THE ENDLESS PAVEMENT

by Jacqueline & William Perlmutter Jackson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 11, 1973

A forbidden apple brings salvation in this uncommon fable, set in a grim future when people live in Home-a-Rollas, children go to School-a-Rollas, individuals are bolted into their own personal rollabouts, everyone watches auto races on their family screens and eats fortified but tasteless calorie sticks -- a world all tightly and efficiently controlled by a master Computermobile. Then one day the young heroine, Josette, discovers an anomalous apple tree beneath a cloverleaf, slides from her rollabout and picks the fruit. She is of course reprimanded severely but before she can be reattached to her rollabout with ""special bolts that only the Central Wrench can loosen,"" she throws the apple at the Great Computermobile, thereby wrecking the panel and bringing all the machinery to a halt. Whereupon people everywhere emerge from their hatches and Josette walks to meet them. That such use of the legs would be physically impossible given Josette's sedentary history should probably not disturb us, but it does make the concluding optimism less persuasive. However, Josette's mechanized world is impressively projected without a false note or a touch of the heavy handed overkill most authors would employ. The book's design -- with the story set like poetry, a few words to a line -- helps to sustain the mood and the flow, and Cuffari's black and white pictures have a floating, surreal quality that fits the style and the theme without surrendering to the ugliness of Josette's world.

Pub Date: Oct. 11, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Seabury

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1973

Categories: FICTION