Book Review: The Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates

The Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published November 2018 by Ecco

Joyce Carol Oates is one of the greatest writers living today and there are few who would argue against that position. It had been some time since I read one of her books and when I saw the title and read a brief summary I thought I needed to check it out. This book is very much a reaction to modern political issues and the Trump era it is not as direct as some might suspect. If forced to make comparisons I would say it is part Handmaid's Tale and part Philip K Dick's Time out of Joint. It is hard to explain how this worked without giving spoilers for the third act.

The book opens on a choppy in-direct narrative that gives background on the dystopia where the novel takes place. This country is NAS-23 a combination of North American countries loosely run by reality stars. Don't worry too much on the details JCO is not focused on them after the first few pages. We get short lists of rules, some history lessons. While JCO sorta breaks the rules with a series of info dumps, most of the world building is nicely slid into the narrative after the early chapters. After all this set-up we move into the story through the point of view of Adrienne who is arrested after giving her valedictorian speech. Her punishment to be exiled into Zone 9 for her university studies.

At first, it might seem like this Midwestern college town in Wisconsin is ideal but it is a bigger change than she expected. Exile includes teleportation back to 1959 - Zone 9 is a place in the past. The first act sets up the A Brave New World/ 1984 style dystopia and then takes a dramatic turn when the book goes back into time. JCO does a great job of contrasting the struggles of the past with stagnation of the present. That seems to be the over-arching theme, but don't worry knowing that going in doesn't weaken the vibe of the book. It is funny to me that some readers are calling this novel YA, it is simply that JCO is using many tropes of the YA dystopia genre as a starting point but there are several very heavy and deep themes of cold war politics, psychology and personal identity in this book.

Adrienne is a great character who seems to fit the genre stereotypes but her arc is not the same. While she briefly experiences social justice movements she doesn't end up leading the rebellion. JCO seems to want to make a point to the readers who relate to this dystopia heroes about the times when she was growing up.

It is easy at times reading this book to miss the sheer levels of genius at work, and this lends itself to thinking about it long after you close it for the last time. This is the first top ten read of the year contender and certainly a book I highly recommend it for my readers.