91 of 94 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A heady collage and futuristic homage to Dos Passos, April 16, 2004
British writer John Brunner's novel, first published in 1968 (it won both the Hugo and British Science Fiction awards, and four years later, the French Prix Apollo), is certainly one of the most literary, complex, challenging, even difficult works of science fiction written during the twentieth century. Yet, in spite of the hurdles it may present some readers, the book manages also to be fast-paced and hysterically funny.
One of the triumphs of Brunner's book is that it can be read on any number of levels, which is probably why it seems to resonate with readers of extraordinarily divergent tastes. Having read it twice (once as a bookwormish Valley brat and now twenty-odd years later as a still-bookwormish publishing professional), I am not surprised that this book might be entirely different beasts to different readers; the enthralling, bewildering thriller I remembered from my adolescence has somehow transformed itself into a darkly sardonic political and social commentary--and I like both versions just fine.
The novel is not, at first, an easy read. Its "unique" jump-cut/collage structure, its pseudo-hip prose style, its fabricated lingo--all are modeled rather precisely on John Dos Passos's classic American classic trilogy, "U.S.A." Like Dos Passos, Brunner interlaces chapters in several strands. The bulk of the storyline appears in the "Continuity" chapters, which detail the misadventures of secret agent Donald Hogan and corporate executive Norman House, and the "Tracking with Closeups" chapters, which describe two dozen characters who are peripheral to the action. The other two strands--"Context" and "The Happening World"--provide background material (film descriptions, encyclopedia entries, song lyrics, document excerpts, advertising jingles, news stories, etc.) that catalog a world drowning in both information overload and an excess of people who would no longer be able to stand "on the island of Zanzibar without some of them being over ankles in the sea." Much of the novel revolves around how various nations and individuals deal with the perceived need to limit births both in number and in quality. (A helpful hint to the baffled reader: "Read the Directions," the first chapter in "The Happening World" sequence, serves as both a dramatis personae and a jargon decoder.)
After the first 75 pages or so, once you're accustomed to the pace, the book is smooth sailing; it's as much a novel to be admired as enjoyed. And it's one of the most wickedly, playfully funny books ever written--in any genre. The plot is far too complicated to attempt to summarize here; suffice it to say that Donald is trying to thwart a potentially dangerous and politically volatile eugenics program and Norman is struggling to increase his company's profits while simultaneously enriching an underdeveloped yet perplexingly peaceful African nation.
The two plots seem disconnected, yet at heart is the juxtaposition of naked greed and dignified idealism, of selfishness and altruism, of capitalism and communalism, of totalitarianism and anarchy. (At times, the overt political and sociological messages recall Le Guin's "The Dispossessed.") Or, as the character Chad Mulligan puts it in one of his sociological treatises, "applying the yardstick of extremism leads one to conclude that the human species is unlikely to last very long." Yet Brunner avoids the trap of losing himself in the hopelessness of his nightmarish world; instead, the resilience of human ingenuity and the vision for a better world still stand a chance, even on Zanzibar.
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29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Eternal Instant, June 24, 2004
While some aspects of this novel are dated and a bit annoying, John Brunner delivered an eerily prescient and haunting epic on the human condition back in 1968. This is mostly thought of as a story about overpopulation, but that is actually just a background setting that weighs down upon the bizarre near-future society Brunner has created. Social pressures of population have led to twisted morals and ethics. Discrimination and xenophobia have been mechanized with eugenics legislation, people have become over-reliant on the cold logic of supercomputers rather than human reasoning, corporations are buying and controlling entire nations, and crime, terrorism, and social sabotage have become endemic. Back in 1968 these may have seemed like creative aspects of Brunner's imagination, but they are becoming disturbingly familiar over the intervening decades. Brunner's writing style here can be a real trip too, with a montage of styles incorporating quick cuts between the viewpoints of different characters, along with constructed snippets resembling newspaper reports, government documents, advertisements, and even folktales from Brunner's imaginary world. This style of writing is becoming rather dated, and the book gets off to a slow start as you try to digest the writing methods. Also, the ending is a bit anti-climactic with the long and extensive build-up fizzling out into an off-screen denouement. But in the end this novel has the power to implant rather disturbing thoughts in the back of your mind about the near-future course of humanity. [~doomsdayer520~]
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Uniquely Structured and Rewarding, April 19, 2002
I can't remember what prompted me to re-read this lovely book but I ordered it from Amazon recently and was not disappointed.
Science fiction which attempts to forecast the near-future often fails as the prophesies are either too obvious or fail to come to life. In this case John Brunner demonstrated - in 1967 - an extraordinary facility the understand and describe issues which the rest of us did not catch up on till 20 or 30 years later.
The writing technique used is quite unique and requires considerable concentration and participation by the reader, who is rewarded as the book progresses with the answers to the puzzles which emerge.
Finally a word on Brunner's marvellous capacity for believable characterisation. The characters in this fast-moving story are alive and highly motivated.
I don't agree with reviews which pigeonhole and classify this unique book with lesser genres. It is far above that.
I learned only recently that John Brunner had died a few years back. This is a great loss to the world but his books prevail.
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