This Perfect Day

Being alive and experiencing emotions up and down, even the right to be unhappy if you want, mood swings, joys and heartbreaks, human feelings rather than a machine of moderately consistent servitude, the right to be an individual instead of a drone, is our absolute right.

Ira Levin gets this aspect of dystopia spot on, but with so much potential this is a strangely unfulfilling and badly planned out book mostly because the main character, Chip, is an increasingly dislikeable and disagreeable asshole!

The more he tastes "freedom" the more ruthless he becomes, while, as a reader, you're still trying to sympathize with him as a nice guy.

And if you don't believe in the mission and plausibility of the main character, coupled with poor pacing and odd jolts in plot advancement instead of smooth transitioning, you're doomed.

The immaturity and constant references to sex are unrealistic, weirdly unsexy and awkward too.

Ira Levin is a clever author, though, who instills revulsion at a future AI-controlled society, but in this book comes across as old-fashioned, crusty, reclusive and misogynistic, as though it's okay to accept male character turdism because, after all, they're fighting against the oppressive machine.

The concept is fine, but the execution is not, with poor pacing, too many implausibilities, a chucked together plot, dislikeable characters, and an overall feeling that an AI-controlled society where everyone is equal (clones if you like), with similar pay, interests and social lives is not that bad at all! And that's a fail when you can't sympathize with the revolution in favor of poverty, disease and decrepitude.

Isn't it better to live a short life with "attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, C-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate, moments to be lost in time like tears in rain." (Blade Runner) then 60 years of mundane existence? Off course it is, but 60 years of "orgy-porgy" (Brave New World) is preferable to what's offered as an alternative in This Perfect Day.

Ira Levin knows how to do subtle intrigue wonderfully well, but isn't so good at pacey action as you rarely feel in the thick of it but left on the outside looking in, in a rather dodgy thriller that doesn't work.

There's also an extreme sex scene halfway through that's baffling because of the way they carry on as though nothing happened! This reinforces the sensation of assholery, implausibility and disbelief.

No chemistry or passion, just mechanically awkward fucking, no real happiness or joy, humor or laughs, just dry and nasty lubelessness.

This Perfect Day is increasingly annoying!

My guess is the immediate fame and fortune of Rosemary's Baby in 1967 had a negative impact on the focus of this weirdly disjointed and badly constructed novel, which is a surprise in comparison to Ira Levin's normally high standards.

What a pity, but they can't all be winners.