#38 Imposter (1953)- Philip Dick

The earth is involved in a brutal war with the Outspacers.  Spence Olham, an engineer working with The Project is arrested and accused of being an enemy spy.  According to intelligence, because of his high level access he was chosen by the Outspacers to be killed and replaced by a robot carrying an animated u-bomb.  Of course Olham denies any of this is true and we spend the whole story wondering which side is correct.

“There wasn’t anyway I could demonstrate that I wasn’t myself.”

This is an OK story, which apparently inspired two different feature films, the last of which was released in 2002 and starred Gary Sinise…who knew?  It has some typically fun Sci-fi elements like warring alien races, humanoid robots, space stations on the far side of the moon, etc.  Overall it’s a satisfying read although not at the same level as Dick’s more important works.

Among the myriad nitpicking one can do while reading sci-fi stories, was a fun little moment when Olham escapes capture on the moon.  We are in a society so sophisticated that we can travel to the moon in an hour by ourselves but security is so lax that a war criminal of the highest order can elude his death sentence by the equivalent of a “look at that pink elephant over there” distraction prank.  Amusing.

 Notable Passage: “Everyone was frightened, everyone was willing to sacrifice the individual because of the group fear.”

Rating: 7-7-7-6 Total= 27

#19 Hiroshima- Nam Le

#19 Hiroshima (2008) Nam Le

This is why I wanted to alternate between two authors.  Sometimes unlikely connections or comparison can be made.  Hiroshima and yesterday’s Vermont Tale are both stories written from the perspective of children. I did not care for Vermont Take at all (as I’m sure you gathered from my write-up) but I’m completely floored by Hiroshima.

Yesterday I couldn’t exactly pinpoint what I didn’t like about Helprin’s narration, but it took this story to help me see what was missing. Helprin wrote like an adult trying to represent what the child saw, but Le wrote like he was remembering what the child saw. Helprin was using an adult voice with adult imagery but occasionally slipping in a child inspired thought, which lead, for me at least, to a cognizant disconnect.  I think that’s why I felt it lacked emotion.  I never knew who to connect with, the child or the adult.

Children pick up a lot, but don’t know how to describe it. They say what they see in simple terms, not by what their adult selves interpret them to be years later.  That’s what I like about Le’s approach vs. Helprin’s.  Let the child describe their world, the adult reader can filter the details themselves. 

Hiroshima is a story about a third grade Japanese girl in the days leading up to the bomb. War is war but life goes on and children are resilient.  Reality is just what’s around them. The constant stream of imagery is compelling. The sound of cicadas, the cold water, bomber planes overhead, state radio programs repeating war slogans, school games, boys training in Morse code, girls making straw sandals, cold food, smell of the gingko trees, pine oil, and chrysanthemums, demolition rubble being cleared from the street, older people saying over and over that they are safe.

This is a much different style of writing than the others in this collection. Its not quite stream of consciousness, but more like a running remembrance of her thoughts, long paragraphs with no true dialogue, at least not in the traditional sense.  This helps get into the mind of the narrator.  Instead of being like a listener of a story, it’s like hearing her remind herself what it was like.  Ambitious style but well executed by Le.

Notable Passage: “We are at war and some people don’t like to be reminded of the gods”

Rating: 9-8-9-9 Total =35