All of Ms. Griffith's works are variations on well-trodden themes, a fact which ought to diminish their value. And yet, the vividness of her imagination, the quality of her characters, the thoroughness of her research, and the willingness with which she explores the taboo combine to make her, for me, a must read.
In a near future Earth struggling with pollution, one family grows extraordinarily rich off the creation and the patenting of microbes which purify polluted water. In order to maintain their monopoly, the family compels governments to purchase from them the gene-protected food the microbes need to stay alive. If the microbes are fed a different food, they will cease functioning as they ought to, a reality which makes their clients utterly dependent upon the family for clean water.
It is into this house of power Lore, our protagonist is born. Interspersed with flashbacks to her unusual and eccentric childhood, Slow River chronicles Lore's struggles to integrate into the real world, away from her family, an estrangement brought about when they refuse to pay the ransom demanded by a group of brutal thieves who kidnap and assault her. Without the protection of her family's fame and fortune, Lore has to live in the world, not above it, which is how she encounters and falls for the city-slick Spanner, a thief who offers Lore shelter in exchange for her companionship in her various illegal endeavors. As Lore struggles to find herself in a world she isn't prepared for, she's exposed to the ugly side of her family's business, a grit which leads her down a path of dark discovery about herself and those who purport to love her.
Slow River gradually and methodically builds to a satisfying conclusion, but the story here, while interesting and engrossing, is almost secondary to the pain at its core. It is the pain of growing up and realizing that all of ones childish understandings are nothing more than lies spun to avoid dark truths. In watching Lore lose her innocence, to the kidnappers, to Spanner, to her family's business, we're reminded of our own adolescences which are, at root, moments of joy glued together by the systematic dispelling of all the illusions that cradled us, that protected us, that incubated us, while we pushed towards adulthood. Lore's journey is the journey of discovering the truth of how the world really works, of all its dirt and its ugliness. And in this, she is a mirror for our own descent into adulthood. This is wonderful and creepy work. (3/5 Stars)
Evan, I'm delighted you liked the book. Especially that you understood the loss of illusion at its core. Thank you.
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