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clfairey's review against another edition
3.0
I wrote a review on my blog: http://boredanais.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/book-review-bug-jack-barron-by-norman.html
kilcannon's review against another edition
4.0
I had four stars worth of fun reading this, but it has enough thematic and story problems that I should really give it less.
The female characters are treated pretty shoddily (by the author, I'd say, moreso even than Jack Barron), and good ol' Jack is waaaaay too slow on the uptake in figuring out things that are obvious to the reader as soon as they come up.
But the language is a riot, the rough racial content is for good ends, and it's a good moral outrage romp in a "Network" kind of way.
Plus I always enjoy outdated futurism.
The female characters are treated pretty shoddily (by the author, I'd say, moreso even than Jack Barron), and good ol' Jack is waaaaay too slow on the uptake in figuring out things that are obvious to the reader as soon as they come up.
But the language is a riot, the rough racial content is for good ends, and it's a good moral outrage romp in a "Network" kind of way.
Plus I always enjoy outdated futurism.
kensingtonska's review
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
spinnerroweok's review against another edition
Well, this book is certainly dated. From references to the fairness doctrine, to the slang of the 1960s, to the overt racism and sexism, this book is most certainly a product of its time. No characters in the first 35 pages were at all likable. It read like a behind the scenes of Fox News if Fox news had to deal with the fairness doctrine.
Anyway, I couldn't see spending time getting through this outdated and offensive text. Maybe I'll come back to it sometime in the future for the historical perspective.
I really don't recommend.
Anyway, I couldn't see spending time getting through this outdated and offensive text. Maybe I'll come back to it sometime in the future for the historical perspective.
I really don't recommend.
david_agranoff's review against another edition
4.0
Norman Spinrad is one of my favorite classic Science Fiction authors. Since his first novel in the mid-sixties Agent of Chaos NS has been a force of political fiction. While Leguin and Octavia Butler have been darlings of radical sci-fi readers Spinrad is just as vocal a voice in genre fiction for anarchist ideals. He has written several political sci-fi classics such as the Iron Dream, and Greenhouse Summer that was way ahead of Al Gore on Global warming. All that being said his most notorious political novel was his fifth to be released.
Spinrad's fifth novel novel Bug Jack Barron caused quite a upon it's release in 1968, and I decided to read it at this point because I heard a few people and the author itself mention the novel as has having weird similarities to our current president elect. That is why I decided this was the time to check it out.
The title is for a TV show hosted by a man we would now look at as a comically twisted cross of Jerry Springer and Donald Trump. Who by the way a desperate republican party begs to run for president. This reality TV star doesn't want to win but thinks it will be great for his brand.
Check out some quotes from this book:
"We can do with you what we did with Regan, and do it in spades, using the programme, and by the time your nominated you already have a bigger possible following than any possible democratic candidate." (p.61)
"I end up running against some obvious Howard stooge and everyone is stoned on election day, so I win. What then? I don't know shit from shinola about being president and what's more I've got no eyes to learn it." (p.107)
BJB is a very dated and old school political satire that contains more science Fiction elements in it's second half. I mean the novel is more that 40 years old so that is to be expected. I love old school out of date Sci-fi I am all for it. The biggest way that the novel shows it's age is the inherit sexism, and paper thin female characters. Some of this is important in the sense that this novel that takes place in the future but puts a mirror on the era it was written in.
The last act of the novel takes a super bizarro turn. Jack's political target is the man behind a compnay that freezes humans in cryo-stasis and extends their lives with immortality treatments. Once we find the reality behind wretched method that the company uses to extend life the political showdown is set-up.
I like how the novel started, the elements of the first 2/3 are focused on the media manipulation and several decades ahead of it's time. Sure the term Reality TV didn't exist and the instead of twitter we have vidphone interaction, but BJB is closer to reflected our present than many novels of the era. Yes a few of the elements are so much like Donald Trump's election that is creepy, but the novel doesn't hang on to those themes. Once we get into the immortality issues I was not enjoying the novel as much.
Even though this is considered one of his best most important novels I would put it behind even the the earlier Men in Jungle which is a gonzo take on the Vietnam war. Reading Spinrad is never a bad idea. Worth checking out!
