The Water Knife
Paolo
Baciagalupi
Having
recently read a book whose
action takes
place in a waterlogged version of New York City, I decided that it
was only proper that I should
balance
it out with The
Water Knife,
set in the parched deserts and lush luxury towers of future
Arizona
and Nevada. Paolo Baciagalupi's
politicized point of view is immediately evident
in the great care he takes to imagine, establish, and describe his
(frighteningly)
plausible vision of the (frighteningly)
near future. His devotion is evident in full force from the book's
first pages to its conclusion, permeating every inch of the narrative
but lending the setting and situations a vivid sense of realism that
few dystopias- especially
those making very
pointed references to current practices-
manage to achieve. I
am, however, inclined
to give Baciagalupi the benefit of the doubt when encountering the
grotesque economic inequalities, vicious interstate regionalism and
xenophobia, and rampant human rights abuses that create the book's
central conflicts. Nonetheless, while the thoroughness of
Baciagalupi's vision is admirable and its
sheer vividness rarely surpassed, it
occasionally gets in the way of his storytelling. Egregious incidents
include a few particularly annoying references to Cadillac
Desert,
with characters repeatedly referring directly to its prescience;
surely Baciagalupi
could have gotten his point across in a slightly subtler manner,
allowing the message to speak for itself. By
this point in the novel, we readers get
it;
and most emphatically so.
Despite
the author's somewhat smug reliance on overt references to our
contemporary climate crisis, the rich details of the setting are
alone enough to convey his environmentally conscious lessons. Certain
typical, if not outright cliché, dystopian elements help ground the
story, and Baciagalupi adds enough unique wrinkles to make the book
continually
interesting
and his setting genuinely complex without being inconsistent or
confusing. He is an author on a mission, using traditional setting
and story elements to good effect and blending the better elements of
dystopian literature and fast-paced thrillers to create a compelling
narrative that perpetually drives the action forward, even in this
novel of ideas.
Even
if
he can (rightly, I
think)
be accused of producing heavy-handed message fiction, at least it is
built on a solid narrative framework.
Moreover,
his use
of three vastly different narrative perspectives provides a complete
view of the situation, from the luxurious
fountains found in sprawling residential towers to
the
crowded
communal water pumps that cannot possibly sate the poor masses'
thirst. All
the while, each contributes its fair share of suspense before
and after the three
parallel plots
(inevitably)
intersect. Baciagalupi seamlessly
fosters great sympathy for his point-of-view characters, even those
who behave somewhat amorally, and it is genuinely moving to see one
character's sudden growth at the novel's climax- a moment that
fosters genuine surprise without seeming somehow out of place with
the preceding pages. Indeed, it is a masterful moment of meaningful
character development that may
sometimes be lacking in the pulpier genres.
If,
then, the dystopian and moral elements of the novel are solidly in
place, how is The
Water Knife
as a thriller? This is the element in which I was most acutely
disappointed, likely because I (correctly) predicted the location of
a vital clue during its first (unlabeled, but relatively obvious)
appearance and could
thus track its movements amid
the escalating tension.
This prevented me from becoming completely
emotionally
invested
in the narrative, but the set pieces were nonetheless well executed
and enjoyable. The story is played for the highest stakes- nothing
less than the destination of the Colorado River, one of the last
remaining water sources for the Southwest and California- and I was
sufficiently invested in the main characters to care about their
fates and the region's alike. The
Water Knife
may alienate some readers
for its over-reliance on heavy-handed political platitudes, but its
vision of a rain-starved Southwest provides a compelling, and eerily
plausible, setting for the well-constructed thriller laid over the
exquisite framework.
Grade:
A-
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