This Perfect Day

Rating

8.5/10 I got hooked from the very beginning. The story is very clear and sucks you in from the get go. As it develops, the author poses thought provoking questions about individuality and creativity versus utilitarian optimization. What is the prize of perfectly functioning society where every member is like every other? Are we willing to forgo individual expression for the economic stability of the human race? And how does one break the cycle of conformity and becomes unique?

Although unique in its style of writing and the details of the utopian world, the book is very similar to Orwell’s 1984. This is not necessarily bad but I think it might have hindered the success of the book as it got compared to Orwell’s writing and failed to trump it.

What I didn’t enjoy so much is the ending of the story. It felt rushed and overly superhero-like. It didn’t fit the vibe of the book until that point. Suddenly it became an over-the-top action movie while the first three quarters were an enjoyable thought provoking drama.

Synopsis

Uni, a super intelligent centralized computer, governs anything and everything that happens on the planet Earth and beyond it. It controls everything from when it rains to what job you should do on a particular day. Every person is a member of a unified race and looks roughly the same. There is no femineity or masculinity and people only have one of 8 names, 4 for boys, 4 for girls. To keep everyone pleased with this setup, every member is periodically treated with drugs that keep them contempt with the reality of everyday living. But some members manage to “wake up” and overcoming a bunch of hurdles they run away to a remote island outside the control of Uni. From there they plan a revolt that eventually succeeds. Uni is overthrown and the rest is left to the reader’s imagination.

Notes

• look around yourself. Are you being true to yourself or are you conforming to a certain set of society’s expectations? Do you just follow the trends or do you develop and cherish your own individuality? Your style? Your taste? Your expression? Ask yourself what do you truly desire and then check where does the desire come from. From within or from the outside?