Spinrad's fifth novel novel Bug Jack Barron caused quite a upon it's release in 1968, and I decided to read it at this point because I heard a few people and the author itself mention the novel as has having weird similarities to our current president elect. That is why I decided this was the time to check it out.
The title is for a TV show hosted by a man we would now look at as a comically twisted cross of Jerry Springer and Donald Trump. Who by the way a desperate republican party begs to run for president. This reality TV star doesn't want to win but thinks it will be great for his brand.
Check out some quotes from this book:
"We can do with you what we did with Regan, and do it in spades, using the programme, and by the time your nominated you already have a bigger possible following than any possible democratic candidate." (p.61)
"I end up running against some obvious Howard stooge and everyone is stoned on election day, so I win. What then? I don't know shit from shinola about being president and what's more I've got no eyes to learn it." (p.107)
BJB is a very dated and old school political satire that contains more science Fiction elements in it's second half. I mean the novel is more that 40 years old so that is to be expected. I love old school out of date Sci-fi I am all for it. The biggest way that the novel shows it's age is the inherit sexism, and paper thin female characters. Some of this is important in the sense that this novel that takes place in the future but puts a mirror on the era it was written in.
The last act of the novel takes a super bizarro turn. Jack's political target is the man behind a compnay that freezes humans in cryo-stasis and extends their lives with immortality treatments. Once we find the reality behind wretched method that the company uses to extend life the political showdown is set-up.
I like how the novel started, the elements of the first 2/3 are focused on the media manipulation and several decades ahead of it's time. Sure the term Reality TV didn't exist and the instead of twitter we have vidphone interaction, but BJB is closer to reflected our present than many novels of the era. Yes a few of the elements are so much like Donald Trump's election that is creepy, but the novel doesn't hang on to those themes. Once we get into the immortality issues I was not enjoying the novel as much.
Even though this is considered one of his best most important novels I would put it behind even the the earlier Men in Jungle which is a gonzo take on the Vietnam war. Reading Spinrad is never a bad idea. Worth checking out!
jeremyhornik's review against another edition
3.0
An angry look at the future in which a TV host attacks the wealthy until offered a devil's bargain. Lots of sex, speeches, self-righteousness, humor. I might not like it as much if I read it today.
ianbanks's review against another edition
4.0
An entry into the growing field of science fiction writing in a future that is now closer to the date of publication than the date of reading (One thing I was chuffed with, though, was the realisation that young me had when discovering that the time the book was set was roughly when I was reading it). Mr Spinrad gets a lot right in this novel about the power of the media and the search for immortality, but his writing hasn't aged terribly well. I first read this book thirty years ago and the slang and cultural references seemed dated then, although he had the nostalgia for the time it was written down pat. Aside from that, it's a book that could be snatched from today's headlines: political party seeks television star for presidential figurehead; conservative billionaire tries to buy his own legislation; people suspicious of social justice. For all its flaws - and they are very much of the time it was written - this is a terrific read that feels a lot more accurate than when I first encountered it.
riduidel's review against another edition
4.0
Ce roman nous raconte avec un style magnifique les aventures de … Jack Barron, présentateur télé vedette d’un show de "télé vengeance". Dans cette émission, il va être confronté à l’homme qui peut donner à chacun la vie éternelle.
C’est un roman magnifique, une oeuvre comme on en lit peu, où une plume efficace sert une histoire formidable de noirceur. L’écriture de ce roman, ainsi que certaines figures de style comme le singe sur le dos, m’ont fortement fait penser au [b:festin nu|7437|Naked Lunch The Restored Text|William S. Burroughs|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1219259455s/7437.jpg|4055] de [a:Burroughs|3058|Augusten Burroughs|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1201282699p2/3058.jpg]. Et cette fois-ci, ça marche. Ces accumulations, répétitions, accumulées, répétées, donnent une puissance, une réalité à ce qu’elles expriment. On comprend ainsi beaucoup mieux l’esprit et les motivations des différents protagonistes, ce qui est réellement important dans une histoire très introspective comme c’est ici le cas.
