a review of "Life As We Knew It" [22]

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
(Harcourt, ISBN 978-0-15-206154-8)

As the book begins, sixteen year old Miranda Evans is a rather typical girl, with the rather typical problems of a modern teenager. Her father, divorced from her mother and remarried, is having a new baby. She writes in her journal, a journal that forms this book, about concerns like a dance at school, the pressure of assignments from teachers, including the many assignments teachers have given about the meteor that is going to hit the moon. No one is very concerned it seems, about this meteor. In fact, it is treated more like a media event, everyone watching on TV and neighbors all going out into the streets to watch as the event takes place. But something goes terribly wrong. It seems scientists totally underestimate the size and density of the meteor and the effect the collision would have.

The moon is knocked out of it's normal orbit, with immediate and horrible consequences. Huge tides and tsunamis hit all the coasts, wiping out cities, killing millions. All oil production is knocked out, electric power become unreliable and communications break down, leaving people unsure what to do. Happily for Miranda and her family, her mother and two brothers, are better off than many, due to her mother's quick thinking, buying huge amounts of food before the supermarkets were picked clean. They have some food, water and, as a very early winter approaches, heat from a woodstove and the stockpile of wood Miranda and her brothers have gathered all summer. But even as they are fairly secure in their home, the news just gets worse and worse. They hear of earthquakes all over the planet, in places where they have never been an issue before and long dormant volcanoes coming back to life, bring a constant gray sky, filled with ash, that blocks the sun and makes growing any crops impossible. And then when you think things can't get any worse...well, they do.

This is a book that I have been reading about in the blogsphere for quite awhile, seeing good reviews for it on Rhapsody In Books, Sandy at You've Gotta Read This, My Friend Amy and the bit less enthusiastic review of Presenting Lenore, to name just a few. By in large very positive reviews. So once again, it seems I must take a contrary view.

On the positive side, this is, without question a very effecting, emotion provoking book. As the book grinds forward, one more terrible thing after another coming to light, the reader can not help but feel for the characters. You can not help but feel scared. But as I closed the last page, what was I really feeling? Well, to tell you the truth, it was all just very depressing. Granted, there is a small light of hope at the end of the book, but I thing it is a hope that, if considered for a moment, will prove illusory.
So yes, it will provoke a reaction in the reader, but does that make it a good book?

My problems with the book are many, more as I considered it for a few days after finishing it.

First, the science, from the little research I did online, is junk science. Did you know that there are physicists with message boards that discuss such things? Well there are, and I think the author owes it do at least write a sequences of events that is plausible. Everything I read shows what she has written is not.
Then there are little illogical things, like how that family had water from their pump without electricity, or who was delivering mail when there was no gasoline and people were starving from hunger and dying from disease? Not huge issues, but careless. Then there were the numerous digs by Miranda's mom against our former president and the government, but the same government she seemed to think would somehow intercede and 'fix' things. And of course, there is the fact that the only portrayal of religion presents believers as gullible, naive fools and their leaders as evil thieves. Certainly the author is entitled to her point of view but I would suggest one word...subtlety. You want to make a case, then make a case, but don't hit us over the head with it.

But more than that, what concerns me is the message of this book, a book targeted for young people. In a terrible emergency, should we work together, pool our resources and efforts to help the weakest and most vulnerable? Isn't that why humans first formed into communities, governments? No, it seems this book suggests we should advocate survival of the fittest, the most clever, the best prepared and watch as out friends and neighbors die around us. And of course, don't organize to make any long term plan, but hide in your house, protecting only your own, and yet assume someone else, someone out 'there' somewhere, will come up with a solution.

I am a fan of dystopian fiction. I think is a great vehicle to explore the Big Questions, see the good and the bad that might be brought out in desperate times, see how people might react in a terrible situation and consider how we might as well. It is a great vehicle for drama, for exploring important issues. But personally, I found the best qualities of this genre missing from this book. The fact that the whole story was based on a fake premise bothered me. Would it have been too hard to come with a real, possible scenario? Yes, it is all scary, but that is not enough for a really good book in my opinion.

Bottom line, is this a book I would recommend to a young person, perhaps a vulnerable young person dealing with all the emotional crises of the teenage years? I found this book very negative, very depressing and ultimately with some values that I found quite questionable. No, I could not recommend it, especially to a young person.