Roman Clodia's Reviews > Hazards of Time Travel
Hazards of Time Travel
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Well, this is weird! As a huge JCO fan, one of the things that I love about her is that she's *not* simply re-writing the same book over and over - the variety in her output is hugely impressive. This one, though, is a bit of a puzzle... though a playful, slightly mischievous one despite the serious theme of political authoritarianism.
It starts as a homage to 1984 with a kind of 'Sovietisation' of the US: acronyms of bureaucratic bodies abound, people can be 'disappeared' and free thought is severely circumscribed. Adriane, our 17 year old narrator, upsets the regime by openly (and naively?) questioning their authority and is punished by being whisked back to university in 1959 Wisconsin (the place where JCO herself studied for her MA in the early 1960s).
Cue some 'is that how people lived' scenes (typewriters! hair curlers!) and some interesting wandering down psychological theories of selfhood. JCO seems to be taking a swipe at the plethora of YA dystopias where a young woman falls in insta- love and leads a rebellion: in this book, that 'love' is subjected to a subtle interrogation and the rebellion segues into student politics of the 1960s: anti-nuclear weapons, pro civil rights.
But then, things take a surprising turn and the final section reminds us that one of the qualities we love about JCO is her boldness.
This is an allusive novel: 1984, Stalinism, the Divergent trilogy, The Matrix, The Handmaid's Tale, The Bell Jar, Trump's America and the concomitant nostalgia for the 1950s when, allegedly, pesky women/non-whites/communists/Jews etc. etc. were kept in their place (even as, ironically, western society was agitating for more inclusive, socially-just ways of being).
There are places where this feels like it's lost its way; and then, bam, JCO hits us with a revelation that both amuses and also changes everything. I disagree with the early reviews I've seen which peg this as a YA novel: it may have a YA narrator and gesture towards some of the tropes of that genre, but it deconstructs as much as it re-uses and makes productive capital from the interactions.
This is not JCO at her best and may not be the best place to start if you haven't read her before - but by the end, I was entertained and stimulated by her witty and rather wicked take on contemporary literary trends and modern US politics.
Many thanks to 4th Estate for an ARC via NetGalley
It starts as a homage to 1984 with a kind of 'Sovietisation' of the US: acronyms of bureaucratic bodies abound, people can be 'disappeared' and free thought is severely circumscribed. Adriane, our 17 year old narrator, upsets the regime by openly (and naively?) questioning their authority and is punished by being whisked back to university in 1959 Wisconsin (the place where JCO herself studied for her MA in the early 1960s).
Cue some 'is that how people lived' scenes (typewriters! hair curlers!) and some interesting wandering down psychological theories of selfhood. JCO seems to be taking a swipe at the plethora of YA dystopias where a young woman falls in insta- love and leads a rebellion: in this book, that 'love' is subjected to a subtle interrogation and the rebellion segues into student politics of the 1960s: anti-nuclear weapons, pro civil rights.
But then, things take a surprising turn and the final section reminds us that one of the qualities we love about JCO is her boldness.
This is an allusive novel: 1984, Stalinism, the Divergent trilogy, The Matrix, The Handmaid's Tale, The Bell Jar, Trump's America and the concomitant nostalgia for the 1950s when, allegedly, pesky women/non-whites/communists/Jews etc. etc. were kept in their place (even as, ironically, western society was agitating for more inclusive, socially-just ways of being).
There are places where this feels like it's lost its way; and then, bam, JCO hits us with a revelation that both amuses and also changes everything. I disagree with the early reviews I've seen which peg this as a YA novel: it may have a YA narrator and gesture towards some of the tropes of that genre, but it deconstructs as much as it re-uses and makes productive capital from the interactions.
This is not JCO at her best and may not be the best place to start if you haven't read her before - but by the end, I was entertained and stimulated by her witty and rather wicked take on contemporary literary trends and modern US politics.
Many thanks to 4th Estate for an ARC via NetGalley
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Reading Progress
September 4, 2018
– Shelved
October 5, 2018
–
Started Reading
October 9, 2018
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Finished Reading
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I'm surprised, though, that an avid reader of contemporary lit fic like you hasn't heard of her: she's been tipped for a Nobel prize for years now (she's 80 this year) and has mentored writers like Jonathan Safran Foer. I'm not sure we could have had an Ottessa Moshfegh without JCO's brand of dark, interrogative, feminist-y and alert-to-humour writing.
Still, there's her huge back-catalogue to explore, should you feel like it.
Haha, really? I *love* her, so maybe JCO just isn't for you.
The Book of American Martyrs blew.me.away! The characters, the topic, the story... impeccable.
I was one of those who struggled to see past the YA set up of the book.
I think on reflection that as this was my first JCO (an author I had never heard of before your mention of this book on a Booker forum) I was not really prepared to give the author the benefit of the doubt and look behind the surface.