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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Silver Falls Library | SF CHIARELLA | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Jefferson Public Library | SCI-FI CHIARELLA, J. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
In the spirit of Station Eleven and The Age of Miracles , this exciting literary debut novel imagines the consequences when four ordinary individuals are granted a chance to continue their lives in genetically perfect versions of their former bodies.
Would you live your life differently if you were given a second chance? Hannah, David, Connie, and Linda--four terminally ill patients--have been selected for the SUBlife pilot program, which will grant them brand-new, genetically perfect bodies that are exact copies of their former selves--without a single imperfection. Blemishes, scars, freckles, and wrinkles have all disappeared, their fingerprints are different, their vision is impeccable, and most importantly, their illnesses have been cured.
But the fresh start they've been given is anything but perfect. Without their old bodies, their new physical identities have been lost. Hannah, an artistic prodigy, has to relearn how to hold a brush; David, a Congressman, grapples with his old habits; Connie, an actress whose stunning looks are restored after a protracted illness, tries to navigate an industry obsessed with physical beauty; and Linda, who spent eight years paralyzed after a car accident, now struggles to reconnect with a family that seems to have built a new life without her. As each tries to re-enter their previous lives and relationships they are faced with the question: how much of your identity rests not just in your mind, but in your heart, your body?
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
A sick, faded actress, a young art student with lung cancer, a mother who's been paralyzed for eight years, and an arrogant congressman with an aggressive brain tumor form an unlikely cohort whose alternating perspectives reveal what they now have in common. All newly emerged into physically healed versions of themselves following a memory "transfer," these four are prototypes of SUBlife, a cloning-based alternative to untimely death that provides new and improved substitute bodies. The problem is that no one is the same afterward, or even what other people expect them to be. Hannah's tattoos are gone, David can't stomach coffee or meat, and sensations in general are overpowering. Linda, who was paralyzed, is struggling with communication again after years of only being able to blink. "Everything feels too massive, and too terrifying," she thinks. "One for no. Two for yes. Things were so much simpler before." Unfortunately, the story never distinguishes itself from its shtick, despite Chiarella's dogged attempts to translate the ideas into a novel. The unrelenting inner monologue of each character becomes banal, and the big challenges of their new lives never feel as interesting or as true as the much smaller details. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Following an experimental medical procedure, four patients struggle to resume their pre-illness lives. Connie, Linda, Hannah, and David were all near death when they were selected for a trial medical program in which their memories are transplanted into healthy clones of their bodies. Previously strangers, the four meet at a support group they attend over the course of a year as they come to terms with their new, now healthy bodies. Connie, a former actress who was once afflicted with AIDS, considers returning to Los Angeles after her five-year illness but realizes her only meaningful relationship is with her blind neighbor. Linda, a mother who was locked inside her paralyzed body for eight years following a car accident, returns home to find her husband and two children have become accustomed to her absence. David, a conservative congressman, attempts to cope with the stress of hiding his new, cloned body from his constituents, as well as the strings he pulled to be accepted into the program, and begins an affair with Hannah, a young artist whose relationship with her husband, Sam, unravels, in part because she can no longer remember how to paint. Chiarella alternates among the four narratives without forcing connections between the characters and skillfully raises questions about how much of one's identity is rooted within one's body. One minor drawback for this debut novel is the imbalance of these narratives, as Hannah is the most defined of all the characters, while Connie and Linda never quite feel fully realized. However, Chiarella's engaging writing creates so many haunting moments that readers will find themselves moving quickly through the story, as well as awaiting her next work. This is a novel about what it means to be human, with all the flaws and vulnerabilities that implies, and whether we can ever truly begin again. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Normal 0 What radical and far-reaching changes would we make in our lives if we were suddenly given a second chance; if our bodies were restored to radiant youth and health? In Chiarella's contemplative first novel, four protagonists give astonishing first-person accounts of their participation in a medical experiment called SUBlife, wherein their disease-ridden bodies have been swapped for freshly minted clones. Yet, despite their dramatic reboot to young adulthood, the foursome faces some unique and unexpected challenges. Talented painter Hannah, for instance, finds she needs to learn how to hold a brush again; Linda, survivor of eight years of physical paralysis, discovers she can barely relate to her family anymore; soap-opera star Connie develops serious misgivings about Hollywood's obsession with beauty; and right-wing politician David realizes his self-destructive patterns are still intact and decides to block SUBlife's FDA approval. While the futuristic premise may spark interest from sf readers, the target audience is mainstream literary fiction buffs, for whom Chiarella's entrancing prose and fully fleshed characters should garner widespread, enthusiastic praise.--Hays, Carl Copyright 2015 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Gifted artist Hannah was supposed to die of lung cancer, Congressman-for-sale David of brain cancer, has-been actor Connie of AIDS, and housewife and mother Linda trapped by immobility forever. Yet this quartet comprise the first SUBlife cases, and some of their brains-the parts where memories are housed-are transplanted into genetically perfected new versions of their failing bodies. Given a second chance, each must relearn his or her identity, repeating, modifying, discarding, and inventing a future none would ever have thought possible. Returning to relationships with partners, family, and friends as healthy individuals proves to be a daunting, even unimaginable, challenge. As intriguing as the premise is-what determines identity, who gets to live, can science beat death, and so much more-debut novelist Chiarella's execution devolves too quickly into embarrassingly predictable antics-bed-hopping, family dysfunction, miscommunication, all with a seemingly limitless supply of tedious self-absorption...times four. Even the interpretations by veteran narrators Julia Whelan, Joy Osmanski, Rebekkah Ross, and Corey Brill fail to disguise the overwrought drama. Verdict Readers in search of more substantive hybrid fare might consider dusting off Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go or Fay Weldon's The Cloning of Joanna May.-Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.