Oh, well; most of it is interesting, anyway, although the secret-agent intrigue peters out partway through. And there are memorable characters -- nothing quite at the level of the Long family, mind you, but still some pretty interesting people.

Plus there's some extremely cool stuff in the background. Heinlein the prognosticator scores especially well here, creating a fictional analogue of the Internet (in 1982) and setting his tale against a backdrop of corporate infighting and political Balkanization that is almost never, but should be, credited in histories of cyberpunk.

I like it -- at least well enough to reread it fairly often. I wouldn't recommend starting with it if you're new to Heinlein, though.

Heinlein is great, although sometimes a little bit paternalistic vis-a-vis women... This book is about a very strong female character's desperate struggle to be accepted in a slightly decadent society. Dialogs are witty and smart, and the book is a great introduction to Heinlein's libertarian philosophy (which goes further than politics, to include family structures, sexuality, etc.)

I admit it. I'm a Heinlein junkie. I'm not sure if there is a rehab or a self-help group out there for me, but even if there was one, I'm not sure if I would even want to go to it. It's Heinlein after all! I've read everything from his lesser-known earlier works like "Orphans in the Sky", to his Juveniles like "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", to his Lazarus Long series, even is famous "Stranger in a Strange Land", to even his non-fiction work. And although I love them all, I must say, that Friday is undisputedly my favorite.

What makes Friday so alluring? It is a tale of acceptance and belonging and what is the human soul. It is a story of an "artificial person", Friday Jones, whose "mother was a test tube, and her father a knife". She is a professional courier (that is to say, she is a carrier pigeon for top-secret documents and important information), who seems to be normal and well adjusted in every way. However, underneath her cheerful and charming exterior lays a frightened little girl who seeks acceptance in the most desperate ways, but fails in her quest to find a family. During these chronicles, she discovers many things about herself. Small, personal bits of information, a strength and resourcefulness that she never knew she had. Eventually, she finds a family and as she says, she finally "belongs".

The story is quite simple, so why is this story so spellbinding?

Besides the beautiful blend of technology, history, and characterization, there is also a cohesive story line as well as a thrilling plot. Friday asks the age-old question, what is a soul? What makes a human, a person? Although she is beautiful, accomplished and talented, once she reveals that she is an AP, she is outcast and sneered at. She is considered less then a human, because she was not born, but created.

This question has undoubtedly been raised in the works of the Grand Masters of science fiction. Asimov took a mechanical point of view in "The Bicentennial Man". Phillip Dick echoed Friday, and the concept of APs in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" with the plight of the Replicates. So why does Friday tug at me so?

Because it is told from the human point of view. With the exception of Friday's superhuman speed and strength, she could be very well be anyone. She has the same fears and desires, and her childlike charm and insecurity makes her all the more human.

Her quest to find a family and for acceptance is a long and winding one. She is not on a crusade to change the world, nor to battle the great evil of prejudice and racism, but to find her niche in the world. Her caring and nurturing nature is juxtaposed with her lethal skills, giving her the dimension that is necessary for us to follow her story.

Friday makes us care about her trials, and her hurts become ours. And as a result, makes us ask ourselves what defines us as human, and feel the anguish at discrimination.

It is the ability to not only inflame, but also to soothe, that makes Friday so memorable.

Robert Heinlein spent the last twenty-five years of his life and career much as he spent the first twenty-five -- pushing the envelope of what Science Fiction was and could be. This ruffled a lot of feathers, as Heinlein didn't keep rewriting "Methusulah's Children" time and again, but instead experimented with the form. These experiments were most clearly seen in "Number of the Beast," "Job," and "Friday." And "Friday" leads the pack as a good read that works on deeper levels if you go to look for them.

What is "Friday" about? Well, you could say it's about the adventures of the lead character, Friday "Marjorie Baldwin" Jones, a Courier and Spy in a balkanized future that should frighten people. You could also say it's about the implications of Cloning Technology, from years before sheep replication. You could also say it's about the meaning of family and the search for belonging. And you can draw a clear allegory from it as it addresses Prejudice in all its irrational ugliness. Friday is an Artificial Person. Gene-engineered to be at the peak of humanity (and beyond). But AP's are hated. Denied of souls by the churches. With ugly myths that spring up about them.

And one of the truly great subtexts that forms in the course of "Friday" is Friday's deep seated belief in her own inferiority, even as she snorts at her oppressors. Friday's own acceptance of herself, mirrored by finding a place where she belongs and a life she likes to lead, fuels this book's spiritual core.

And, if that sounds boring to you, there's also lots of sex, violence and death. And Scientologists, Hare Krishnas and fundamentalists get involved in a three way war with Canadian Mounties caught in the middle. This has something for *everyone.

This is a great story. Sure it meanders along and never really ends itself...but it is more REAL than some of Heinlein's stories. How often in real life do you have adventures with beginnings, middles, and ends? Not often. We go through life walking in circles, with never a pre-determined end goal. So what if this book never reaches a proper conclusion, it makes it that much more real. Don't forget also, the "message" of this book is partially about bigotry, but also about the collapse of society in general. And when society falls down, all rules are changed. Look at how different the ending is to the beginning. In addition, if you think that Friday is only about sex...notice how little of it she ever actually gets? No wonder she's always [hot]. This book also contains some of the best quotes (Dr. Baldwin's quotes on religion). The primal message of this book is different from his others: when society goes down the crapper, dont fight it, or fight for the future, just run away and let it fall. This book should not be compared to other Heinlein books, not because it is inferior, but because it presents a different kind of story, in a different way, and is a great STORY as opposed to a lecture like some of his.

