'In A Song for a New Day, liberty and creative endeavour are compromised by political and socioeconomic reality. Pinsker presents a frighteningly real near-future US [and] movingly charts Rosemary's coming-of-age story as her world and Luce's collide' Guardian
BEFORE
Luce is on the road. Success is finally within grasp: her songs are getting airtime; the venues she's playing are getting larger. But mass shootings, bombings and now a strange contagion are closing America down around her...
AFTER
Rosemary is too young to remember the Before. She's grown up in a world where proximity to others is not only unusual, it is also illegal. Life as she knows it is entirely online, virtual. But now she's on the road, in the real world, searching for something that, until a few weeks ago, she never knew existed.
My dad has this belief that at some point in the not-so-distant future, VR will replace our need to travel. Why, he reasons, would people spend money and time getting on planes to go see new places when we could feel like we are there without leaving our homes? This has always struck me as wrong on an emotional level, but I could never successfully articulate why his oh-so-practical prediction should be offset by things that have nothing to do with practicality.
A Song For A New Day perfectly captures my gut feeling that nothing can replace being physically in the moment, surrounded by other people, sharing a community. Over and over it demonstrates that living is so much more than the practicality, ease, and safety that technology promises to give us. I loved this book, its message, and the way that Luce and Rosemary each sought better ways to live in this quasi-post-apocalyptic world where people isolate in their homes out of fear. Highly recommended.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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17 January, 2020:
Finished reading
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17 January, 2020:
Reviewed