Car la dimension profondément intime de ce combat est une composante essentielle de ce récit. Ainsi, si Barron tutoie Howards, ce n’est peut-être pas seulement par une sorte de familiarité excessive, mais également parce qu’ils sont, d’une certaine manière, les deux faces d’une même pièce et ont à ce titre une connaissance très personnelle de leur adversaire.
Mais réduire ce roman à une lutte intime serait une erreur, car Jack Barron et son adversaire ne sont pas que des hommes, ce sont aussi les incarnations de deux pouvoirs qui s’affrontent : celui de la vérité et celui du mensonge. Et ils s’affrontent à travers le show-buisness de Jack Barron et les couloirs du pouvoir de Howards. Et c’est un combat tout à fait spectaculaire auquel on est convié : 100 millions de spectateurs contre 100 milliards de dollars. Cette dimension de la lutte de pouvoir n’est pas non plus la seule réalité de cette histoire, qui possède également une importante dimension mystique, de par les enjeux de la partie et les moyens mis en oeuvre. Si Howards veut disposer du droit de vie et de mort sur tout un chacun, il est prêt pour celà à offrir à Barron la vie éternelle, ainsi qu’à Sara. Et c’est là le dernier point de cette histoire, celle d’une rédemption. En effet, Jack finit par vaincre Howards grâce au désir qu’il a de se racheter face à la mémoire de son épouse, qui a elle succombé sous le poids de sa culpabilité.
Au final, ce roman marrie avec justesse de nombreux thèmes, dans une trame habile qui en fait un ouvrage indispensable dans toute (bonne) bibliothèque.
C’est un roman magnifique, une oeuvre comme on en lit peu, où une plume efficace sert une histoire formidable de noirceur. L’écriture de ce roman, ainsi que certaines figures de style comme le singe sur le dos, m’ont fortement fait penser au [b:festin nu|7437|Naked Lunch The Restored Text|William S. Burroughs|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1219259455s/7437.jpg|4055] de [a:Burroughs|3058|Augusten Burroughs|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1201282699p2/3058.jpg]. Et cette fois-ci, ça marche. Ces accumulations, répétitions, accumulées, répétées, donnent une puissance, une réalité à ce qu’elles expriment. On comprend ainsi beaucoup mieux l’esprit et les motivations des différents protagonistes, ce qui est réellement important dans une histoire très introspective comme c’est ici le cas.
Car la dimension profondément intime de ce combat est une composante essentielle de ce récit. Ainsi, si Barron tutoie Howards, ce n’est peut-être pas seulement par une sorte de familiarité excessive, mais également parce qu’ils sont, d’une certaine manière, les deux faces d’une même pièce et ont à ce titre une connaissance très personnelle de leur adversaire.
Mais réduire ce roman à une lutte intime serait une erreur, car Jack Barron et son adversaire ne sont pas que des hommes, ce sont aussi les incarnations de deux pouvoirs qui s’affrontent : celui de la vérité et celui du mensonge. Et ils s’affrontent à travers le show-buisness de Jack Barron et les couloirs du pouvoir de Howards. Et c’est un combat tout à fait spectaculaire auquel on est convié : 100 millions de spectateurs contre 100 milliards de dollars. Cette dimension de la lutte de pouvoir n’est pas non plus la seule réalité de cette histoire, qui possède également une importante dimension mystique, de par les enjeux de la partie et les moyens mis en oeuvre. Si Howards veut disposer du droit de vie et de mort sur tout un chacun, il est prêt pour celà à offrir à Barron la vie éternelle, ainsi qu’à Sara. Et c’est là le dernier point de cette histoire, celle d’une rédemption. En effet, Jack finit par vaincre Howards grâce au désir qu’il a de se racheter face à la mémoire de son épouse, qui a elle succombé sous le poids de sa culpabilité.
Au final, ce roman marrie avec justesse de nombreux thèmes, dans une trame habile qui en fait un ouvrage indispensable dans toute (bonne) bibliothèque.
smcleish's review
4.0
Originally published on my blog here in January 2002.
