A review by libraryofcalliope
This Perfect Day by Ira Levin

1.0

I got to 68% on This Perfect Day by Ira Levin before throwing it away in disgust. I’d been wanting to read this for a while as I love Ira Levin’s other work, namely The Stepford Wives and Rosemary’s Baby, but how the author that wrote those could write this is beyond me. The thing that stopped me from finishing this novel was the fact that the main character rapes his “love interest”. This isn’t me “interpreting” it that way, it literally says that is what happens. I hoped perhaps the docile behaviour of the woman afterwards was some sort of ploy as Chip, the main character, has kidnapped her and she did try to trick him before but I read on a little and checked out some reviews and no... when she tells him not to be sorry for raping her she means it when she says “I don’t blame you. It was perfectly natural” claiming that his actions “woke me up”. The story itself was interesting- set in a dystopian future wherein your life is planned out by a machine and all your needs are provided for provided you’re happy to be drugged into compliance. The story is going for a freedom vs equality message which could be interesting but then it pulled this. There were other scenes that were a little yikes before but mostly they were fairly typical of “Male writer writing women”. I’m really disappointed by this plot point, especially considering this is the author of The Stepford Wives.