Make Room! Make Room!

by Harry Harrison
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Publish Date: August 31, 2010
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Overview

It is the year 1999 and the world has become grimly, terribly overpopulated. This is the premise of Harry Harrison's 1966 novel Make Room! Make Room! and fans of his more comic work may be surprised at this bleak, foreboding novel. But Harrison's purpose in writing this book was serious and his concerns were real. Although his fears thankfully did not become a reality for the inhabitants of New York and the rest of the United States, the novel remains a gripping, thought-provoking work about privacy, deprivation and desperation.

A teeming New York City serves as the setting for the novel's nimble storyline, a detective's pursuit of the killer of a nefarious racketeer. While the novel contains elements of classic detective fiction-the hard-boiled protagonist, the seductive mistress, the portraits of corruption and perfidy-Harrison's true concern is less the story itself and more the opportunity the story offers to take the reader on a tour of a dismal, broken world. Overpopulation has altered daily life in innumerable ways and Harrison is keenly interested in detailing the effects of this catastrophic human burden on all aspects of human relationships.

Movie lovers might recognize Make Room! Make Room! as the basis for the 1973 film, Soylent Green, which starred Charlton Heston. Although that film has become something of a cult classic, Harrison and other fans have taken issue with its interpretation of the novel. Concerned about audiences losing interest, the creators of the film made cannibalism, not overpopulation, the thematic focus. As a result, fans of the movie and critics alike will want to revisit the story in its original, un-bowdlerized form. |||This book is sold in the US by Sony Electronics Inc. |||This book is sold in Canada by Sony Electronics Inc.

Author Information

Harry Harrison

Science Fiction writer, Harry Harrison was born Henry Maxwell Dempsey on March 12, 1925 in Stamford, Connecticut. At the age of two, his family moved to New York and he grew up there. He was drafted into the U. S. Air Corps directly out of high school. After leaving the Air Corps, he attended art school. He worked as an illustrator for science fiction magazines and comic books. In addition to his success as an illustrator, he wrote short science fiction stories and novels. He is the creator of "James Bolivar 'Slippery Jim' diGriz," the main character in his 'Stainless Steel Rat' titles. Other titles include Deathworld, West of Eden, Stars and Stripes Forever, and the Bill, the Galactic Hero series. He wrote under the pseudonymns Hank Dempsey, Felix Boyd, Wade Kaempfert, Cameron Hall, Philip St. John, and Leslie Charteris. Many of his works have been translated into over 12 languages. 030

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