This edition of Spinrad's classic novel proudly plasters Donald A. Wollheim's denunciation of it across the front cover - "depraved, cynical, utterly repulsive and thoroughly degenerate". It caused quite a fuss when originally published at the end of the sixties - its initial serial appearance in New Worlds almost led to the end of the magazine when the big chains of British newsagents refused to stock it, and questions were raised in Parliament as a result - and even now it is quite easy to see why this was the case.
Jack Barron is at the centre of the top rated US TV show, where ordinary people phone in to "bug Jack Barron", for him to then take up their cases with whoever can do something to sort out their problem, whether businesses or government. He is surprised when one current issue - a bill offering a monopoly to a private company which uses cryogenics to preserve people until treatments bringing immortality can be developed - seems to be causing more embarrassment to those he calls than his probing should merit, and he becomes embroiled in political manoeuvrings and corruption as he continues to investigate.
There may have been shocks in the details - Spinrad's America has legalised cannabis, for example - but it is the brutal cynicism of Bug Jack Barron which was almost certainly the main problem. The political history of the West in the twentieth century can be seen as one of diminishing trust in authority figures, due to a combination of corruption and incompetence; Bug Jack Barron anticipates the concerns of a post-Watergate society. Nobody really believes in what they do, except for Barron's idealistic wife; politics is about scrabbling for power not about inner belief. The novel is more or less contemporary with 2001, both internally and externally, but is in fact much closer to the reality we live in now than Kubrick and [a:Clarke|7779|Arthur C. Clarke|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1357191481p2/7779.jpg]'s utopian vision.
Spinrad is wrong about some things, of course. The principal thing that he failed to see is the triviality of modern popular culture. The sort of shows that are the closest equivalents to Bug Jack Barron are not about his kind of big issues, but about the lives of ordinary people. He is a combination of Jerry Springer and Jeremy Paxman, but the former is far more popular than the latter. Even on details, however, he can seem extraordinarily prophetic - he has Reagan down as a future President, for example.
Bug Jack Barron is written in a stream of consciousness style principally derived from [a:William S. Burroughs|4462369|William S. Burroughs|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1313858581p2/4462369.jpg]. This makes it quite difficult to read in places, but it is certainly well worth the effort it requires.
This edition of Spinrad's classic novel proudly plasters Donald A. Wollheim's denunciation of it across the front cover - "depraved, cynical, utterly repulsive and thoroughly degenerate". It caused quite a fuss when originally published at the end of the sixties - its initial serial appearance in New Worlds almost led to the end of the magazine when the big chains of British newsagents refused to stock it, and questions were raised in Parliament as a result - and even now it is quite easy to see why this was the case.
Jack Barron is at the centre of the top rated US TV show, where ordinary people phone in to "bug Jack Barron", for him to then take up their cases with whoever can do something to sort out their problem, whether businesses or government. He is surprised when one current issue - a bill offering a monopoly to a private company which uses cryogenics to preserve people until treatments bringing immortality can be developed - seems to be causing more embarrassment to those he calls than his probing should merit, and he becomes embroiled in political manoeuvrings and corruption as he continues to investigate.
There may have been shocks in the details - Spinrad's America has legalised cannabis, for example - but it is the brutal cynicism of Bug Jack Barron which was almost certainly the main problem. The political history of the West in the twentieth century can be seen as one of diminishing trust in authority figures, due to a combination of corruption and incompetence; Bug Jack Barron anticipates the concerns of a post-Watergate society. Nobody really believes in what they do, except for Barron's idealistic wife; politics is about scrabbling for power not about inner belief. The novel is more or less contemporary with 2001, both internally and externally, but is in fact much closer to the reality we live in now than Kubrick and [a:Clarke|7779|Arthur C. Clarke|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1357191481p2/7779.jpg]'s utopian vision.
Spinrad is wrong about some things, of course. The principal thing that he failed to see is the triviality of modern popular culture. The sort of shows that are the closest equivalents to Bug Jack Barron are not about his kind of big issues, but about the lives of ordinary people. He is a combination of Jerry Springer and Jeremy Paxman, but the former is far more popular than the latter. Even on details, however, he can seem extraordinarily prophetic - he has Reagan down as a future President, for example.
