Dystopia rising
Novel reminds us to stand up for what’s right
The Resisters
Gish Jen Knopf
There’s a darkness to dystopia: It’s embedded in the very word — the opposite of a utopia, a world gone wrong. The magic of Gish Jen’s latest novel, The Resisters, is that, amid a dark and cautionary tale, there’s a story also filled with electricity and humour — and baseball. At its heart, the novel is about the act of resistance and its attendant forces of courage and hope.
Set in Autoamerica — in a future world of surveillance and melted polar caps — people are divided into two categories. The Netted have angel-fair skin and live and work in protected areas on higher ground, while the marginalized, multiracial Surplus live on houseboats or swamplands.
Our narrator, Grant, a former college professor, describes himself as “coppertoned,” and his wife, Eleanor, a lawyer and activist, is “spy-eyed.” These young parents are increasingly impressed when their young daughter, Gwen, begins to fling her stuffed animals with surprising force and accuracy across the house. As she grows older, Gwen becomes an extraordinary pitcher. Her best friend, Ondi, is also a talented player. They’re important members of a scrappy team called the Lookouts, part of the Underground Baseball League that Eleanor and Grant helped organize. Surplus teams can play only on toxic, contaminated land. To play on safer, unsanctioned ground, the Lookouts must hack their tracking microchips to evade detection by government drones.
In many ways, this book is about feistiness and not buckling under cruel and unjust bureaucracies. Grant and Eleanor are thoughtful mavericks, working to subvert a soulless system while trying to raise a fierce and powerful daughter.
These characters wrestle with conundrums that will feel urgent to many readers, such as how to teach children to be fearless yet not reckless, to be responsible yet independent, to stand up for what’s right without becoming imprisoned or imperilled along the way.
These dilemmas impact Gwen directly, because the sport that has given her so much joy and freedom also brings her trouble.
The Resisters is, in many ways, an extended study on the dangers of willed ignorance and inaction. It feels not far removed from our current situation: Climate change has resulted in a partial water-world and Alexa is now self-aware, offering advice not only on the weather but also on issues of propriety, relationships and moral quandaries.
Rippling with action, suspense and lovingly detailed baseball play-by-plays, there’s a sense throughout the book of both celebration and danger. There are a few plot workarounds to maintain Grant’s first-person perspective — including an overly convenient listening device.
But the story retains its intimacy and human generosity, even against a backdrop of dreadful things to come.
The Washington Post