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Fiction. Literature. Science Fiction. Thriller. HTML:"A triumph of the imagination. Rich, complex, impossible to put down."�Alice Hoffman In the middle of the twenty-first century, life as we know it has changed for all time. Shira Shipman's marriage has broken up, and her young son has been taken from her by the corporation that runs her zone, so she has returned to Tikva, the Jewish free town where she grew up. There, she is welcomed by Malkah, the brilliant grandmother who raised her, and meets an extraordinary man who is not a man at all, but a unique cyborg implanted with intelligence, emotions�and the ability to kill. . . . From the imagination of Marge Piercy comes yet another stunning novel of morality and courage, a bold adventure of women, men, and the world of tomorrow.… (more)
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This novel combines the future and the past, much as Doomsday Book did so successfully. Earth is suffering in the mid 21st century, with high temperatures, radiation and danger. There are three different 'areas' within this world, the protected enclaves of the corporation where life is dictated by rules and regulations, but food is available and the people within this are protected.
The 'Glop' is the other end, a gang ruled slum with poverty, starvation and death.
I really felt that all three 'scenes' in the future were well realised and entirely believable, as were the characters, the motivations and the events that unfold. The backstory of the historical tale is just as enthralling, and show that whilst technology may advance and the world may change, human nature and desires are less likely to change.
There was a lot about the protection of the Jewish faith as well, and whilst it was slightly distracting at first as I don't know much about this religion and felt I was missing a lot, as the facts were revealed I forgot noticing details I wasn't sure about.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The way the stories played out, the progression of characters both 'man made' and human was exceptionally well written. This is one I will definitely reread and really analyses what makes us human, where the line is and how far we are willing to go in the protection of our freedoms.
In one line: The past seems to be repeating as a 'free town' in the future is under threat from the big corporations that rule most of the world.
Parallel chapters juxtapose events in the futuristic Tikvah with the real Jewish ghetto of Prague in the late 1500’s, at the time of the famous Rabbi Judah Loew. Brilliant scientists in Tikvah construct a cyborg, Yod (a mixture of biological and machine parts), to protect them from the pirates and assassins of the enclaves and the Glop, just as Rabbi Loew supposedly constructed a golem (or man of clay) to protect the ghetto from the antisemites beyond its walls. Rabbi Loew was a follower of Kabbala, which ascribes mystical powers to letters, numbers, and words. He creates his golem with words, just as we create our truths by naming them. Rabbi Loew’s story is told by Malkah, one of the scientists who creates Yod. Her granddaughter Shira used to be in love with Gadi, son of Avram, the other creator of Yod. Together all of the them struggle with the need for connection. And together all of them explore the nature of the fluidity of reality by virtue of simulations, cyberspace, religion, socialization, desire, and myth, trying to discern which is “true” and even what truth is. A thought-provoking book on many levels.
(JAF)
This was so good. I can't wait to read more by Piercy.
There are two parallel story lines, one in Prague, the 1600, and one in a near-future dystopia. As
Really well written well thought out book. Not as easy or quick a read as some SF dystopia, but tons of food for thought.
Shira makes a big point of missing her son, but we never see her really interacting with him meaningfully. It's hard to get a sense of what Shira does in her work, for example how can she just be called on to finish the cyberdefenses Malkah & Avram have devised. There are frequent comments about how rare fresh produce is, yet it is eaten all the time in Tikva--why isn't produce one of their profitable exports, rather than cyberdefenses? etc etc inconsistencies.
I
Before I picked up the title, I came across controversy about whether literary writers like Piercy, Atwood, etc. write "real" SF/F. I wrestled with this question for a while before setting it aside as irrelevant. There's plenty of successful genre fiction written for a general or literary audience. Piercy's cyberpumk-inspired world isn't very original, but I don't think original worldbuilding makes or breaks a story. She infodumps on every other page, but some genre writers do that all the time (especially in cyberpunk!)
So the reason I didn't care for this book isn't because it's bad science fiction (it might be, but whatever). It's because the characters stopped surprising me and the central ideas of the book didn't take me anywhere I hadn't been before.