Bug Jack Barron is written in a stream of consciousness style principally derived from [a:William S. Burroughs|4462369|William S. Burroughs|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1313858581p2/4462369.jpg]. This makes it quite difficult to read in places, but it is certainly well worth the effort it requires.
skjam's review
3.0
What’s bugging Jack Barron? Jack used to be a young radical, waving signs and helping form the Social Justice Coalition. But the SJC became a legitimate political party, and Jack wasn’t really interested in playing politics. Plus, he’d gotten on television a lot, and the cameras and audiences loved him. Soon, Jack was offered his own call-in show, and it took off. The wife who kept him honest left, but his star was on the rise.
Now he’s the star of Bug Jack Barron, on every Wednesday night. You call in on your vidphone and tell Jack what’s bugging you, and if he finds your problem interesting, Jack will go on to call important people and bug them about the issue. And you’d better believe that VIPs are sitting by their own vidphones, because if you’re “not home” to Jack Barron, he will skewer you in front of one hundred million viewers.
Of course it’s all a cop-out. Sure, Jack Barron is for the little guy…as long as it doesn’t involve any of Jack’s own skin. And he’ll stick it to the Very Important People, but only to a point, just enough pain to make them sweat, but not enough to make them retaliate. After all, Jack likes making $400,000 a year, and having a penthouse apartment with the latest electronic gadgets, and free smokes from his sponsor, Acapulco Gold. And let’s not forget that TV stardom makes you a chick magnet! No, Jack knows better than to kill the goose that lays golden eggs.
Tonight’s show seems standard at first. Seems there’s a company called the Foundation for Human Immortality, owned by a fellow named Benedict Howards, a powerful billionaire. The Foundation will cryogenically freeze people to be revived whenever a cure is found for what killed them. But the process is expensive, you have to have $500,000 in liquid assets for the Foundation to use. Tonight’s caller tried to get a Freezer spot but was turned down, and he thinks it might be because he’s black.
Jack spots the logic hole right away (the man has $500K in his business, yes, but that’s not a liquid asset.) but decides to roll with it. He calls Benedict Howards–but Mr. Howards is “not home” to Mr. Barron (for good reason, we learn later) so Mr. Barron decides to turn up the heat on the Foundation a bit. After humiliating the Foundation’s PR person, Jack calls up his old SJC friend, Lukas Greene, now governor of Mississippi. Governor Greene explains that the problem here isn’t direct racism, but systemic racism; for historical reasons, there just aren’t that many African-Americans with half a million in cash and negotiable bonds. That’s why the SJC platform is to nationalize the Freezers so that all Americans have a chance to be revive in the future.
To round out the show and cool things down a bit, Jack calls Senator Hennering, who is sponsoring a Freezer Bill that will give the Foundation a permanent monopoly on their cryogenic process. The Senator’s a professional politician and an experienced bloviator, so he should be able to provide some calming words. Except that for some reason, the senator is off-script, and reacting to the call like he’s actually guilty of something. Odd, but Jack is as gentle as is consistent with his acerbic television persona.
The next day Benedict Howards himself is in Jack Barron’s office, offering Jack a free cryogenic berth if he’ll help put the Freezer Bill through. Jack still doesn’t know what’s going on, but he’s pretty sure he’s wading into crocodile-infested swamp water, and it’s getting deeper by the moment. He’s going to have to use all his smarts, and see if he still has a last shred of integrity deep down, and that really bugs Jack Barron!
This 1969 novel was considered the story that put Norman Spinrad on the map. It’s one of the classics of the New Wave movement in science fiction, when newer SF authors decided to use more experimental literary techniques and use edgier subject matter. In this case, Mr. Spinrad uses a free association stream of consciousness style of narration to fill us in on the thoughts of the characters randomly sparked by their main concerns. It takes quite a bit of getting used to. There was, supposedly a lot of drug use by New Wave authors–this one reads less like it was made on marijuana than amphetamines.
