Bacigalupi, Paolo: The Windup Girl
The Windup Girl (2009)
Written by: Paolo Bacigalupi
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 359 (Hardcover)
If you've been following this LJ for any length of time, you know that Paolo Bacigalupi is one of my favorites, and that's saying something, because until now, all I've had of his to read were short stories. When Bacigalupi's debut novel was released back in September, I didn't bother waiting for the stores to carry it. I just promptly ordered it off of Amazon and hoped I'd get a good copy (I did). I was a little bit worried about reading it though, because novels are very different beasts from short stories, though they're made up of the same ingredients. Plus, there's the fact that Bacigalupi's one of my favorites, and I'm always afraid I'll read something by one of my favorites and end up absurdly disappointed. Does anyone else have that fear?
Anyway, I got over it. Obviously, or you wouldn't be getting this review. :)
The premise: this isn't one I can explain easily, so let's go to BN.com: Noted short story writer Bacigalupi (Pump Six and Other Stories) proves equally adept at novel length in this grim but beautifully written tale of Bangkok struggling for survival in a post-oil era of rising sea levels and out-of-control mutation. Capt. Jaidee Rojjanasukchai of the Thai Environment Ministry fights desperately to protect his beloved nation from foreign influences. Factory manager Anderson Lake covertly searches for new and useful mutations for a hated Western agribusiness. Aging Chinese immigrant Tan Hock Seng lives by his wits while looking for one last score. Emiko, the titular despised but impossibly seductive product of Japanese genetic engineering, works in a brothel until she accidentally triggers a civil war.
I should note one thing: this book takes place in the same city as "Yellow Card Man" and features two of the same characters, though the windup girl herself was merely window dressing in the short story.
Review style: stream of conscious. In terms of spoilers, I'm not going to spoil the BIG parts of the story in terms of climax and ending, but there are some things I want to discuss about a certain character's journey that could be considered a spoiler by some, even though it gives nothing away about the plot itself. Clear as mud? Good. If such pseudo-spoilers bother you, skip to "My Rating" at the end of the review. :)
"Yellow Card Man" always impressed me for its world-building and very harsh reality, but it's never been my absolute favorite short story by Bacigalupi. That said, the world-building alone is impressive enough that I wasn't surprised Bacigalupi set his debut novel in the same world, and naturally, if Bacigalupi writes it, I'm going to read it.
One thing to note: the character Tranh from "Yellow Card Man" and Tan Hock Seng from The Windup Girl ARE THE SAME CHARACTER. There's confirmation of this in the book without an explanation of the name change, but I asked the author anyway and he was kind enough to confirm, explaining the following:
Basically, in "Yellow Card Man," I named Tranh before I figured out his back story. I had originally thought of him as having a Vietnamese origin, but later on as I developed the character, and he became fleshed out, he became a Malaysian Chinese refugee. The problem was that by that time, I loved the name Tranh so much, and identified with him that way so much, that I hung onto the name, even when I should have changed it to something more Southern Chinese in origin. Basically, it was a case of having a "pretty" that I should have killed, but didn't.
Unfortunately, when I was working on the book, the problem was still there. In the end, I decided that I needed to get the cultural detail right, even if it made a break with the earlier story. I know that for readers of the earlier story, it's glaringly bizarre, but I felt like I just needed to eat that earlier failure, and not double-down by getting it wrong twice.
Personally, it didn't bother me, and it's nice to see the background on this because it explains a little how an author's mind can work and why authors do and don't make certain changes, even when they should.
Anyway, let's get back to what I liked:
The world-building is EXCELLENT. It's so detailed that I had to slow down and take my time with the book. Also adding to reasons I needed to slow down was the fact that despite the fact Bangkok is a real place, it's a culture I'm UTTERLY unfamiliar with, so there's a lot, language included, that forced me to really pay attention. But this is a good thing: not only do I need something to challenge me every once and a while, but it allowed me to really appreciate the detail that went into the world. Even the multiple POVs didn't bother me all that much, because each character felt real and developed and each had his or her own specific goals and motivations. The characters were truly a part of the world, and while I was never fully connected to them emotionally, I did feel like I recognized them as individuals.
Reading The Windup Girl is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. There's so many little pieces and details that you can't see how in the WORLD it's all going to come together into a novel of all things. Yes, connections between the characters are recognizable, but sometimes I stepped back and wondered where it all was going. The plot is subtle and weirdly political, and when everything snapped into focus, it didn't hit me that THAT was going to be the cataclysm that brought everything to a head. And I have to say, I kind of liked not seeing that coming.
