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zabs90 's review for:
Hard Times
by Charles Dickens, Jeff Nunokawa, Gage McWeeny
Interesting ideas and and a great example of Dickensian wordsmithing--- it subverts the traditional rags to riches story and asks important questions that mirror dickens own personal moral development. It asks the question of what makes us who we are and how the powers of the the day come to be and if you should find yourself not amongst these can you truly rise above your circumstances without the aid of those in the inner circle. It asks the question of how we come to see such disparity between the privileged few and the underprivileged many and how those that hold power instigate a world that ensures their place at the top. The book does suffer from a very direct set of ideas being portrayed by very one dimensional characters and although the ideas themselves are interesting, they are oftentimes presented as being too on the nose and characters seem very black and white--- this makes it difficult to remain invested in the story as the page count increases-- even if you are somewhat interested in the subjects being explored.