I used to love reading dark, anti-Utopian books like We by Yevgeny Zamyatin or The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner; I found a certain pleasure in imagining worlds so much worse than my own. Jack Womack's new novel, Random Acts of Senseless Violence, fits squarely in this gloomy genre with its dark portrayal of a just barely pre-apocalyptic New York City. It reminded me of why I used to enjoy these books, and of why I no longer do.
The book is told in diary form by 12-year-old Lola Hart, the precocious daughter of privileged and liberal parents. Set against a backdrop of daily riots, hyperinflation, and mass unemployment, the story traces Lola's abrupt descent from upper-middle class to working poor. As her poverty becomes compounded by a string of tragedies, including her father's death and her desertion by friends, Lola turns increasingly feral and violent.
Womack is a talented writer. Through subtle changes in the writing style and the use of Lola's argot, he is able to convey the character's transition from a naïve girl to a street-fighting woman. While inventing a futuristic slang has destroyed other books in this genre, Womack's is convincing without being derivative. Womack also has a good feel for extrapolating modern trends (I expect to see the strap-on My L'il Fetus toy he describes in stores any day now).
Yet, there is something patently unchallenging about all of this. To build a convincingly bleak world, he relies too heavily on pushing the usual buttons - wild roving gangs! ineffectual government! As a result, the book often seems mechanical and formulaic.
Random Acts of Senseless Violence is clearly meant to serve as a parable and warning - about politics, about race - but it rarely goes beyond the obvious. It is a compelling and powerful read, but somehow unredeeming.
Random Acts of Senseless Violence, by Jack Womack: US$21. Atlantic Monthly Press: (800) 788 3123, +1 (510) 658 3453.
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