I don't know about you, but I have a soft spot for dystopian literature. Anything to do with the falsehood of a truly utopian society is okay in my book, but Ira Levin's "This Perfect Day" is a particularly brilliant example of this genre. You may know Levin from his more famous novel "The Stepford Wives", another brilliant, albeit more difficult to read and far more bone-chilling, dystopic novel. This, however, is not a post about Stepford--this is about "This Perfect Day".
This perfect day is set in a world where wheeled cars and prisons are ancient museum pieces, where everything from sex to death is run on a single, unified schedule, and anyone that questions anything is immediately reported to a "counselor" so the offender's "treatment" can be adjusted aproppriately.
Chip (whose real name is Li, as chosen by the supercomputer Uni) begins to question ane begins to be separated by an early genetic imperfection--he has one green eye. In his already fragile state, his grandpa Ira convinces him to think about the job he wants rather than letting Uni blindly decide for him. From that tiny seed of discontent flows a jungle of separatism. He meets other rebellious members and they help him to gain more control, but that little bit isn't enough for him and it isn't enough for Lilac, his secret lover.
I, again, can't reveal everything, but suffice it to say that this book travels across a world so foreign yet so familiar that we, in the modern world, begin to act like animals as we read it. Every carnal pleasure they finally receive from their lack of "treatment" becomes a personal victory. This is another five-star book and you MUST read it if you like books.
Voss
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