This is an old hardback from my collection. There is no note on the flyleaf, but I'm sure that I've at least read most of this before.
Paul Theroux is generally known for his travel books and this is one of his novels.
I almost stopped reading, but I think that this book is very important especially today. The gap between the rich and the poor is getting worse and the plot in this book could be America's future.
The book was released in 1986 and the dystopic future that the book documents is probably about 2020 to 2030.
Hooper and Hardy Allbright- Two brothers who are 'owners'. These are the licensed, upper-class members of America. Both are heirs to the Allbright fortune. It was a chain of clothing stores that went 'mail order' and as society broke down, more people ordered by mail (just like today during the pandemic).
Chemically induced 'comas' are acceptable ways to enjoy a weekend.
A new way for gangs to intimidate. They surround their victim in a 'swarm' and then scream at the top of their lungs.
***A few of the characters begin to realize that essential freedoms have been given up due to the harsh security measures. Aliens are not sub-human and by treating them as harmful, the entire society is hampered by needless checks and counter-checks by police and private security firms.
Moura is Hardy's wife- She has a son, Fisher (Fizzy), by her visit to a fertility clinic ('contact clinic'- actually this place is closer to legalized prostitution). The clients are masked (masks play a key role in the novel. They are used as a fashion statement and a protection against disease...just like in today's world of the pandemic). In order to insure her pregnancy she visited the clinic many times over a couple of months and formed a kind of 'love relationship' with the donor.
The search for 'her donor' is a big sub-plot within the novel.
O-ZONE is an area of the United States near the Ozarks in Missouri. A radioactive spill caused this entire area to be abandoned...The Outside Zone.
The novel begins with a trip to the O-Zone by a group of wealthy 'owners' from NYC. They live in a 'gated' hi-rise called Cold Harbor. They have been told that this zone is uninhabited, but people live there.
Aliens are people that are undocumented. They are described as being sub-human and I almost believed that they were from another planet. However, the denigration of these people is almost like the way people talk of 'foreigners' today.
By the end of the novel we learn that a whole conservative section of the country lives in these outer zones. They almost have a kind of 'Andy of Mayberry' existence. This is very appealing some of the characters.
***Fisher is a repellent character, but I feel that he is a portrayal of someone 'on the spectrum'. He seems very intelligent, but completely devoid of social skills. He is an excellent pilot and very familiar with all things mechanical.
Murdick is one of the rich owners. He is very right-wing and violent. He is rich enough to buy almost any form or weapon or transport vehicle.
He is involved with a group of fanatics called 'Godseye'. These people murder undocumented aliens on sight. They patrol the edges of the settled areas and kill at random. They believe that they are protecting the country.
Hopper is obsessed with a native girl called Bligh. She runs with a pack of aliens and Hooper kidnaps her. And the aliens take Fisher as a way of getting her back.
Under Fisher's guidance the group travels to New York to make the exchange. Fisher grows during his time with the aliens. They almost become friends and it's the first time that Fizzy has dealt with people in a positive manner.
***Hardy Allbright works for a company that attempts to change weather plans to create crops and temperate conditions. It is a way for oil companies to keep the price of oil up. This company plants a huge mountain of oil that makes the surface temperature warmer and this attracts clouds and causes rain. Whole areas of the world are transformed. He is hoping that he can accomplish this in the Ozark area.
From Publishers Weekly:
"Theroux's view of humanity is becoming increasingly bleak even as he stretches his reach with this novel that brilliantly depicts the world as it may become. In the not-too-distant future, America has turned into a police state and a rigidly class-obsessed, terrifyingly racist society. On the verge of anarchy, the country is fragmented into many chaotic parts. The Owners, the remnant elite who live in armed enclaves protected by fearsome security forces, feel menaced by aliensalso called Roaches, Trolls, Skells, Starkiesall those who lead desperate lives of poverty and despair. A group of eight Owners, including a near-genius adolescent, seek an adventurous thrill in a rocket trip to the forbidden area of the O-Zone, formerly the Ozarks, which has been sealed off following massive nuclear contamination. The experience changes all of them, and a second, secret voyage there has terrifying consequences. Theroux has vizualized every detail of his desolate, all-too-plausible world. His scathing social commentary is powerful and convincing; his characters, while too unappealing to win the readers' sympathy, etch themselves in the mind. This highly literate science fiction is not a pleasant book to read, but it is a significant contribution to the literature of what may be a preapocalyptic world."
A link to an excellent critique of the book:
http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/97/06/08/reviews/theroux-ozone.html
Although I had trouble keeping my interest up, I finished the novel and realized that it could be viewed as 'important' especially during the real America of 2020.
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