Modern novels can be tricky. They just don’t seem to hold as well as the classics. In fact, most modern novels that perform well are often partially, or sometimes wholly, set in a pre-2000s world. Contrastingly, and perhaps daringly, Jem Calder’s short story collection Reward System places itself right in the real-world 2020s.
Through the characters Julia and Nick, Calder aims to explore how our lives are greatly different from that of previous eras. Although I cannot decipher too much about the plot without reading into spoilers, it seems to be a humoured and depressive commentary on our modern-day lives. It wants to highlight the loss of humanity within us as beings, particularly those born as part of Generation Z, who seem to be more purposeless and lost than ever — yet are also very, very aware of all the issues that stare us down, without any knowledge or ability to change the ways we must live.
Although it seems to on the fringes of being regarded as ‘woke’, I don’t think it will lack subtly in its observations, or fail to be amusing. However, I could easily be wrong, and it could be a very ham-fisted commentary that possesses the subtleness of an ongoing train wreck, and all the comic value of a dead insect. I guess you and I will have to read it to know… or I can read it, and you can read my review. Either one works.
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