SocProf reviewed The subprimes by Karl Taro Greenfeld
Review of 'The subprimes' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Ok, so, this is another novel about a dystopian future, but this one really hits close to home. This does not feel like a distant future and it feels quite familiar: in this not-so-distant future, climate change hits hard, the real estate collapse seems irreversible, and right-wing libertarian politics has prevailed. As a result, people are defined by their credit score, creating a stratification system with "sub-primes" at the bottom, those with low credit score, having sometimes abandoned their homes whose mortgage they could no longer afford. At the top are the financial class, living in gated communities and getting ready to move to sanctuaries (isolated islands - literal or metaphorical - of wealth, away from the social disintegration).
The subprimes, on the other hand, live from Ryanvilles (get it?) to Ryanvilles. It has a taste of Grapes of Wrath and the dustbowl 2.0. The American economy is now fully …
Ok, so, this is another novel about a dystopian future, but this one really hits close to home. This does not feel like a distant future and it feels quite familiar: in this not-so-distant future, climate change hits hard, the real estate collapse seems irreversible, and right-wing libertarian politics has prevailed. As a result, people are defined by their credit score, creating a stratification system with "sub-primes" at the bottom, those with low credit score, having sometimes abandoned their homes whose mortgage they could no longer afford. At the top are the financial class, living in gated communities and getting ready to move to sanctuaries (isolated islands - literal or metaphorical - of wealth, away from the social disintegration).
The subprimes, on the other hand, live from Ryanvilles (get it?) to Ryanvilles. It has a taste of Grapes of Wrath and the dustbowl 2.0. The American economy is now fully privatized and voucherized. Right work is the law. Collective bargaining has been eliminated. And the American economy has switched from service / consumer-based, to energy-producing, mainly, through fracking.
The novel follows a set of familiar character on both sides of the social class divide. At the top, the Pepper sisters (looking a lot like the Koch brothers), energy tycoons, a megachurch pastor who seems a mix of Joel Osteen (prosperity gospel, Christianity + capitalism) and Glenn Beck.
At the bottom, the drifter Sagram and a few others. Stuck in the middle, a couple of other families either up or down the social ladder. The confrontation is inevitable.
So far so good. The only thing I really, REALLY, did not like was the mystical, Sagram as healer thing. This was completely unncessary and kinda ruined the end of the story for me. Hence the 4 stars (instead of 5 I would otherwise have given).
That being said, it's a page-turner and a good cautionary tale.