'The Resisters' Could Use A Little More Resistance
Gish Jen's new novel takes place in a dystopian future country called AutoAmerica, where the swamp-dwelling underclass — called "Surplus" — are set against the fair-skinned, land-dwelling "Netted."
President Warren G. Harding once urged the American people to "strive for production as Babe Ruth strives for home runs."
In Gish Jen's inventive but muddled dystopian novel , production is no longer the problem, though home runs are still in demand. In the country Jen calls "AutoAmerica," AI and automation have created such a glut of stuff that the underclasses exist to consume â "[n]ot that
