This book took me longer to read than most (and longer to write a review about, too). I decided to read this book mostly due to the title and cover art. Yeah, yeah don’t judge a book by its cover, whatever. I often buy books simply because I am attracted to its cover. Sue me. More often than not this way of choosing my reading material has worked out for the best.
The Wind Up Girl is a postapocalyptic science fiction novel set in Bangkok based in a future ridden with “blister rust” and various illnesses causing horrific deaths. Majority of the world’s problems have to do with food supply. Some evil western companies genetically produced produce-killing something or other and then also genetically produced produce/grains that are immune to the something or other that kills the produce. I think.
This leads me to my major issue with this novel: Bacigalupi simply drops the reader into an unfamiliar world using unfamiliar terms without properly explaining much. It takes about half the novel for the reader to figure out pretty basic setting stuff. I like a novel that doesn’t overly explain- giving the reader a little credit. This one however just caused me confusion. There are just too many things talked about but never explained. Like what a “calorie company” is. Calorie companies are discussed throughout the entire book and has an important part of the world’s history and main characters and yet you never get a clear explanation as to what a calorie company is.
After navigating through content that is difficult to understand (and therefore difficult to really get into) you’re left with alternating p.o.v.s between the five main characters. We have Jaidee, a moralistic white shirt rebel-with-a-cause type fighting “the man” for the common good, his second-in-command Kanya who we don’t get to know much about until the end, Hock Seng, a chinese man who lost everything and is desperately trying to figure out a way to build up his lost fortune, Emiko, a “New Person”, a part human part robot thing who has been sold into prostitution, and Anderson, a calorie man trying to find Thailand’s seed bank without ruffling too many feathers.
I really liked the use of so many different main characters. The ways in which they affect each other and interact with each other is really interesting and keeps the story moving along even when the reader has the answer to one of the character’s questions long before he/she does. The characters save this novel, but I wanted more. I wanted more back story, more explanation, more motive. The reader is given a pass into each of their minds but it always seems like you’re just barely skimming the surface.
There are some really cool details, like genetically modified super cats and guns made with springs.
All in all, I think it was a very interesting novel with great concepts, but not enough clarifying and explanation. My main feeling after reading it was that it needed a good clean up (it also is riddled with typos). I also wanted more about the wind up girl, more about her history and creation. It really could have been an amazing work with some better editing, but it was still pretty good anyway.
The next book I will review is Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge. It will probably be the last book review I write for a while as I will be pretty busy at NYU for the next six weeks.
Bent Shelf Book Reviews 