After reading the reviews by several of the readers of this book, I came upon one in particular that raised my ire, so to speak. I feel that I must point out that the Political Correctness of our modern era was not a factor in the period of RAH's life. To try and denounce the book based on modern cultural imperatives is to take away the factors which made the story what it was, decades-old science-fiction. In other words, feminism did not carry the weight then that it does now. If the feminism of today existed in the fifties, sixties and seventies, then (to attach anti-feminism to favorite TV shows) Star Trek would have had strong female characters during the original series, and Lost In Space would have been a much different show. Through "Friday" Heinlein exposed us to world where the walls of "good-taste" of today's society had been torn away, and a moralism of a more liberal sort had been put in it's place. In the time during which Heinlein wrote "Friday", this particular writing style was still highly progressive and confrontational. Heinlein is not asking the reader to, as a male, treat women with anything less than respect, nor is he asking women to allow themselves to be dominated by men. Heinlein is simply asking you to put away your reality, and while you're reading, accept the fantasy that he is presenting you with, for your entertainment. If one looks at Heinlein's novel with the desire to parse it out according to one's own views then you get what you deserve. But don't sit down and read Shakespeare, Lady MacBeth may have been a strong woman but would still have yeilded her will to MacBeth. Heinlein did not write any of his books yesterday, therefore we should not attempt to view them with today's ideas in mind. If you wish to understand Heinlein's point in his novels, then you must accept the fact that his views were affected by a different time than ours. For those of you who haven't read "Friday", I recommend it highly, and hope that you enjoy every page. If you are fifteen now, and read the book today, don't be surprised if your view of the book changes in five, ten, or even fifteen years. Just as sure as your views of the world will change, so will the world around you, but the words of a deceased writer are eternally etched in stone, and we have no choice but to enjoy them as they written. ---Dave Earney

The whole point of fiction is that it's a fantasy that makes you think. And the whole point of science fiction is that it's also supposed to be plain F*U*N. "Friday" fulfills both criteria. Yes, there're some rough edges; so what?? As a guy who enjoys reading strong women, I loved this book, and wish I could find a girlfriend with this combo of strong and weak qualities. She's down-to-earth, not at all mean, practical, sweet -- what's NOT to like??? Let's call "Friday" a guilty pleasure, just relax and enjoy it.

This is in response to an earlier review discussing the "un-PC" nature of Heinlein's works, and the reasons behind his views.

Heinlein is well known for the unconventional social commentary present within his books. Friday is no exception. I read Friday when I was fifteen. I am female, and I found many of the ideas expressed to be offensive. I also found many of the ideas to be ahead of their time and have adopted them into my own philosophy.

Whenever one reads Heinlein, or any author, it is necessary to place the work in it's appropriate cultural context. This does not mean that anything that is written is justifiable simply because it was considered "right at the time", as another review seems to imply.It means that in reading anything, including past and current works, we must understand the motives and bias of the author.

As readers, we have the ability to see more perhaps than the author intended. We have the discretion to take the good, reject the bad, and learn something about ourselves and the author in the process.

It's a generally-held tenet that the novels of Robert Heinlein are better before 1970 than afterwards; with few exceptions, his earlier works are his masterworks. Even some of his juvenile fiction novels (in particular, Tunnel in the Sky) are superior to some of the last novels he wrote. "Friday" is an exception. (Well, so is "Time Enough for Love", published in '73.)

Friday is a sort of "bildungsroman" or coming-of-age novel, with a female protagonist. While Heinlein attempted to write a number of female characters who were fiercely self-reliant, highly competent and independent, he never really features a woman as a main character. I don't consider this a flaw; many authors really don't "get" the opposite sex and their opposite gender characters tend to be dressed in a sort of "literary drag." In fact, Friday, who is a genetically enhanced created human being (presaging cloned or eugenically bred humans) is sometimes more male than female. Her sex drive, which is usually in overdrive, swings both ways, and she only gives a passing nod to heterosexual preferences as she hops into bed with anyone slightly willing at the moment. This is explained away as both part of her genetic enhancement and an effect of her psychological flaw, which is a dependency and lack of self-esteem caused by being raised as a non-person (enhanced humans or "AP's" are property, not legal persons in the balkanized and degenerate Earth states) and her upbringing in a commercial creche rather than with parents.

Friday is a courier who is expected to deliver sensitive information across turbulent national lines frequently in battle zones or at least in politically unstable situations. She works for "Kettle Belly" Baldwin, who is a familiar character (the charismatic commanding officer or professor or other elder wise man who shows up time and again in Heinlein's works.) Baldwin advises Friday to eventually migrate off-Earth and acts as a mentor for the insecure young woman.

Her adventures getting through her last mission for Baldwin and her subsequent adventures culminating in migration are well-written and exciting. Sometimes the novel meanders but it gets on course. The end, though a bit rushed, I think and containing a major flaw (don't want to give it away, but her mistake comes on the heels of her work as a brilliant savant, so you'd think she'd...but ...no, I won't tell you but you'll see it, I'm sure, as you finish the book.)

Aside from the gratuituous but non-graphic sex and a lot of sniggering lesbian scenes which are more male fantasy than a true attempt at creating a bisexual character, this book has plenty of action and a lot of good elements, including a list of symptoms that characterize a moribund society (think; this was written 40 years ago and it's seeming all too true.) Well worth reading and probably the last good novel Heinlein wrote.