California' is a novel and the works of an American author Edan Lepucki. Due to the authors’ style of writing and themes involved, the novel’s description is a "post-apocalyptic dystopian fiction," since it involves two characters, Cal, and Frida, who move from Los Angeles to the wilderness of the post-apocalyptic California.
Frida Ellis and Calvin Friedman are the main characters in ‘California.’ The two are young lovers who escape from Los Angeles, which is falling apart to Northern California and become foragers and farmers as they live in an abandoned house. There are also places for the wealthy, termed as "Communities" where there is access to the internet, private security and many other extravagances. When Frida discovers she is pregnant, they decide to leave their home and along the way, they meet with August. August works for "the Spikes" and he advises and encourages the couple to abandon their former way of living and find a community that would support them in raising their child. In the community, the couple finds a tradition of a communal vote that decides if new residence gets to stay in the community.
Edan Lepucki portrays the main characters in a manner exudes how sophisticated basic human emotions affects decision-making process, the effect of allegiances and how secrets unravel within certain situations. Although the characters face a post-apocalyptic environment in a near future that looks so bleak, the author still manages to illustrate how impossible it is to change the very nature that makes us human. “How impossible, though, to turn one's back on all the horrors in the world; there had to be another way to live” (Lepucki 39). The author uses descriptive styles to bring out the plight that Cal and Frida are going through. For instance, how the couple lived in the woods and how they discovered their neighbors, the Miller family who were homesteading nearby. The authors tone after the couple finds the Millers dead after being mysteriously poisoned brings out the nature of the landscape in which they lived (Vandermeer 43).
Even when things get bad, the wealthy are still able to live luxuriously, and women do their chores without asking questions. “Men were stupid to forget what good sleuths women could be” (Lepucki 90). Frida’s parents also belong to the group of the rich and live in one of the communities but do not care about the whereabouts of their daughter. The author introduces an engaging critique where those who have the means to survival gather themselves in closed environs and embrace gender discrimination.
Through the events that face Cal and Frida, and the writing style of the novel, Lepucki’s literary exposure of post-apocalypse genre is clearly illustrated. The way the rich are living and the outward view outside the communities make one wonder what happened to the government, only living a conclusion of unreliable leadership.
Works Cited
Lepucki, Edan. California: A Novel. , 2014. Internet resource.
Puckett, Jason. "Lepucki, Edan. California." Library Journal, 139.16 (2014): 50. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
Vandermeer, Jeff. "Edan Lepucki’S ‘California’". Nytimes.com. N.p., 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
