BR: This Perfect Day (Ira Levin)

Amazon Link: This Perfect Day

This book illustrates an inevitable future, a Hitler-like vision where the population's behaviour is manipulated and controlled by drugs, conditioning and religious acceptance. Li (Chip) doesn't quite fit in, with his one green eye and a grandparent who shows him the inner workings of the computer that determines their lives, he craves a life of choice.

The novel progresses through his stages of life, allows us to experience the near freedom when he is indoctrinated into a clandestine group who share cigarettes, have unbridled sex and conceive of no more. Chip wants more, and it earns him an increase in his drug regime and a continuation of his dulled existence.

Years later, memories resurface. He's now in his early 30's, unhappy and not quite sure why. He fools the computer and cuts off his 'treatments', and soon he is reawakened.

The story ends well, as well as can be expected for this futuristic world. Chip leads a party to destroy Uni (the supercomputer) and finds that it's programmed by people just like he. He seems to accept, but the reader can sense his yearning to destroy it, and Wei, the Hitler-like mastermind, mistakenly trusts him.

The showdown is a little confusing, though maybe that was me reading it while walking from the train station to work. It seemed hard to picture well, though it was a tense action sequence. Arguably, it could have been polished some more before print, and slowed down. It felt rushed, confusing.

Chip walked away, returned to his wife and young son. It was a good ending, a satisfying ending because the protagonist achieved his goal and in our expectation what he did was right. But was it? Yes, of course it was... however by destroying the supercomputer that controlled these people's lives, he has thrust them into unequivocable chaos. Many would not survive, and as the confusion lulls into a battle for dominance, the weaker is destined for a life of cruel abandonment.

The book is well written and entertaining. However the author relies heavily on 'look', 'looking' and 'looked' to place characters in a busy scene. Given the maturity of the work, this seems a disappointing let-down. He was capable of better than this.

The most memorable part of the book is when Chip forces himself on his mate. It is an act that comes uncomfortably close to rape, and one that I cannot forgive, and yet I can understand it. Chip knows no moral code other than that which Uni has metered out to him. He has not learned through social mores, because there are none for hte person he becomes when left 'untreated'. Him taking the woman without her consent is objectionable. It shocked me, and I struggled to accept it. This act, though understandable, made me distance myself from Chip for the remainder of the novel, and in the final scene I realised that if he died, I would not be overly distressed. I lay the blame on that one pivotal scene where his character showed too great of a flaw for me to be entirely sympathetic.

It's interesting, and I wonder whether Ira did it deliberately to evidence Chip's dilemma... because Chip did show remorse, and a failure to understand what he had done.

The other memorable scene was Chip throwing up after drinking alcohol. He spouted off some loud mouthed theories on how to destroy Uni, to free the family, was sat down, stared dazedly at his hosts and then promptly threw up on their carpet. That it was carpet shocked him the most. I liked that scene, it showed Chip's innocence, his uncouthness and his courage.

All in all, a good read. Put-downable, but enjoyable.

BR: Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Aron Ralston)

Amazon Link: Between a Rock and a Hard Place:

Aron's story reads as a biographical account of his spirit -- the origins of his resilience and his will to live. Through recollections of his childhood, the close bond with his family, his pursuit of physical and spiritual liberation, I got to know Aron. I got to like him, to admire him... yet when it comes to his rescue and the countless friends and family who suffered not knowing where he was, I felt a little angry at him as well.

He was smarter than this -- not the accident itself, that was unforeseeable, but the not letting anyone know where he was. Makes you realise that even in the safest of situations (and this was 'safe' for Aron), anything can go wrong. Let people know where you are -- it doesn't detract from the experience.

The imagery in this book is stunning. Aron is a born story-teller. I *am* with him in the desert, on the mountain, being chased by a hungry bear, skiiing slopes, out-racing avalanches. At no point does this story lapse into droll description, every line sparks with originality and evocative imagery. I felt as though I were sitting around a campfire listening to him speak. It tells much of a human spirit, the courage of a man to live. He loves life, and isn't afraid to take calculated risks, but he's not on a death-wish.

This story also hammers home Aron's ability to withstand suffering and pain... yet, interestingly, once rescued and recuperating (which is a whole other battle in itself when he falls victim to potentially deadly infection), Aron's pain threshold fails him. Even though he's maxed out on morphine, drugs, he can't find a reprieve from the pain. Is it because he knows he's safe and he's exhausted and just needs it to be over. Because in that slot canyon, as he's slowly dying, pain is secondary to survival.

I'd recommend this novel to anyone. The actual amputation scene didn't gross me out. Surprisingly. Earlier attempts he made to sever his arm, however, did make me squirm. Maybe, by the end of the story, after sitting with him for so long, I needed him to be free and the physical price for that was acceptable. If this were me though, I'd not be able to do it. I wonder if Aron ever thought about this, maybe he had, because even early on, he knew amputation was an option.