Christ, Marx, Wood, and Wei
Led us to this perfect day…
I finished Ira Levin’s This Perfect Day today. I’ve flirted with this one a few times, but once I committed, I was done in about four hours.
First published in 1970, This Perfect Day is set in an alternative future in which there is no war or sickness. Society is completely run by a massive computer called UniComp, which administers monthly chemical injections to all citizens (the Family), keeping everyone healthy and peaceful. Every Family member checks in weekly with a counselor, to report any concerns (whether with himself/herself or with another).
UniComp (Uni for short) decides everything—where you’ll live, what you’ll do for a living, whether and whom you’ll marry, whether you’ll have children and how many, and so forth. Uni decides whether you can travel to see your parents. Uni decides whether you can call them on the telephone. Uni decides whether you can have a sketch pad and pencil. Women don’t have breasts; men don’t have facial hair. Everyone dies at 62. It only rains at night.
But what if a Family member figures out how to fake receiving his injection, and suddenly starts feeling differently? (See also THX 1138, essentially a contemporary of this book.)
I’m not going to get any deeper into the plot than that, mostly because it’s a fantastic adventure story, and I want it to be yours to discover. Levin is a deft storyteller and a talented verbal craftsman, immersing the reader in a meticulously constructed universe.
It is positively eerie how true this book rings today, against a backdrop of Obamacare and a government that actively encourages dependence.
Engrossing and terrifying, This Perfect Day is a must-read for any fan of dystopian fiction (or even “only” of science fiction; it totally works on that level too). If you count Nineteen Eighty-Four and/or Brave New World among your favorites, and you haven’t read this one, make haste.
And I can’t believe no one’s made a movie of this.
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I’m already becoming terrified of this world, Bo. As I read your blog, I was reminded of Nineteen-Eighty-Four and Brave New World before you mentioned them. (Sorry, I don’t seem to have the italic option for the titles here.) I’m glad to know about this book, though. I may get tough and read it any way!
Jan, it’s beautifully written and so poignantly eerie. Go for it. You’ll knock it out in one rainy afternoon.
Read it in high school, for my senior year sci fi elective course. I’m still freaked out about it.
Don’t forget Animal Farm. Though that’s already come to pass….
Animal Farm is one I have not read since high school.
I remember it, but I’m probably much better equipped now to pick up on subtleties. I should add that to my queue.
Brave New World was my fave of the bunch