Orphans
ISBN: 9781501757372
Platform/Publisher: De Gruyter / Cornell University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited
Subjects: Literary Studies; Literary Studies general;

Tanzer's slim dystopian novel opens inauspiciously with cliched elements that include a vast, powerful Corporation and ubiquitous black helicopters, but as he focuses more and more intensely on the mind of narrator Norrin Radd, the story begins to gain in intensity. Radd's past is mostly obscure; somehow he has incurred a debt he has to repay to Corporation enforcer Morg, and acquired a wife and son for whom he has to provide. He has no idea how to do either until, against all odds, he's offered a job as a real-estate salesman on Mars. During Radd's long absences from his family, a clone takes his place at home, and Radd's brief bouts of hopefulness slowly give way to deepening despair. Channeling Orwell and Melville, with a nod to popular American culture, Tanzer (Lucky Man) creates a template for human disaffection and passivity in the face of incomprehensible and omnipotent forces. Under the shopworn elements, this bleak, powerful book is a harrowing cautionary tale about a future that threatens to overwhelm human individuality. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Ben Tanzer is a prolific novelist and an Emmy Award-winning public service announcement writer. He lives in Chicago where he lives with his family. Visit him at bentanzer.blogspot.com


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