The Windup Girl

A look into a near-future Thailand, where environmental degradation and the spread of crop diseases have lead to mass food shortages that make those who control genetically modified crops unbelievably wealthy. The story follows a number of characters (a refugee from war-ravaged China, a genetically modified human on the run, an employee of a Midwestern crop company, and a corrupt environmental ministry captain) as the mounting pressures that plague the capital make for an increasingly dire situation as multiple groups vie for power.

I found myself disappointed with The Windup Girl, especially after reading Bacigalupi's later work The Water Knife. Let me explain. I find myself drawn towards Bacigalupi's works specifically because they focus on near-future environmental disaster type scenarios. Some of this interest comes from my own personal draw towards environmental issues, but I also think that these types of scenarios make for inherently compelling stories. Unfortunately, I found that most of the descriptions of the world in The Windup Girl to grow stagnant after the first 50 pages or so. Bacigalupi uses the same descriptors over and over again for the beleaguered city and its inhabitants. Somehow he made this world feel stale after awhile. The writing doesn't add much here either, as his prose is average at best typically.

The world he does draw is horrifyingly believable. A world where self-interest still reigns supreme, even as quality of life continues to crumble. The book spends a lot of time focused on corruption, and the ways that effects not only individuals, but on the future outlook of humanity. There's also some focus on loyalty and karma of ones life, which I enjoyed. Somehow the characters must balance what they need to do to survive, while also maintaining a righteousness to their actions.

The plot itself was excruciatingly slow to start. Over half way through the book, and not much had actually happened. The ending was fast-paced as Bacigalupi ties all of the loose threads of his plot together, but felt a little rushed, like he didn't leave himself enough time to do so. The characterization is where the Bacigalupi spends most of his time. Every main character is morally ambiguous, is driven by independent goals, and finds themselves stymied by the world that they live in. I genuinely enjoyed them all. I did however find that Bacigalupi continually went back to the same wells of characterization. Over and over again we were told about the same few events in the characters past that has lead them to where they find themselves in the present. I wish that the characters had developed better over the course of the story.

This edition of the novel comes with two short stories tacked on to the end, that are both set in the same world as the titular story.

The Yellow Card Man give us some background on one of the characters in The Windup Girl. It was great, as it made the character much more fully fleshed out, but it made me wonder why it wasn't just included in the novel. The Calorie Man, the second story, was also pretty good. I think that the short form of these stories plays to the authors strengths. He's able to create something with depth in a short amount of time while not getting bogged down by length.

Overall I think The Windup Girl is a flawed novel, but one that I found enjoyment in nonetheless. I think that a slimmer, more heavily edited version could've been better, at least in my estimation.