I believe that much of what separates the great dystopian fiction of decades ago from modern works is the political and social climate when the books were written.  When Orwell released his cautionary tales of totalitarianism, the world was living in fear of foreign powers that would at any moment impose their communist/fascist/socialist/scary ideas upon the free world.  Threats to Democracy in the early to mid-20th century, from Germany, Japan, or the Soviet Union, were much more tangible and imposing than those posed today by Iran, Syria, or Libya.  Even though the culture of fear around terrorism and Jihad are similar in many ways to the terrors of the past, the sentiment is different.  And injustices within our own country are met with apathy and ignorance.  Modern dystopia, then, needs to simultaneously remind the reader that our wold is imperfect and full of injustice while also convincing the reader that our lives could get much worse.  Jesse Ball deftly avoids this dilemma by centering the plot around a family drama rather than the world that’s falling apart around them.

The Curfew takes place in a city, which is, presumably, in a country.  And since it’s not happening now, it’s probably the future.  The details are purposely left vague.  What you need to know is that the government no longer tolerates art, music, political discourse, or citizens outdoors after…whatever hour the secret police decide is too late for upstanding citizens to be outdoors.  Minor transgressions are punished with excessive severity.  Many crimes are punished by death immediately, at the scene of the crime.

This is the world in which William, formerly a renowned violinist, has raised Molly, his mute eight year old daughter.  William’s wife Louisa “disappeared” shortly after the crackdown.  Her father was a politician before things got bad.  As a musician, William was forced to change professions.  He is now an epitaphorist.  But the crackdown caused him to change more than his occupation.  A classical musician can be expected to run with an intellectual crowd, but since a crowd of intellectuals would make the government rather uncomfortable, he has cut out his social life.  If he raises any suspicion he will be taken like his wife, leaving Molly without anyone to care for her.

It’s a bleak scenario.  Though the aforementioned occupations have it worse than most, everyone’s life has changed in the world that Ball creates.  It starts bleak and gets worse.  Spoiler alert: this book is a downer.

Though The Curfew is a novel, it reads like a play.  Ball establishes the setting and action as though they were stage directions, and the rest of the content is dialog.  I wouldn’t call this a work of minimalism, but there are very few details used.  We never get a full description of the city, the surroundings, William’s house, or physical descriptions of any of the characters.  The interaction between father and daughter build our connection to them, and the stark contrast between William’s current and former life, despite the fact that they are never really elaborated on, gives us the appropriate sense of despair.  Ball reminds us of the everyday things that we take for granted which could be lost at the hands of government censorship.

The book is broken up into three parts, and the best part is the last, which consists almost entirely of a puppet show, written by Molly and performed by her neighbor, Mr. Gibbons, who also happens to be an expert puppeteer (apparently another occupation lost due to the crackdown).  Here Ball is able to delve into fantasy, and, to some extent, the surreal.  The puppet show reveals more details about William, Louisa, and Molly, than we learn anywhere else in the novel.  It takes place mostly in the past, but it follows Molly up to the present and, possibly, the future.  The ambiguity here is due to Mr. Gibbons’ magic.  To give too much detail here would give away the ending, but suffice it to say that the ending can be interpreted a few different ways.  At first I thought it was one of the darkest books I had ever read.  Upon re-reading the ending, I decided there is hope.  Unfortunately I don’t think there’s anyway to finish the book without feeling devastated.

If you’re not interested in dystopian fiction, you may not like the book.  If you’re looking for a fun, light read, you will certainly not like this book.  Otherwise, you should absolutely read it.  I feel a certain amount of dystopian reading is important.  Ball may not have had any specific target in The Curfew.  There isn’t necessarily one specific nation that I can compare it to.  Instead, I think it’s a warning that the first thing to go when a government cracks down is intelligent discourse and the arts, which are often accompanied by things like rational thought.  In some ways I suppose you could argue that we’ve already lost some of these things.

Another interesting note here is that Ball has perhaps the most cryptic website I’ve ever seen.  I was clicking for minutes before giving up hope that I would learn anything about him.  It may just be weird for the sake of weird, but it at least provides an interesting diversion.

-Roadhouse