There’s also a lot of foul language, including racial and ethnic slurs (“shade” is now the slang word for pale-skinned people.) The sex scenes are pornographic in the “experimental literature” sense, but they’re important for exploring Jack’s state of mind, so you can’t just skip over them. Racism is an important theme of the book, while the sexism seems to be more of the author’s blind spots.
Most of the action is a match of wills and wits between Jack Barron and Benedict Howards (who is clearly meant to evoke both treacherous Benedict Arnold and nutty millionaire Howard Hughes.) The one violent on-stage confrontation is one that Jack’s completely unprepared for and survives only by luck. Jack is an anti-hero, handsome, clever and witty, but having sold out to the Man long ago, and willing to use media manipulation to get his way. Howards is worse, having such a fear of death that it’s become a full-blown thanatophobia, and he’s willing to do anything to avoid dying. Ever.
Jack’s ex-wife Sara mostly exists to tell us how awesome Jack is, and urge him to return to the superior levels of awesome he had before he copped out.
Because of the rough language, sex scenes and a suicide, I wouldn’t recommend this to readers below senior high school, and it would probably be best saved for college age.
It’s interesting from a historical viewpoint as well, predicting a 1980s that is very different from the one we knew. Apparently, at the same time the Coalition for Social Justice became an actual political party, Nixon imploded so badly in his first term that Republicans became poison at the national level. So the CSJ has become the left-wing party, the Republicans have shifted heavily to the right and are composed of corporatists and the former Dixiecrats (no Religious Right here), and the Democrats have grabbed the large middle ground. Ronald Reagan is mentioned several times as an example of a politician who is more image than substance, but never became president in this timeline. One of the major Democrats is referred to as “Teddy the Pretender” and is presumably Edward Kennedy.
Mississippi has suffered massive “white flight” and its new black governor is barely holding on with a crippled economy. AT&T (not broken up in this world) has produced black & white vidphones, and a “miniphone” (basically a cellphone that works anywhere in the AT&T network) is the latest gizmo. Marijuana is legal in 38 states, Bob Dylan is dead, and low-level single payer healthcare is the law of the land. Oh, and there’s a mission on its way to Mars, but it’s not relevant to anything.
There’s an afterword by Michael Moorcock, who ran this novel in the magazine New Worlds, which is why this edition uses British spelling. He talks about the reaction at the time, including the story being denounced in Parliament.
Overall, a book with a lot of interesting ideas, some pertinence to the current day state of the media, some dated attitudes and a lot of uncomfortable content. Recommended for those who want to experience New Wave science fiction.
Now he’s the star of Bug Jack Barron, on every Wednesday night. You call in on your vidphone and tell Jack what’s bugging you, and if he finds your problem interesting, Jack will go on to call important people and bug them about the issue. And you’d better believe that VIPs are sitting by their own vidphones, because if you’re “not home” to Jack Barron, he will skewer you in front of one hundred million viewers.
Of course it’s all a cop-out. Sure, Jack Barron is for the little guy…as long as it doesn’t involve any of Jack’s own skin. And he’ll stick it to the Very Important People, but only to a point, just enough pain to make them sweat, but not enough to make them retaliate. After all, Jack likes making $400,000 a year, and having a penthouse apartment with the latest electronic gadgets, and free smokes from his sponsor, Acapulco Gold. And let’s not forget that TV stardom makes you a chick magnet! No, Jack knows better than to kill the goose that lays golden eggs.
Tonight’s show seems standard at first. Seems there’s a company called the Foundation for Human Immortality, owned by a fellow named Benedict Howards, a powerful billionaire. The Foundation will cryogenically freeze people to be revived whenever a cure is found for what killed them. But the process is expensive, you have to have $500,000 in liquid assets for the Foundation to use. Tonight’s caller tried to get a Freezer spot but was turned down, and he thinks it might be because he’s black.
Jack spots the logic hole right away (the man has $500K in his business, yes, but that’s not a liquid asset.) but decides to roll with it. He calls Benedict Howards–but Mr. Howards is “not home” to Mr. Barron (for good reason, we learn later) so Mr. Barron decides to turn up the heat on the Foundation a bit. After humiliating the Foundation’s PR person, Jack calls up his old SJC friend, Lukas Greene, now governor of Mississippi. Governor Greene explains that the problem here isn’t direct racism, but systemic racism; for historical reasons, there just aren’t that many African-Americans with half a million in cash and negotiable bonds. That’s why the SJC platform is to nationalize the Freezers so that all Americans have a chance to be revive in the future.
