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Book Review of Bug Jack Barron

Bug Jack Barron
Bug Jack Barron
Author: Norman Spinard
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
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Spinrad in the 1960s lays out a future in the 1990s where race relations are worse than ever, with black people getting ever poorer and white people richer and both more segregated from each other than ever before. Benedict Howards is running a freezing foundation that freezes people who can afford it in the hopes that someday the foundation will come up with a cure for aging and with it, immortality. Bennie wants Jack Barron, a baby Bolshevik turned tv star, to use his show to push the Freezer Foundation's bill through Congress.

It's an attempt at a tour de force that falls flat to this modern reader, reading it with a black man currently president and cringing at the misogynistic storyline given to Jack's lover, Sara. I'm sure it had its place back in the day, but it didn't age well. Still, Spinrad's writing style is enjoyable enough to read.

Check out my full review.