Unreal Fiction
Friday, October 7, 2011 at 9:51PM Word count: 304 Reading time: 2 mins
Some books aren’t meant to depict reality. Yet the characters that populate fantasy, sci fi or futuristic worlds are often compelling to the point where everyday dramas pale in comparison.
In Cory Doctorow’s book Little Brother Marcus Yarrow is swept up in a Department of Homeland Security dragnet and taken to Treasure Island for interrogation. When teenaged Marcus is released from prison he discovers that in a mania of paranoia and electronic surveillance every citizen is now a terrorism suspect. His dangerous response to this threat propels the reader on a heart-racing chase through the streets of San Francisco. At every point of the way the characters are three-dimensional and completely persuasive.
I burned through book two (Catching Fire) of the Hunger Games trilogy in three days. What a buzz! Reading it was like white water rafting, one breathless turn after another. Suzanne Collins’s alternate world feels allegorical even if it wasn’t intended that way. The Capitol of Panem has ruthlessly destroyed the middle class and now uses its hapless citizens as fodder to be violently murdered for mass entertainment. Is there a parallel universe where capital markets destroy jobs, ruin futures, and threaten to further erode the shrinking middle class? Both worlds – Panem and ours – have ruling classes that show little mercy to those unlucky enough not to shelter behind their golden gates.
The next book in my stack is Tender Morsels by Australian writer Margo Lanagan. I have her collection of short stores Black Juice and I know the different worlds she creates and the riveting characters she delivers. Tender Morsels is a YA fantasy. I will start reading it tonight. It’s likely to give me nightmares though, because she is that convincing.
What books have haunted you? What images linger years after you've closed the covers?
Reader Comments (3)
I've often wondered what makes us buy into the impossible and improbable. For certain it is the characters. If we learn to love them quickly in the story, then half the battle for the author is won. But the survival instinct that we all possess is, in my opinion, what drives the story forward. Most authors of this genre place us smack in the middle of some terrible and impending event. By allowing us to view the event through a sympathetic protagonist, often a child or a character like a hobbit, we become cheerleaders on the sidelines. We need that character to win.
Thanks Maggie for a great blog.
Hmmm. I think right now Occupy (fill in the metropolis of your choice) is what makes Hunger Games and fantasy stories really work. We, the people, can relate! There has got to be a human component to it. Then we identify with the characters and subsequently we cheer them on!
I totally agree!
It’s the characters that keep me going. At the writers' group meeting the other night someone asked if anyone had read a book where they didn't like the protagonist. Not me. If I don't have some sympathy for a character after the first few chapters, I set the book aside. There are too many wonderful protagonists to spend time with one I don't respect.