To round out the show and cool things down a bit, Jack calls Senator Hennering, who is sponsoring a Freezer Bill that will give the Foundation a permanent monopoly on their cryogenic process. The Senator’s a professional politician and an experienced bloviator, so he should be able to provide some calming words. Except that for some reason, the senator is off-script, and reacting to the call like he’s actually guilty of something. Odd, but Jack is as gentle as is consistent with his acerbic television persona.
The next day Benedict Howards himself is in Jack Barron’s office, offering Jack a free cryogenic berth if he’ll help put the Freezer Bill through. Jack still doesn’t know what’s going on, but he’s pretty sure he’s wading into crocodile-infested swamp water, and it’s getting deeper by the moment. He’s going to have to use all his smarts, and see if he still has a last shred of integrity deep down, and that really bugs Jack Barron!
This 1969 novel was considered the story that put Norman Spinrad on the map. It’s one of the classics of the New Wave movement in science fiction, when newer SF authors decided to use more experimental literary techniques and use edgier subject matter. In this case, Mr. Spinrad uses a free association stream of consciousness style of narration to fill us in on the thoughts of the characters randomly sparked by their main concerns. It takes quite a bit of getting used to. There was, supposedly a lot of drug use by New Wave authors–this one reads less like it was made on marijuana than amphetamines.
There’s also a lot of foul language, including racial and ethnic slurs (“shade” is now the slang word for pale-skinned people.) The sex scenes are pornographic in the “experimental literature” sense, but they’re important for exploring Jack’s state of mind, so you can’t just skip over them. Racism is an important theme of the book, while the sexism seems to be more of the author’s blind spots.
Most of the action is a match of wills and wits between Jack Barron and Benedict Howards (who is clearly meant to evoke both treacherous Benedict Arnold and nutty millionaire Howard Hughes.) The one violent on-stage confrontation is one that Jack’s completely unprepared for and survives only by luck. Jack is an anti-hero, handsome, clever and witty, but having sold out to the Man long ago, and willing to use media manipulation to get his way. Howards is worse, having such a fear of death that it’s become a full-blown thanatophobia, and he’s willing to do anything to avoid dying. Ever.
Jack’s ex-wife Sara mostly exists to tell us how awesome Jack is, and urge him to return to the superior levels of awesome he had before he copped out.
Because of the rough language, sex scenes and a suicide, I wouldn’t recommend this to readers below senior high school, and it would probably be best saved for college age.
It’s interesting from a historical viewpoint as well, predicting a 1980s that is very different from the one we knew. Apparently, at the same time the Coalition for Social Justice became an actual political party, Nixon imploded so badly in his first term that Republicans became poison at the national level. So the CSJ has become the left-wing party, the Republicans have shifted heavily to the right and are composed of corporatists and the former Dixiecrats (no Religious Right here), and the Democrats have grabbed the large middle ground. Ronald Reagan is mentioned several times as an example of a politician who is more image than substance, but never became president in this timeline. One of the major Democrats is referred to as “Teddy the Pretender” and is presumably Edward Kennedy.
Mississippi has suffered massive “white flight” and its new black governor is barely holding on with a crippled economy. AT&T (not broken up in this world) has produced black & white vidphones, and a “miniphone” (basically a cellphone that works anywhere in the AT&T network) is the latest gizmo. Marijuana is legal in 38 states, Bob Dylan is dead, and low-level single payer healthcare is the law of the land. Oh, and there’s a mission on its way to Mars, but it’s not relevant to anything.
There’s an afterword by Michael Moorcock, who ran this novel in the magazine New Worlds, which is why this edition uses British spelling. He talks about the reaction at the time, including the story being denounced in Parliament.
Overall, a book with a lot of interesting ideas, some pertinence to the current day state of the media, some dated attitudes and a lot of uncomfortable content. Recommended for those who want to experience New Wave science fiction.
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