My Weekly Book

Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham

I had a sudden urge to read this. I used to read a lot of John Wyndham as a teenager – the school library was stuffed with his books and I was rather self-consciously aware that I ought to like science fiction. I wanted to find out how well the books had stood up to the test of time and how much they really were what we would now call ‘young adult’ books. Accordingly, I got out my trusty library card and made a couple of reservations – my local authority has actually made it into the 21st century vis a vis the Interwebs and an online reservations system. I chose to read one book I remember enjoying from childhood, The Chrysalids, and one I had never read before, Trouble with Lichen.

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And it was a fairly remarkable read, albeit one that has very little to do with young adult fiction. It is ’science fiction’ in a very tightly-defined, rather domestic sense. Two people arrive independently at a scientific discovery that will change the world – with social implications that are so great its inventors can hardly comprehend them even after years of trying to think them through. The book examines what happens when word of this discovery, inevitably, gets out. It’s very much of its time – in the same way as something like the Famous Five or Arthur Ransome books – which is something that doesn’t exactly increase its accessibility. But it’s also ahead of its time in that the author puts forward some strong pro-feminist ideas about the role of women in society.

It takes some stylistic risks – passages made up of sections of newspaper articles, snatches of conversation or discussions between characters who are never introduced or seen again made up some sections. It’s quite an expositional book – leading characters have passages in which they make speeches setting out arguments – but since this is a book about ideas this is not the problem that it might have been. All in all I found it interesting, challenging and quick to read – which may have been why Wyndham was tagged as a ‘teen’ author when I was a teenager. I’m glad I read it and will keep on reading.

Some links:

• John Wyndham’s Wikipedia entry
• The Guardian: John Wyndham
• Online short story: Consider Her Ways

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 2nd, 2006 at 10:32 am and is filed under 2006 reading challenge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.