Review: The Windup Girl
Paolo Bacigalupi has been making a name for himself in the science fiction community over the last half-dozen years, penning several short stories and collections preoccupied with the same dystopian future (he won two Locus awards for 2008′s Pump Six and Other Stories). In his debut novel, The Windup Girl, Bacigalupi expounds upon his vision of a world dependent on human muscle as its primary energy source. In this grim imagining of Earth’s future, the environment was devastated by global warming and rising oceans; virulent, man-made plagues spread across borders, destroying all indigenous plant life, which in turn obliterated the ancient food chains we depended on for our agricultural needs. Instead of tractors, or even oxen, the world economy is now driven by the most rudimentary of fuels (originating even before fire), the lowly calorie, whether it be massive megodonts (10-ton elephants) harnessed to assembly lines or mere humans turning cranks. Some niches are filled by “New People,” perfect servants carefully crafted in Japanese factories; these New People have been specifically designed to not appear human, some monstrosities with five pairs of arms for picking fruit in the agricultural fields, others more traditionally humanoid but with telltale spasmodic movements to clearly delineate their unnatural ancestry. Thankfully, one of Bacigalupi’s strengths is keeping this captivating setting under close rein; The Windup Girl’s strength lies not in its science fiction, but in the very human characters who inhabit this fascinating dystopia.
Critical reaction to this novel may be politicized, as fossil fuel usage and climate change are certainly hot-button topics at the moment. Adding additional wood to the flame, The Windup Girl’s global map has been completely rewritten, or mostly unwritten: China ravaged by ethnic purges, the European Union abandoned, the United States irrelevant, government power usurped by agricultural mega-corporations engaged in an arms race of genetically engineered plagues and biotech crops. Some critics may see this collapse of the “Old World” powers (the novel describes these changes of fortune with more economic terms, the Expansion and Contraction) as a pointed message about the status quo. While there’s a distinguishable intimation to be found on the pages, proselytizing shouldn’t be confused with postulating; the narrative is careful to avoid blame or recriminations, even when individual characters hold their own opinions. Adding to that, whatever personal beliefs the reader may hold are muted by the exceptionally honest world of The Windup Girl. Even within the opening dozen pages, Paolo Bacigalupi paints an amazing portrayal of the streets, the buildings, the people, all vivid and real. I found this impressive, especially considering that the slums and factory districts of Thailand serve as the setting, a country and culture truly unique from my decidedly Western upbringing. In its gripping immediacy, The Windup Girl reminds me of William Gibson’s seminal Neuromancer, which dropped the reader into The Sprawl, the prototypical cyberpunk metropolis, a living, breathing, sweating, dirty environment that oozed danger and excitement.
Although I am neither a genetic or electrical engineer, the science behind The Windup Girl feels plausible. This isn’t a hard science story focused on the nitty-gritty mechanics of how things work; for the greater part, the science fiction serves the demands of the story, instead of the other way around. However, one topic The Windup Girl doesn’t address is alternative fuel sources; I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to nuclear, solar, tidal, or wind power? There may be an implicit understanding that some of these energy sources are never going to be viable without heavy government subsidization or that the return-on-investment for some technologies never supersedes a 1:1 ratio, but it would be nice to have seen some mention of these technologies and how they ultimately failed in this possible future. The other technology quibble I had was with data storage: one of the protagonists struggles to identify an unidentified fruit he discovers in a local market, going so far as to search through photos from crumbling books and newspapers. I would argue that in a future in which companies participate in genetic research on a global scale, computers able to support the massive amounts of data necessary for genetic tinkering should easily be able to support the comparatively small knowledge contained in something like Wikipedia (less than 3 terabytes). A few decades into this grim future, even a crank-powered mini-computer would be able to accommodate this database, and a company employee dedicating their life to tracking down exotic plants would require exactly this sort of device. Setting aside the nitpicking, The Windup Girl describes an eerily believable future that is worth paying attention to, especially given the current uproar over climate change.
The introductory chapters quickly acquaint the reader with the major players, and they are an eclectic and fascinating assemblage: a ruthless “calorie man” in the employ of an agricultural corporation from the West, his Chinese assistant unscrupulously working to reestablish himself as a self-sufficient business owner, two Thai government officers working to protect Thailand from the plagues and predations of the outside world, and the unfortunate clockwork Emiko, a New Person engineered and raised in Japan as an unequaled personal assistant. None of these protagonists are entirely what they first seem, and the affection readers feel for each character will fluctuate from high to low as the stories meet and interweave. In a world this desperate, there are no good guys or bad guys, only people fighting for themselves and occasionally for what they believe in. Through these characters, Bacigalupi explores several contrasting viewpoints: the intersection of imperialistic western thought and the alien (to us) cultures of southeast Asia. The Windup Girl also focuses its lens on the violent collision of different Eastern philosophies. In total, five different cultures are crammed together in close quarters: Thai, Chinese, Japanese, American, and English (although the British mostly stay in their private bars and drink warm whiskey). With the majority of the novel told from a non-white perspective, Bacigalupi simply amazes with his ability to examine these centuries-old racial conflicts while still creating vivid, sympathetic characters.
I will warn squeamish readers that The Windup Girl can be quite graphic. Acts of racial genocide are described in gruesome detail, and the windup girl, Emiko, has been sold into slavery, working for a sex club catering to the sadistically perverse. All of the characters live in a morally nebulous environment; survival of the fittest has emerged as the new world order, and the niceties of polite society are far and few between, even in the respectful culture of the Thai. That said, Bacigalupi weaves a potent thread of hope and redemption through his narrative. Parts of the story may feel grim, and the final chapters explode into fantastic violence, but the climax is very rewarding and will keep you guessing until the very last page. This debut novel is a stunner, a singular marvel exploding across the pages. The Windup Girl is easily one of the most exciting, vivid, and gripping stories I’ve read in several years, and I strongly believe that Paolo Bacigalupi will be a powerful voice in science fiction for many years to come. Whatever you’re doing, stop it right now and go read this novel.
Plot: 9.5
Characters: 10
Action: 9
Writing: 10
Overall (not an average): 9.5/10
Good review! Bacigalupi paints a very believable bleak future with his words. This book has my vote for book of the year.
If you can find the time, check out Pump Six and Other Stories. There are some fantastic short stories contained therein, some of them set in the same world as The Windup Girl.
Ship Breaker is also worth taking a look at, but Bacigalupi wrote that as a young adult novel, so parts of the writing feel a little tame and the narrative follows a much simpler path.