The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Orbit Books (May 2010) | Paperback, 505 pages
Science Fiction | Dystopian
I cannot tell you how excited I was to be reading and reviewing this book. It’s been on my wish list since it hit the shelves, it’s won awards, it’s had rave reviews and I was looking forward to delving into a rich and vivid world of ‘heart thudding action sequences, sordid sex and enough speculation for two lesser novels’.
Which is one of the reasons I was so disappointed that I didn’t like it. Don’t get me wrong, the premise for this novel is amazing, and a hauntingly good idea, I just found that I had to work too hard to read it, and in the process any enjoyment I had disappeared.
It’s set in a distant dystopian future where a plague has wiped out natural food sources and only genetically made food is available. This is a great hook–I wanted to know more about this, but the opening chapter starts off with Anderson a ‘Calorie’ man combing the streets of Bangkok on the hunt for new genetic food for his company.
I think the style of The Windup Girl is what has me so stumped; because the storyline really interests me. I found it so hard to get into and read, mostly because of the pseudo Japanese words and made up creatures with Japanese sounding names which confused me to the point that I wasn’t sure they were real or made up for the story.
There was no explanation for the world or the food and creatures in the beginning. Nothing to explain the little terms and idiosyncrasies; nothing to make the reading journey smooth so I would slip into the story and become part of it.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want or need everything explained to me straight away, nor do I need great long winded expositions explaining the ins and outs, but I needed something extra than what I was given to help me understand the world.
I’m the first to admit that my knowledge of Asian languages, places and history is very rusty (mind the pun, those who have read this will understand!). Maybe if I had a better understanding of these things then I wouldn’t have found The Windup Girl so difficult to read.
By the time Emiko, the windup girl, who is as man-made as the food everybody eats, turns up in the book, I didn’t care. She’s very interesting, and how she differs from natural humans is really clever, and takes the Japanese children’s toys to a whole new chilling level, but my mind had already started to leak by then, that I didn’t get enjoyment of discovering her life and journey than I could have.
She almost reminded me of the robots in the movie AI, but a story based on the seedier side, that’s barely touched in the movie. I really can’t tell you how disappointed I am that I didn’t enjoy this.
Maybe if Emiko’s introduction was the opening chapter I would have been hooked enough to read through the parts I found difficult and not care about it so much, but because it opened with the rather clinical and unemotional Anderson, added to a world more alien than a fantasy world to me, and I found my head spinning and I was having to reread sections because I was unsure what was actually happening.
VERDICT:
To me, a novel should be a joy to read; you should forget you’re actually reading and be transported into that story. Maybe this supposedly SF literary masterpiece was just too clever for me. I know I am disagreeing with many people, but I really felt like it was written with too much self awareness and a dash of pretence. A whole lotta world and not enough world building.
RATING: 
PAOLA BACIGALUPI ONLINE
Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter
BUY THE BOOK
9 Comments
This sounds like a really interesting story so it's a shame that it didn't work for you. I agree that if a book is an effort to read, it takes the enjoyment out of it. Thanks for sharing an honest review.
Tasha @ A Trillian Books xoxo
Reply
It's too bad you didn't enjoy it. I find the more you were looking forward to a book, the great a disappointment it is if you don't like it.
Reply
What a shame, what is it when you look forward to a book often they end up disappointing you – maybe it's the built up expectation? A great, honest review though
Reply
There wasn't much Japanese in this book, that I noticed. A few names, yes, and I could have sworn that Gi Bu Sen would have been somebody named Gibsen and not Gibbons, but most of the rest of the foreign language was Thai, not Japanese. Which makes sense, given that the book took place in Thailand, after all.
Myself, I quite enjoyed this book. It wasn't the best I've ever read, but it was good, filled with a lot of detail and thought about a potential future that we're seeing that beginnings of today. I wouldn't call it dystopian, either, since the society doesn't even pretend to be perfect, it doesn't have the same rigid rule-and-law structure that comes along with dystopias. Borderline steampunk, yes, but not dystopian.
But that's just my opinion on it. I quite liked reading a review that was different from my own. (My review of this book is scheduled to appear on my blog in a day or so.)
Reply
You gave a diplomatic review here; I would still be interested in checking it out even with your reservations. There are books I've read that I recognize are not bad books, but not for me.
Reply
I think it was just too…literary for me…I felt like it was trying to be clever and being too interested in the style and language of the book rather than the telling of the story.
I still think it's an awesome idea for a novel, I just don't think I enjoy Bacigalupi's style, that added to the odd Thai (sorry for getting that wrong folks, but it just show that I didn't get it lol!) phrases on top of it, just made it drag, and then i found I just didn't care about the characters:(
i think of it as a dystopian world because of what's happened to the food stuff and how it's changed the world for the worse, dystopian isn't about pretending to be perfect, to me it's a distant future that is worse than what we live in now.
I'll definitely be interested in reading your review, bibliotropic, it's good to see different opinions!
Reply
I just finished reading this book. Like you, I just knew I was going to like it. In the end…I didn't so much. Glad to see I'm not alone.
Reply
Finally a not so glowing review of the book. Good to see that I am not alone, as well.
And I find the "secret" of the new people that is revealed towards the end kind of comical, for me.
Not saying that's it's bad, just saying it's quite average. I just feel it doesn't live up to all those awards and glowing reviews.
Reply
I just read your review after already having read this book. I was just curious what others thought before attending my book club. I had the same feelings. I was looking forward to reading this book and I didn't think he did a good job of weaving the story and drawing in the reader. I found it to be hard work to focus on the book in spite of the fact that I loved the storyline.
Reply