To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara

Saturday, June 11, 2022--San Antonio

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara is the best book I have read so far this year.  It's also the scariest--not due to being a horror tale but because of its prediction of the future of the U.S. based on events already happening; it all seems so realistic and possible (and even probable)!  The book begins in the late 1800s with an alternative history of how what we know as the United States actually consists then as the "Free States," the "Southern Colonies," and the "Western Colonies."  At another point in the novel, it is indicated that Texas has remained as a separate country.  That opening section introduces two families who are among the wealthiest in the Free States--the Bingham's and the Griffiths.  The book continues through separate time periods up to the 2090's.  At each stage, the same last names crop up.  It is implied that the characters are from continuing generations of those two original families, although jumps in the time periods leave out generations and therefore, do not tie them together; the reader never knows what has happened in the generations in-between which means we never know how the newest generations are actually tied to the previous characters we have met.  The intention of the author isn't to tell the stories of these families, but to tell the story of how a country changes as time passes and the factors that influence those changes--creation of wealth and the effects of it being redistributed and becoming diminished through generations, attempts to create a better life for the future, the effects of rebellious family members who are insistent on going their own way in terms of living life, the disconnect between branches of a family that develops in various locations as members have immigrated elsewhere, the way that varying laws affect different family members' lives  according to where they live, the affect that global warning has on the lives of the people and the government, the effects of new viruses developing every few years creating crises, the effect global traveling has on increasing the spread of such viruses, the effect that various crises can have on governments, the tendency for governments to become more autocratic when dealing with a population that is becoming more and more resistant to rules related to continuing crises, the ways that life changes for everyone due to the cumulative affects of all of these events, etc.  The Bingham and Griffith characters, rather than being what the story is about, are just a way to allow the reader to reflect on how the passage of time and circumstances has resulted life being so different for everyone as represented by the Binghams and Griffiths of different generations.  The book has caused me to reflect on how likely it is that the future of our country may NOT be very bright.  I gave the book a rating of 5 stars out of 5 although there are readers who have disliked it because they wanted it to be the story of the families rather than of a changing country or because they did not like the implication that our country is possibly facing a downhill slide in terms of quality of life.