Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
So I finished the trilogy today
I don’t often go for the top 100 stuff, but Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy intrigued me. I don’t think I’ve ever read such a dark story from the YA genre. On the one hand, it’s surprisingly chaste (enough soulful kissing and hand-holding to make a Twilight fan happy, but not even a hint of anything warm and slippery). On the other, the trilogy often wallows in depression and despair.
Premise: post-apocalyptic Earth, not much left in the world except for a relatively tiny group of Americans. SF readers won’t like this bit because Collins doesn’t bother with set-up or detailed explanations. Who knows what trashed 99% of the world’s population or why only Americans have survived. Anyway, here they are, the fascistic, oppressive Capital and its 12 liege states, the Districts. And since the Districts are heir to a failed rebellion nearly 75 years earlier, they must forever be punished in the annual Hunger Games, in which a male and female teen (12 to 18 years old, to be precise) from each District are obliged to hunt one another to the death until only one of the 24 remain.
Classic crucible-type novel, heavy inspiration from Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” a certain old Star Trek episode (if he has the time . . . if he has the time), and Roman gladiatorial bloodsports. Collins may not get points for originality, but she does run with the premise and squeeze quite a lot of good drama (some would say melodrama) with a minimum of deus ex machina saves. Think Survivor Man with kids, many of them ill-equipped for the challenge. Kids with nasty sharp weapons.
And it’s all televised. The humiliation of the Districts requires that the citizenry including family and friends of the players are obliged to watch the Games play out to their bloody end. The Capital’s rich, privileged class eat up the Games, of course. It’s great entertainment for them.
The trilogy follows its protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, through her first Games, and of course it would be telling to give you much insight into books two and three. I will say that with regard to who lives and who dies, the conclusion of book three didn’t surprise me, but the way Collins arrived at that conclusion was a bit startling. But do I recommend it? I’m not sure. The first two books were a hoot, and I was impressed that book two didn’t fall prey to the usual middle-book sophomoritis. But the third book was tedious. Look, I understand that the protagonist is being stage-managed, but should the novel feel stage-managed too? Does the author’s heavy hand need to appear on the page again and again?
But it’s YA, I tell myself, and the author’s craft needn’t be at its peak for the book to be successful. Otherwise J. K. Rowling would still be living out of her car.
D.
