Review of THE FORCING by Paul E. Hardisty

 4 Stars

This dystopian thriller is frightening because it’s believable, given that what is described is already happening to some extent.  Just last month the Doomsday Clock, a symbol that represents the likelihood of a human-made global catastrophe, was moved to 90 seconds to midnight!

Angry at years of denial and inaction to address issues such as climate change which threatened the world, a government of young people has taken control of a unified North America.  All those older than a prescribed age are held responsible for the state of the planet so are punished by having their assets confiscated before they are forcibly relocated to abandoned towns in the southern U.S.  The narrator David, known as Teacher, and his wife May are moved from Calgary to Brownwood, Texas.  There they share an apartment with five other people.  Conditions are harsh in what is really an internment camp, but it’s his witnessing some violent incidents which convince Teacher they must escape. 

There is a split narrative structure.  In the present, David is 78 years old and living in Australia with his family.  He has decided that he must write about his experiences so there is a historical record.  He wants his children and grandchildren to know what happened.  The other part of the narrative is David’s story describing events beginning with his receiving a letter about relocation. 

Conditions on earth are hellish.  David mentions volatile weather patterns, melting icecaps and tundra, droughts, and fires increasing in frequency and intensity.  Islands and coastal cities have been submerged, lakes and rivers have been acidified, agricultural productivity has dropped dramatically, millions of people have been displaced, wars are fought for food, animal species are extinct, and coral reefs have degraded. 

Human responsibility is made clear:  we fill the oceans with plastic waste; we insist on “the continuous cycle of cheap, ever-changing disposable fashion, the permanent upgrade cycle of consumer electronics”; we’ve accumulated debt, thereby burdening future generations, and have done nothing to address economic inequality; “coal-fired power stations and refineries and mines [pump] shit into the atmosphere”; drilling for oil in the ocean has resulted in spills; and forests are cut for profit.  And we do little or nothing to rectify the situation:  “In myriad ways and at an infinite number of junctions, other choices could have been made, and each of those decisions would have ripped out through time and space and across all humanity, and the course of history could have been changed.”

I appreciated the reference to the role of fake news and misinformation.  David mentions people being “manipulated by all of the garbage on the internet and in the media, where any hack or grievant could post whatever rubbish they liked, camouflaging it as official, credible, where everything was exactly the opposite of what it claimed, where every site whose tagline claimed to provide ‘independent objective information’ was guaranteed to be a platform for extremist polemic, where facts and truth were garbled and mashed and cherry-picked to suit agendas.”  The narrator accuses a wealthy industrialist that when some people raised the alarm, he “’bribed governments, financed campaigns designed to cast doubt in the minds of people everywhere, paid celebrities and bogus scientists to confuse the public.’”

The protagonist is a likeable character.  He cares for other people and, like Kwesi and Francoise – two of his housemates, recognizes the need to work together.  He is introspective, wondering whether he could have done more, and living up to his nickname, feels it important to teach the world about the errors made in the past. 

The obvious villain is Derek Argent who epitomizes the worst of humankind.  He is insensitive and arrogant.  Greedy and self-centred, he is willing to manipulate and exploit others. For instance, he willingly takes food from his housemates but doesn’t share what he has.  Even when he purportedly has the interests of others in mind, it is revealed that his motives are always selfish.  His surname, a reference to the metal silver, is perfect because growing his personal wealth is his primary concern.  And he used his money “’to hide the truth by sowing doubt, spreading disinformation, and lies . . . [and] spent millions to make scientific fact look like a debate.’”  The portrayal may not be intentional, but I thought of Donald Trump.

There is tension throughout.  Many people are concerned only with their own survival and will do whatever is necessary to ensure that.  The internment camp has its dangers, but then so does the world outside.   Society has become intolerant so homosexuality is considered a deviancy.  Women are enslaved and treated as breeders.  David and his companions are warned about traveling south:  “’What remains is in control of pirates, miscreants.’” 

Despite the dire state of the planet, there is still hope.  We need to recognize our flaws:  “we lost sight of the natural rhythms of the places around us and began to believe that we were masters of everything we saw and touched, and so we ceased to wonder.”  David’s life in the present suggests that the natural world can recover and people can return to a simpler life more in tune with nature.  And “Every day is an opportunity.”  In the meantime, if we do not act, we are culpable:  “how we decide to use this precious ebb of time is what will determine the fate of the world and of all those we love.”

This is a powerful and thought-provoking story of how our inaction will have devastating implications for future generations who will have to rebuild what we’ve destroyed.  Terrifying in its realism, this is a must-read book.  Anyone not affected by it has not been paying attention to current events.