| Make Room, Make Room! |
 ISBN: 044151605X LibraryThing | I must have read this book a few years ago and forgotten, because I have no specific recollection of reading it, but the plot is familiar. This is a distopian novel about the dangers of over population, and was written at a time when the best available population models said that massive over population was going to be a problem by 1999. In the book the population of New York City is 35 million, whereas in reality its much more like 8 million at the moment. In order to support that many people the quality of life has had to radically decline, and the city spends most of its budget on welfare payments instead of maintaining its decaying infrastructure. It turns out that didn't happen, and I think that's partially why I didn't enjoy this book. The underlying story is good, but the book lacks hope, and feels preachy about population control. This book's style is quite different from the rest of Harrison's work that I've read -- there is hardly any humor. Its still an interesting read though and I managed to make it through to the end. I guess what I wanted from this book was a little less doom and gloom. |
posted at: 22:43 | path: /book/Harry_Harrison | permanent link to this entry
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#1
Michael Carden
Isn't that the book on which the movie Soylent Green was based? Oh yes, here we go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green
I haven't read it in years, but it made for a reasonable movie.
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#2
Michael Still
The book is quite different from the movie though. The book isn't inherently bad, just preachy and dark.