The first book in a trilogy, Scott Westerfield introduces us to the concept of a world where everyone is pretty. Before they are surgically altered at the age of 16, teenagers start out as an ugly; or, in other words, normal. Gawky, acne-prone and all the other things that make being a teenager horrible are magically erased when you turn.
Enter Tally Youngblood, a teen who has looked forward to being pretty since she was little. Her best friend, Peris, has already turned and a disastrous undercover trip to New Prettytown has her missing him even more. On her way back to Uglyville, Tally meets Shay, another ugly who also shares the same birthday as Tally. However, Shay has a secret: she doesn't want to be pretty. Instead, she wants to escape to the Smoke, a secret community that lives off the land and where you get to keep your face. Shay invites Tally to come along, but Tally wants to become a pretty face and stays. Unfortunately, Special Circumstances has heard of the escapees and has given Tally an ultimatum: infiltrate the Smoke and give them up or Tally will never be pretty.
Once Tally has arrived, she discovers that she enjoys the hard work and honest living of the Smoke. She especially likes David, a man who has never lived in the city. And he likes her. In a fit of defiance, Tally destroys the pendant that would've allowed her to contact Special Circumstances. However, the destruction actually calls them and they capture everyone present. Tally manages to escape and finds David in a tunnel. Together they decide that they're going to sneak back to the city and rescue everyone.
Breaking into Special Circumstances actually isn't as hard as they thought; but they're too late: Shay is already pretty. They rescue her anyway and create a new Smoke in the ruins outside the city. When David's mom discovers a cure for the lesions implanted in a new pretty's head, Tally tries to convince Shay to take the pills. Shay refuses, so Tally decides to turn herself in, thus giving a willing subject to test the pills.
I really, really liked this story! The biology and evolution behind becoming a pretty is fascinating; and the concept behind why and how being a pretty made the world a better place is interesting. In this dystopian society, the population is brainwashed into believing their lives are better when they're pretty. Children purposefully (and equally) give nicknames to their cohorts that draw attention to their faults; for example, Squint, Nose and Skinny. Even the symmetry behind being a pretty is about equality; pretties around the world have the same standard of beauty.
This future world also talks about the Rusties: a past civilization who built the cities, tore down the trees and polluted the air and water. A bacteria that affected the oil caused a plague that devastated their world. In the era of the pretties, renewable resources and green power have replaced oil and gas power.
The scientific concepts behind this book has made this story absolutely fascinating! I highly recommend it if you have a thing for biology, like I do, as well as an interest in dystopia. So, really, this book is pure perfection for someone like me. I also have the next story, Pretties, which I'll start reading as soon as I'm finished typing this review.
Showing posts with label pilgrimage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pilgrimage. Show all posts
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
The Satanic Verses
I finished it!
Salman Rushdie was sentenced to death after the publication of his book, The Satanic Verses. His novel follows the lives of two actors, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, starting with their fall from a hijacked airplane over England. Not only do they survive their fall, they transform into a living incarnation of an angel (Gibreel) and devil (Saladin), to the point where they take on the physical characteristics of each: a halo for Gibreel and a goat-like body for Saladin.
After losing their divine/fallen characteristics, they attempt to regain their normal lives; however, they are obsessively drawn toward each other - both for purposes of revenge. For Saladin, he wishes to destroy Gibreel's life the way his was ruined. When Saladin returned to his home in his goat form (after being brutally beaten and humiliated by the police), he discovers his wife in bed with his friend. He left his home and stayed at a bed & breakfast above the Shaandaar Cafe. His presence causes a disturbance in the dreams of the people living nearby, forcing him out of the B&B and into a club called Hot Wax, where he has a hissy fit in the basement and regains his human form. At this point he's determined to destroy Gibreel.
Gibreel, the Golden Boy who fills Saladin's days with misery, has problems of his own. He finds himself haunted by an ex-mistress, who flung herself (and her children) off of her apartment complex after Gibreel ended it to fly to England to find Alleluia Cone. And after wandering throughout London in a daze, he miraculously ends up on Alleluia's doorstep, much to his relief. After a huge fight, Gibreel storms out in a jealous rage and is convinced that he is the archangel Gibreel (granted, talking to the Man Upstairs helped sway his opinion) sent to convert the world. He tries for a while, but ends up back with Alleluia and his agent, Sisodia. He has visions (one involving a girl by the name of Ayesha who tells the people of her village to go on a pilgrimage to the ocean; another involves the prophet Mahound) which Sisodia figures can be used as screenplays to boost Gibreel's return to the movie world.
At this point their paths cross again at a party: Gibreel, heavily medicated, describes his perfect life to Saladin but reveals his jealous streak when Gibreel beats Saladin's friend (who is sleeping with Saladin's wife) over the head with an oar! In a bid to ruin his perfect relationship, Saladin plants the seeds of doubt in Gibreel's mind, causing Gibreel to destroy Alleluia's apartment, and their relationship. Gibreel ends the night treking through town, again influenced by the notion of being an avenging angel and leaving a path of fire and destruction behind him. Finding his enemy, Saladin, at the Shaandaar Cafe, he realizes the truth and yet somehow manages to forgive Saladin, to the point of carrying him out of the burning building.
Finding forgiveness from a man he was determined to ruin, Saladin decides that it is time to go see his father, who is now on his deathbed. Caring for his father has given him a new view on life, so when Gibreel comes to him the night of his father's funeral and points a gun at him, Saladin is scared. Gibreel then turns the gun on himself and ends his nightmares. Saladin, who has re-adopted his real name Saladduhin Chamchawalla and has reconnected with a fling-turned-love feels pity towards the man who seemed so perfect, but was haunted to the point of killing his lover and taking his own life.
