Gabrielle's Reviews > Radicalized: Four Tales of Our Present Moment

“Some things, America would tolerate, but other things, it would never, ever forgive.”


This was my first Cory Doctorow book, and I think it goes without saying that this guy is extremely smart and has a very keen understanding of how the world works, and how people can get pushed around by said world. This collection of four contemporary dystopias was published in 2019, and two of them are so eerily prescient that I cringed almost the entire time I read them. But I bet that doesn’t make Mr. Doctorow feel smug; I’m sure he’s just a little sad that his speculative fiction hit reality on the nose so accurately.

“Unauthorized Bread” is a story of immigration and predatory capitalism that ties together the struggle of one refugee to make a stable and safe place for herself in the United-States, after an endless and convoluted process of immigration, only to find herself held hostage by her... toaster? I suspect the inspiration here is those coffee machines that only accept pods of their own brands and essentially hold their customer base in a bit of a stranglehold, because without their specific product, their machine is a very expensive and useless brick.

“Model Minority” is a thinly (read: barely) disguised Superman story, the one I’ve wanted to read for a long time, because honestly, those superheroes’ obliviousness about social problems gets a little weird sometimes. I get that Lex Luthor needs his ass kicked, but what about the cops who more or less openly murder people on the street with little to no consequences? I read this story a week or so after Derek Chauvin got convicted, and even now, I hardly dare to be cautiously optimistic. That’s exactly the feeling this story captures: one instance of police going too far made a cause celebre, but at what price?

The title story, “Radicalized”, is about the inhumanity inherent to not having universal health coverage, and making life-saving treatments and medication so expensive that people are left with very little choice but to die. Joe’s wife survived her cancer, but it was nothing short of miraculous. When he thought she was dying, he had joined an online forum that served as a support group for him and other men who had lost a loved one because insurance had refused to cover the cost of a treatment that might have saved their lives. Joe soon realizes that instead of soothing those grieving men and helping them heal, this forum pushed them deeper into their rage and resentment, until the only viable outlet for any of them is to blow up the insurance companies who they hold responsible for their loss. Full disclosure, I work for a Canadian insurance company, and it is a little more complicated than Doctorow writes it, but I am also keenly aware that people who’s claims are denied don’t care that 99% of people who work for an insurance company are ordinary people just trying to do their job and get by, just like everyone else. All they know is that their claims are denied and they are pissed. And I get it. I have zero problem believing that there are people out there who feel exactly the way Doctorow’s characters feel, and that sooner or later, one of them might snap. I don’t think this one is speculative fiction.

Finally, “The Masque of the Red Death” is the 2020 version of Poe’s famous story, where a rich asshole decides to hole up and wait out an “Event” with a few cherry-picked companions, fancy scotch and lots of guns. But here’s the thing about rich douchebags: they don’t actually understand survival because it has never been a real concern for them. They think they are smarter because they have resources, but some things don’t respond to bribes or bullets. This one actually uses the word “pandemic”. I’m a week away from my COVID shot, but seeing that word in so-called fiction written two years ago makes me grind my teeth. But this story also made me think of this brilliant song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz4fP...

Doctorow’s writing is clean, without frills, but full of compassion and humanity. Despite the upsetting themes he chose to write about, he believes in people. If you are interested in his ideas, add this book to your shelf, but maybe wait a few months before reading it. It hits a little close to home... I’ll be looking for more of his work.