However, for all the strength of world-building and the detail of character, I was, as I mentioned before, emotionally distant. Perhaps that's because I was so engaged in the details of the setting itself and trying to understand the culture that I created a barrier to the emotional impact the book could've had. After all, there are moments where you really feel for these characters, particularly Emiko, the windup girl. Yet I was distanced, and while on one hand I was grateful for that distance (poor Emiko), on the other, I wanted to be blown away. I'm not sure that this kind of book is capable of blowing a reader away on an emotional level though, due to its complexities, as I think it engages more the intellectual side over the emotional side. But I wish there was some kind of balance. I wish I'd been a little more invested in what the end game might be, because for most of the book, I followed these characters through their lives and wondered how it all might come together.
I'm torn on Emiko. At first, I thought that perhaps the book was wrongly titled, but due to her role in the climax, the title makes sense. It's also a larger metaphor for what's happening in the book, so it works in that regard. But the character herself? I may be biased, in that I've met the character in "Yellow Card Man" and because Bacaigalupi's one of my favorites so I'm willing to forgive, but poor Emiko. Truly, she's worth studying because she hits all my pet peeves in fiction: she's subservient and she's a repeated victim of rape and degradation. Yet, the truly frightening thing is that's the way she's made. Emiko was made by the Japanese to essentially be a pleasure doll, and when her owner can't afford to take her home, she's stuck in Bangkok, a place that'd sooner mulch a windup than let it live. It's only on the bribes of her new owner that she's still alive, but at the cost of every ounce of dignity she possesses since he owns a whorehouse and she has to work for him.
This was a trying storyline for me, but it raised an interesting questions. We see these scenes of rape and degradation is detail, from Emiko's POV, but what's fascinating about her character is her awareness of that she is a victim of how she's made. She can't HELP but respond favorably to such orders, let alone when someone touches her in the right place. She was made to do so, even as she mentally resents what she is. Her story, then, becomes one of growth: can she overcome her programming to become something independent, something that doesn't need a master? It's her story that brings the novel to its climax, and I don't want to spoil how that happens other than to say it works wonders, even if I don't like the method it took to get Emiko to that stage.
The other characters I was a little ambivalent about and wasn't too concerned about their fates, either way. Though I will say it was good to see the return of Hock Seng (the character formerly known as Tranh) and I liked seeing where the events of the story and his very own scheming took him. I do wish the "virus" had played a larger role in the climax, as that was one element that ended up getting shoved under the rug in terms of resolution, but oh well. I guess in the end, that virus didn't matter.
The Windup Girl does pack some surprises. Emiko's role in everything is one, but another takes place when the reader is comfortable in what one thinks is the denouement of the story.
My Rating
Worth the Cash: The Windup Girl is a very solid SF debut. It's not perfect, but it should come to no surprise to those familiar with his short stories that Bacigalupi has potential, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he does in future novels. Technically speaking, he's an excellent writer. I think his short stories tend to pack a bigger punch, but I will say The Windup Girl will knock you off your feet if you aren't paying attention. And you NEED to pay attention. This is no fast read. It's complex and intense and requires the reader's full attention. I can't stress enough just how rich the world-building is, and how much the characters are a part of their environment. Everything is harsh and sharp at the edges, and it's not a world you want to live in. To be honest, after reading this and the short story "Yellow Card Man" (which I'd recommend reading before the novel. You can find it in Pump Six and Other Stories), I don't want to return to this place. That's a compliment in its own way, but it's also telling: after this book, you feel like you've lived it, and it's such a harsh, desperate environment that you don't want to return. Hopefully, Bacigalupi's future novels will introduce us to new, yet equally harsh, worlds and give us yet more to stew over. I hear there's a YA novel on the horizon, which I ridiculously look forward to.
I would recommend to readers NOT familiar with Bacigalupi's work to start with his short stories. There's a few reasons for this: while his writing is VERY excellent and he can world-build like nobody's business, overall he's a dark and somewhat misanthropic writer. The short stories will give you a sampling of this, which will tell you whether or not you want devote the time to a novel. So start with Pump Six and Other Stories (which gives you "The Calorie Man" and "Yellow Card Man," both useful prerequisites for The Windup Girl), and if you enjoy Bacigalupi's work, then picking up the debut novel is a must.
Cover Commentary: I really like it, though I was surprised to see no windup girl anywhere on the cover. Perhaps that would've been too obvious? I don't missing out though, because it did give me a beautiful look at the setting itself, and I always find that more useful to my imagination than images of the characters. One complaint about the formatting of the book itself is the half-inch margins at the top of the page. It's too small of a margin and made the book feel crammed in a bad way. Pump Six and Other Stories has this same problem, but it was more noticeable here because it was a novel, not a collection of short stories.
DON'T FORGET: October's book selection is the classic Frankenstein. Have you started reading? If not, hop to it! ;) Details on participation are here.