California by Eden Lepucki

Sometimes it feels like divine destiny when certain books enter into our lives, what I shall hereto forth refer to as "book-estiny." Or maybe it just seems that way to us over-analytical, bibliophile, Virgo types, but after reading Eden Lepucki's California, "book-estiny" is the only way to describe my interaction with this compelling, gripping, thought-provoking, haunting peek at a very real near future.

I first heard about California back in 2014 when it was a New Release and Lepucki stopped by The Colbert Report on her book tour. I don't remember any part of the interview but I accept any and all book recommendations, especially from one of my favorite TV personalities. I picked it up cheap with an Amazon gift card then it sat on my shelf for the next two years. Although California would have been as equally relatable back in 2014 as it is now, with the recent death of the Occupy Wall Street movement that's only accomplishment was the degradation of millennials, it couldn't possibly have predicted the political tide of the 2016 Presidential election. Or could/did it?

What could have easily been a cheesy, overly-dramatic homage to what could very well be our near future, is actually quite frightening when you realize it was written two years ago and you suddenly have flashbacks to reading 1984. But rather than distinguish an obvious hero and villain - the winners and loser of the last several years, if you will - Lepucki artfully crafts a desolate and untamed world in which everyone loses under the guise of victory and supreme rule (*cough* President Trump *cough, cough*). And although the story and landscape scream of apocalyptic end-times, it is actually only the result of a political apocalypse skillfully detailed by Lepucki as the best and worst principles to be born from any modern-day revolution. So while California may have gotten lost in the sea of Fifty Shades of Grey and Game of Thrones, Lepucki's startling portrayal of a world controlled by fear would make for excellent discussion material in any University Sociology course. While that was mostly what propelled me through this book, it wasn't why I picked it up in the first place, thus divine book-estiny.

A few years ago I wanted to spend the summer reading non-fiction and now it's become habit; I find the season to be synonymous with WWII and getting lost in the jungle, thus I admit to committing the cardinal book sin of judging California by its cover.

There was very little jungle-roaming involved, nor was it a theme or anything Lepucki put any sort of focus on aside from describing the ravaged LA now-countryside. What did stand out for me, however, was the many possible ways to analytically dissect this novel. Like, the impact children have on a society, both biologically and in terms of culture, and how they alter our perceptions, reality, and the combining of the two; or the fundamentals of each prominent ideology and why no one idea is the perfect formula for a Utopian society; or how and why there is no such thing as a Utopian society, and that despite a revolution, history still has more to teach us, most importantly that we will always rely on each other if our species is to survive. But in spite of all of this, the book as a whole lacked structure and offered very little incentive for the reader to keep going.

I noted early on that although I didn't "feel" the usual "click," I did find myself blindly moving through the book, similar to the way Cal and Frida moved through their daily existence. But while they asked very little questions, I asked many, especially when the book neared the end and it became clear Lepucki had no intentions of wrapping everything up a nice, happy ending. It is hard to determine if she had aspirations of a sequel, or if she just realized that in order to wrap each story up in a nice, little ending package she'd need to write at least 100 more pages and just decided to quit instead. Or maybe that is the final lesson she is trying to teach us - that cycles will continue in the face of insanity; doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results no matter how much planning is involved.

While the lessons gleaned from California abound both in 2014 and in present-day, I felt the hitting to be too close to home, and as much doom and gloom as watching the news. It's possible I might have felt differently had I read the book two years ago but, like 1984, this book will probably always find a way to be culturally relevant.

Book-estiny.