McSweeney's 32: 2024 A.D.

This is book that I most definitely judged by its cover. I picked it up in the library as it has a very pleasing cover design. The decision to read it was based on the blurb - a series of short stories composed in 2009 by a variety of US authors. Their subject matter, life in some specific place in 2024. I enjoy extrapolations of the future and, indeed, this book contained some interesting ideas. Inevitably, though, the stories were a mixed bag. As often seems to be the case with short story anthologies, the opener was both the longest and the best-written tale of the bunch. Set in Johannesburg, ‘Memory Wall’ dealt rather beautifully with inequality, memory, and aging. The characters and imagery were well-developed and the plot show more nicely paced and satisfyingly concluded. Amongst the others, none quite managed the same combination of neat conceit and effective realisation. I think this is partly because several of stories seemed determined to be about dysfunctional romantic relationships, which disappointed me. It is more than possible to write a short story without centering it around a couple who don’t understand each other; this is a trope I am very tired of.

Nonetheless, there were notable elements in the later stories that kept me reading. ‘Raw Water’ created an impressively unsettling atmosphere on the shores of an artificial lake. ‘Eighth Wonder’ also evoked its setting, The Dome, very viscerally. The language of the place and its isolation reminded me a little of the film adaptation of ‘Snowpiercer’. ‘Material Proof of the Failure of Everything’ includes a nice edge of political satire. ‘The Netherlands Lives With Water’ has a tedious protagonist but an impressive air of impending doom. The last couple of stories, ‘The Enduring Nature of the Bromidic’ and ‘Sky City’ attempted a combination of big idea and stylistic innovation, which neither of them really managed to pull off. The former was incredibly hard to follow, the latter consisted entirely of clunky dialogue. Yet I liked both the central concepts - of a cultural fragmentation undermining America and an upper atmosphere filled with refuse. Overall, the collection is worth reading not just for its highlights, but also as a demonstration of the uncomfortable discontinuity that can be found between literary fiction and sci-fi. There are many wonderful novels that combine the two, however some of these stories struggle with the reconciliation. show less

One of the more interesting McSweeney's concepts: ten short stories, each set in 2024 (15 years after the original publication of the volume). Very different takes on things, of course, and expectedly uneven, but Anthony Doerr's "Memory Wall," Well Tower's "Raw Water," and couple of the other stories were quite decent.

The premise for this sturdy, good-looking hardback issue is a story from different locations, each set 15 years in the future, so in 2024. Here in 2023, the authors' predictions for tremendous changes due to climate change and big advances in technology hasn't quite come to pass. Things haven't turned out so gloomy. The quality of the authors in this edition is amazing and I still remember a few of these stories quite well nearly 15 years later. I'll have to remember to read this edition again next year.

Memory Wall

By a convoluted path, memory tapes from an aging wealthy white female help a dying African youth give a new life to a struggling African family.

The mystery of figuring out what was going on made an intriguing beginning but the story became more common (and able to be set in the current time) as it progressed.