Article 5 (2012)
Kristen Simmons
Tor Books ISBN # 978-0765329588
* *
Article 5 is the
latest entry into the dystopia market for teen and young adult readers. It’s the
debut novel from Kristen Simmons, a social worker-turned-writer, and it bears
many of the earmarks of a first book, particularly a not-so-original story and
less-than-sparkling prose. It is, in essence, a mash-up for teens of several
much better books: Margaret Atwood’s Handmaiden’s
Tale (1985), Octavia Butler’s Parable
of the Sower (1993), and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006). Just for good measure, the book’s central
relationship is vaguely reminiscent of The
Hunger Games.
The book won’t win any originality awards, but it’s a decent
pastiche. Its setting is a not-so-distant future in which the United States has
been devastated by an unexplained war. Many of the cities have been abandoned,
those that remain have degenerated into self-contained neighborhoods beyond
which one does not wish to stray (á la Parable
of the Sower), and the Bill of
Rights has been scrapped in favor of something called the Moral Statutes. The
new governing authority is one part theocratic and one part military
junta–think a Christian version of the Taliban.
We meet Lori Whittman, a freewheeling/free loving single mom
living in what used to be Memphis, presumably in one of those suburbs populated
by holier-than-thou evangelicals. In post-apocalyptic America, those Christian
patients now run the asylum–literally. Women are now fair game and Lori is
about to be arrested by the Federal Bureau of Reformation–whose officers are
nicknamed the Moral Militia, MM for short–and sent away to a reeducation center
for her ex post facto sins. Moreover,
Lori’s transgression of Article 5 morals codes also taints her daughter,
17-year-old Ember Miller, who will be sent to a reform school until she is 18.
She will be expected to cleanse her spirit, abandon her will, wear modest
clothing, defer to men, and conform to the patriarchy that governs the United
States. (That’s the Handmaiden’s Tale
part.) To make matters worse, the arrest force includes Chase Jennings, a young
man on whom Ember once had a serious crush, but is now a dead-eyed MM foot
soldier.
As in all such books, Ember is too strong-willed to adapt to
the Dickensian reform school to which she’s sent, or to put up with its
sadistic head mistress. She is fixated upon escaping and rescuing her mother,
though readers are as clueless as Ember on how she’s going to do this. Chase
aids her flight, but can she trust him? (Think the dynamics of Katniss and
Peeta in The Hunger Games.) The two
set off across burnt over and burnt out parts of country, where they will have
to fend off desperate postwar survivors who would be happy to rob and kill
them. They are making their way toward South Carolina, allegedly a refuge
beyond the control of the MM. And, of course, they meet with Resistance
fighters. (The Road, anybody?)
We’ve seen all this before in much better literary form and
with far greater dramatic development. Simmons’ novel has logic holes through
which one could drive several commandeered vehicles. For all its obvious flaws,
though, the book is a breezy read–a classic guilty pleasure. Grade it a B for
pastiche, a C for drama, and a D for originality. It’s also pretty much a PG-13
book devoid of sex or graphic descriptions of violence. Assuming you’re a
non-evangelical parent, the book could be used to discuss with teens important
issues such as the role of women in society, who defines morality, and who
watches the moral watchers. Adult readers will probably find it little more
than light airplane reading that sends them back to Margaret Atwood. Who can
begrudge a book that renews interest in that fine North American woman of
letters? --Rob Weir
PS– While I’m handing out grades, how about an F for our
current state of society? As an educator, I’m alarmed by how few young people
have the slightest belief in the possibility of utopia, but can easily conjure a Hunger Games/Article 5 nightmare future. What does it say about our
society when vampires, zombies, and a Mad Max future populate the teen reading
world?
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