The Resisters

The perfect summer read for Late Pandemic Times: a dystopian novel about a young woman with a “golden arm” being raised by resister parents in an ultra-connected, hyper consumerist dystopia. A group of “Surplus” parents decide to start an underground baseball league and Gwen's pitching catches the attention of the surveillance state. With baseball suddenly declared an Olympic sport, and with a major Olympic showdown with ChinRussia coming up, Gwen is recruited to university so she can train with other elite athletes.

Themes of class and race underpin the story, which is also set in a chaotic ecological climate: many “Surplus” people have to live on boats because sea level has risen due to climate change. One possible punishment for misbehavior is for people to be cast off of land and forced to live entirely at sea for a period of time. Storms at sea have become so dangerous that being Cast Off can be a death sentence.

The whole story is narrated by Gwen's father, Grant, a former teacher who is good at making gadgets to help his family evade the constant state surveillance. His pragmatic, sensible, slightly wry voice gives the impression of steadiness, even when he is deeply worried. I found this combination of calm affect and scary circumstances very familiar after the last 4 years, and especially after the last year.

Highly readable, emotionally complex, very satisfying. Also, Ann Patchett says it's a “Stone cold masterpiece.”

I'm sorry to say this one did nothing for me. I saw it when it came out and had no interest in it then, but it made the 2021 Tournament of Books list so I read it. It was in no way awful, but, to me, the most unique aspect of the book was the world it was set in and I just don't feel it was explored enough to keep me interested. I would have given an arm to have a chapter that described life on one of the floating houseboats, for example. For awhile I was on board with the whole “baseball as deviance” thing but then baseball gets co-opted by the government, so it's no longer deviant and I was struggling to care anymore. I think, too, that having dad as the narrator when Gwen and Eleanor are the real main characters created this separation from the action that really prevented the reader from getting to know the characters well enough to bond with them. At one point all of the action comes from a bug that the father is listening to, creating yet another level of separation. Maybe this will mean more to other readers, I just feel I have read so much dystopian, alternative future speculative fiction that, unless you are really going to bring something new to the game it will take a lot to impress me. It reminded me of [b:A Beginning at the End 45152976 A Beginning at the End Mike Chen https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1563448171l/45152976.SY75.jpg 69225005] another book in which I didn't dislike while I was reading it, but it didn't rock my world. Maybe it's just that knitting is featured in both.I hate to “meh” a TOB book, but it's bad when your favorite character is the house. Oh, and Mimi. I liked her, I wish she would have been developed more.