Wow - was this book ever difficult to wade through. Salman has a poetic way of writing that is very beautiful to read, but has caused this book to be at least 4 times longer than it would've been if he spoke more plainly. The story has a tendency to jump around from one man's view point to another and then it will jump back in time to explain the story up until that point. It also goes into detail about the visions that Gibreel has and which I'm not entirely sure if they were dreams or something more. I don't understand certain aspects of the story, like whether it was a coincidence that certain names from Saladin's life were repeated in Gibreel's dreams; if Saladin's wife and lover were set up to take the blame for a terrorist group or if they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I imagine this is a book where several reads are necessary to understand the whole story - as long as you have a dictionary, a science dictionary and several religious texts nearby so you can put the stories in to context.
I enjoyed this book very much: I love the way he writes and I like the way he challenges you to think while reading. As you go through the book there are several "ah-hah!" moments where you feel like you're finally starting to understand the storyline. And then he promptly switches directions, leaving you scrambling to catch up again. I was a little surprised when Gibreel and Saladin have their confrontation in the burning building only to have them forgive eachother. There was so much buildup at that point and I was really excited to see how it would end. By the time the end did come, it was anticlimatic and out of the blue. And the revelation of Alleluia's death was a shock. I had read the Wiki-version of the story, so I knew that it ended in tragedy but it definitely didn't happen the way I expected!
In short, don't read it if you expect an easy read, but I thought it was worth the trouble.
Salman Rushdie was sentenced to death after the publication of his book, The Satanic Verses. His novel follows the lives of two actors, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, starting with their fall from a hijacked airplane over England. Not only do they survive their fall, they transform into a living incarnation of an angel (Gibreel) and devil (Saladin), to the point where they take on the physical characteristics of each: a halo for Gibreel and a goat-like body for Saladin.
After losing their divine/fallen characteristics, they attempt to regain their normal lives; however, they are obsessively drawn toward each other - both for purposes of revenge. For Saladin, he wishes to destroy Gibreel's life the way his was ruined. When Saladin returned to his home in his goat form (after being brutally beaten and humiliated by the police), he discovers his wife in bed with his friend. He left his home and stayed at a bed & breakfast above the Shaandaar Cafe. His presence causes a disturbance in the dreams of the people living nearby, forcing him out of the B&B and into a club called Hot Wax, where he has a hissy fit in the basement and regains his human form. At this point he's determined to destroy Gibreel.
Gibreel, the Golden Boy who fills Saladin's days with misery, has problems of his own. He finds himself haunted by an ex-mistress, who flung herself (and her children) off of her apartment complex after Gibreel ended it to fly to England to find Alleluia Cone. And after wandering throughout London in a daze, he miraculously ends up on Alleluia's doorstep, much to his relief. After a huge fight, Gibreel storms out in a jealous rage and is convinced that he is the archangel Gibreel (granted, talking to the Man Upstairs helped sway his opinion) sent to convert the world. He tries for a while, but ends up back with Alleluia and his agent, Sisodia. He has visions (one involving a girl by the name of Ayesha who tells the people of her village to go on a pilgrimage to the ocean; another involves the prophet Mahound) which Sisodia figures can be used as screenplays to boost Gibreel's return to the movie world.
At this point their paths cross again at a party: Gibreel, heavily medicated, describes his perfect life to Saladin but reveals his jealous streak when Gibreel beats Saladin's friend (who is sleeping with Saladin's wife) over the head with an oar! In a bid to ruin his perfect relationship, Saladin plants the seeds of doubt in Gibreel's mind, causing Gibreel to destroy Alleluia's apartment, and their relationship. Gibreel ends the night treking through town, again influenced by the notion of being an avenging angel and leaving a path of fire and destruction behind him. Finding his enemy, Saladin, at the Shaandaar Cafe, he realizes the truth and yet somehow manages to forgive Saladin, to the point of carrying him out of the burning building.
Finding forgiveness from a man he was determined to ruin, Saladin decides that it is time to go see his father, who is now on his deathbed. Caring for his father has given him a new view on life, so when Gibreel comes to him the night of his father's funeral and points a gun at him, Saladin is scared. Gibreel then turns the gun on himself and ends his nightmares. Saladin, who has re-adopted his real name Saladduhin Chamchawalla and has reconnected with a fling-turned-love feels pity towards the man who seemed so perfect, but was haunted to the point of killing his lover and taking his own life.
Wow - was this book ever difficult to wade through. Salman has a poetic way of writing that is very beautiful to read, but has caused this book to be at least 4 times longer than it would've been if he spoke more plainly. The story has a tendency to jump around from one man's view point to another and then it will jump back in time to explain the story up until that point. It also goes into detail about the visions that Gibreel has and which I'm not entirely sure if they were dreams or something more. I don't understand certain aspects of the story, like whether it was a coincidence that certain names from Saladin's life were repeated in Gibreel's dreams; if Saladin's wife and lover were set up to take the blame for a terrorist group or if they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I imagine this is a book where several reads are necessary to understand the whole story - as long as you have a dictionary, a science dictionary and several religious texts nearby so you can put the stories in to context.
I enjoyed this book very much: I love the way he writes and I like the way he challenges you to think while reading. As you go through the book there are several "ah-hah!" moments where you feel like you're finally starting to understand the storyline. And then he promptly switches directions, leaving you scrambling to catch up again. I was a little surprised when Gibreel and Saladin have their confrontation in the burning building only to have them forgive eachother. There was so much buildup at that point and I was really excited to see how it would end. By the time the end did come, it was anticlimatic and out of the blue. And the revelation of Alleluia's death was a shock. I had read the Wiki-version of the story, so I knew that it ended in tragedy but it definitely didn't happen the way I expected!
In short, don't read it if you expect an easy read, but I thought it was worth the trouble.
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