I sometimes feel skeptical about fiction set in the near future which presents how our society might devolve and disintegrate in dystopian ways. Is this really what will happen? Ishiguro cannily avoided going into much detail about his projected future in “Klara and the Sun” by showing it through a limited perspective. Alternatively, one of the reasons Diane Cook's “The New Wilderness” didn't work for me was because the way her society had reorganized itself due to dwindling resources felt unrealistic. Lulu Allison takes an inventive method with her narrative which describes a near future England with coastal erosion, populations concentrated in cities, racist/homophobic clans, increasingly devastating pandemics and a United Kingdom that's disbanded. One could easily argue that this is only a lightly exaggerated version of the country as it currently exists. Given the way things so rapidly changed because of the recent pandemic it sometimes feels like the author is commenting on what's happening now: “all of them, young and old, know that the process of getting back to normal is still a long way off. It is called up like a spell, or a prayer, the earnest expression of a shared desire that is experienced now mostly as a matter of faith rather than expectation.” The story shows a gradual acknowledgement that whether we like it or not our society has been substantially altered because of viruses and climate change. Therefore, a collective desire for a return to a simpler recent past is a wish that probably won't ever be fulfilled.
Alongside the primary story about a rural boy named Jesse and a young woman from London named Isolde, there are poetic descriptions of the transforming landscape and a chorus of feral cows who collectively comment upon the action. In this way the author creatively and energetically presents individuals searching for a sense of home and communities struggling to decide how to organize themselves within an increasingly strained environment. A pleasantly surprising aspect of this novel is the way that Jesse and Isolde's stories intersect with each other. Because the narrative switches back and forth between their journeys, the author manipulates their relative time periods and plots out when details are divulged to produce a wonderfully dramatic effect. It gripped me and allowed me to feel an emotional attachment to a story which sometimes meandered into the pastoral. However, it never grew too ponderous as idyllic descriptions of country life were balanced by inevitable conflict - even within an intentional community that strives towards harmony and self-sufficiency within the larger society. Initially I felt more engaged with Jesse's story but, as the novel progresses, Isolde came to feel like the most developed character. Other characters such as Jada and Lee don't feel like they get quite enough space in the narrative to become wholly rounded. However, this didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the suspenseful aspect of this tale.
I especially appreciated how the author occasionally interjected short sections which describe the human history behind a decayed part of the physical landscape whether it be a crumbling house or an abandoned object. This gave small glimpses into other stories which briefly touch the main characters' narrative and the way different people are impacted by larger changes in the world. It's also effective the way the author presents the trauma and ongoing grief people feel: “Everyone carries these snap shots, these mosaic memories of the dead and dying.” There's a building sense of the strain and fear people feel which leads to groups of people growing increasingly distanced from each other and breakdowns in communication: “These rare settlements and the cities survive, by mutual consent, in avoidance of each other.” Inevitably, this leads to serious conflict which culminates in rustic warfare within the story. It shows how the author is in some ways more concerned with demonstrating the psychological and social effects of the challenges we face today rather than speculating on what society might look like in the coming decades. In this way, the novel is both absorbing and provokes a lot of quiet reflection.
