The US government recently announced that it was lifting its moratorium on funding certain experiments that use human stem cells to create animals that are partly human. At present scientists are only interested in creating entities with some human qualities, but which remain “mostly” animals. For example, some scientists want to create a chimeric pig with a human-enough heart to transplant into a human. Distinguishing between humans and other animals is common in most cultures.
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It's 1953 and WWII has been over for 7 years. In fact, for most of 12-year-old Ella Mae Higbee's life. Her older brother Daniel had been killed in the war in Europe and her cousin Robby Clausen died in the Pacific at Iwo Jima. And while Ella Mae's mother has accepted the death of her son, her Auntie Mildred hadn't accepted that her Robby was gone for good. In fact, she still holds on tightly to Robby's bloody dog-tags.
So when Auntie Mildred heard about a scientist who could re-create a person with just a few drops of their blood in his laboratory, she was ready to welcome Robby back from the dead. There was just one problem - the person who was resurrected using Robby's bloody dog-tags was a young Japanese man. How had a Japanese boy's blood ended up on Robby Clausen's dog-tags? Hysterical, Auntie Mildred, along with Ella Mae and her mother leave the laboratory.
But the lab wants someone to take custody of the Japanese man, whose name is Takuma Sato, and since Auntie Mildred didn't get the son she wanted, it was up to Ella Mae and her mother to bring him home with them, much to the chagrin of Mr. Higbee. By now, Auntie Mildred is convinced that it was Takuma who killed Robby and refuses to speak to her sister for taking care of him.
Indeed, Takuma becomes the unwitting catalyst for long held resentments and hatred in Ella Mae's small California town. While he doesn't remember much about his life before he died, for some who are still coming to terms with family members lost in the war, he brings up their hostile feeling towards the Japanese in general. For others, like the Reverend, the fact that Takuma was created in a lab makes him an abomination on the eyes of God.
Even as tempers flare, even as they are ostracized by family, friends and neighbors for taking in Takuma, Ella Mae and her mother stand firm in their belief that they did the right thing. At school, Ella Mae's cousin and best friend Theo turns his back on her, though when she and Takuma are gone after by the class bully, Theo does get help.
Little by little, Takuma begins to remember his former life, but after a few months, he also begins to physically fail. As he grows weaker and weaker, he starts to draw pictures from the war. Soon the truth about how his blood got on Robby's dog-tags become evident in his drawings. But will Auntie Mildred and everyone else in town be able to accept that what happened on Iwo Jima just didn't happen exactly the way they had thought it had?
The Sound of Life and Everything was an interesting book. It's not often that I get to read speculative fiction that has anything to do with WWII with the exception of time travel books, so this was a welcomed addition. The early 1950s was a time when people were becoming aware of DNA thanks to people like Linus Pauling, Francis Crick and James Watson, all mentioned in the novel. But the science isn't the real focus of the story, merely the means to a way of opening up questions of racism, of forgiveness and of replacing ignorance with knowledge.
I thought Ella Mae was a feisty protagonist in this coming of age story, which is told in the first person by her. Sometimes, though, she is a little too quick with her fists, and yet, she is also a thoughtful young girl willing to admit when she is confused by events and attitudes. She willingly takes Takuma under her wing, teaching him English and showing him her favorite spots to hang out. And when her older cousin Gracie takes over the teaching job, there are some pangs of jealousy.
Ella Mae's mother is wonderful. A deeply religious woman, yet she doesn't hesitate to take on the minister when he refuses to let the Higbees into church with Takuma. And though she acknowledges science, her faith will always be in God, even when it comes to Takuma. But, best of all is how she treats Ella Mae. It's nice to read about a mother who isn't crazy or distant or mean. She is right there in Ella Mae's life, and it's clear she loves and respects her daughter, even when she is mad at her.
The Sound of Life and Everything reads so much like realistic historical fiction, I had to keep reminding myself that it is speculative historical fiction - and while that is the best kind of sic-fi, this is a novel that should appeal to almost anyone.
This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL
I’ve been on a bit of backlist bender lately and with one of my favourite books of 2014 being compared to this I thought I’d give it ago. This is one of the most haunting coming of age novels I have ever read. Set in England in an alternative late 1990s the story is narrated by Kathy […]
Sharp North. Patrick Cave. 2004/2006. Simon & Schuster. 528 pages.
The girl nearly didn't find out who she was. What she was. Sharp North is a perplexing YA novel. Part mystery. Part thriller. Part dystopian. It's set in a future world forever altered by global warming. A future world with a corrupt government. (How many fictional future worlds don't have a corrupt government?) A future world threatened by an underground movement, a revolution in the making. Our heroine, Mira, has a role to play in this world--for better or worse. And it's a role that mystifies Mira. For Mira's future is just as uncertain as her past.
Sharp North begins with a murder. Mira witnesses this murder, this hushed up murder, and it forever changes the way she sees the world, the way she sees her community. In part because she finds out that she is connected to the victim. She finds a piece of paper, a mere scrap, with a list of names. Her name is on the list. And so is the name of one of her friends, Gil Moore. He's listed as "her watcher." But why is he watching her? Is he her friend or her enemy? Is he out to see that she survives? Or is he in place to eliminate her? That's what Mira can't forget, can't erase. Are the people who murdered this mysterious woman, this mysterious stranger, out to get her? What led to this crime? For even if the whole world chooses to ignore it, Mira can't. Was it the woman's curiosity? Well, Mira can't help being curious now!
So Mira sets out on a journey to discover the truth, the truth about who she is, what she is. In a way she's running away from danger just as much as she's running straight into it. For Mira hasn't a real clue who her enemies are and who her friends may be. Is there a safe place for Mira? Or is she destined to upset the balance of those around her?
We meet a few interesting characters in Patrick Cave's Sharp North. Including several members of the Saint family, one of the "Great Families" that govern in this new world.
Maybe other readers can piece together this mystery. Maybe other readers can read it without being confused by the ending--as for me, well, I'm puzzled by how it ended. I still don't know what really happened.
So did I like it? Yes and no. I liked the idea of it. But. It felt like two or three stories pieced together. And it didn't always work for me.
© 2011 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
