The Arrest by Jonathan Lethem
Lethem appears to be thinking about survivalism and going off the grid quite a bit these days.
The Arrest is takes place in a post-collapse world, in which technology ‘just stopped working’. It’s back to the land for everyone.
The action takes place on a costal peninsula in Maine, which happened to have a century old community of organic farm freaks. Everyone has adapted to nineteenth century technology pretty well, with a communitarian vibe. It’s pretty nice.
Into this relatively comfortable life comes Journeyman’s old friend Todbaum. He’s driven all the way from Malibu in some kind of nuclear powered super tank thing, AKA the Blue Streak. Todbaum has come looking for Journeyman and his sister Maddy (a dedicated farmer). The arrival triggers trouble, as the Blue Streak awakens nostalgia for the old world and the interest of neighboring warlords.
Why is Todbaum here? What does he want with Maddy and Journeyman? What should the village do?
The story wanders back in Journeyman’s earlier life with Todbaum, to their life together in Hollywood, and an enigmatic visit from Maddy. There are no obvious answers in the history of these three.
Honestly, it’s a pretty low-key story. Lot’s of things are never explained, but that’s OK because, honestly, we don’t care.
I have to say that there is a huge suspension of disbelief required, because “The Arrest” itself makes no logical sense.
Having all the screens in the world go dead is certainly wish fulfilment. But this makes no logical sense. Ditto with a sudden end of cars and, most illogical of all, guns. Everything just stop working at the same time, with no precipitating event, is inexplicable, not to say absurd.
If you can swallow this huge absurdity, the rest of the story is Whole Earth Catalog, nostalgia de la boue stuff. The villagers seem to have enough food somehow, even in Maine (which ain’t exactly a tropical paradise.) They seem to get along pretty well by consensus, no one is fighting for control, and somehow they haven’t been overrun by their aggressive neighbors.
It’s all too good to be true.
The illogicallities pile up. In the story, not only is nobody hungry, nobody is sick, nor pregnant. How they manage the last one is beyond me. Since they have no doctor, let alone modern medical technology, this paradise is surely going to become grim real fast.
But forget all that, because the main plot (an atomic tank???) is obviously drawn from comic books and pulp movies.
This is not realism. What is it? Allegory? I dunno.
And that’s my main question. What is the purpose of this story, if any?
These people have a reasonably nice life of their own determination. They are cultivating their own garden, for sure. But that doesn’t seem to be the point of the story, either. The village is not held up as an example to follow.
Lethem yickety yacks about the importance stories here, including suggestions that somehow The Arrest was caused by Maddy’s wishful imagination. As in, we create the world by imagining it. This idea is certainly binging around in Todbaum’s Hollywood producer head, but we find little evidence that it is true and plenty of evidence that he’s bonkers.
So I just don’t know what this is supposed to be about.
- Jonathan Lethem, The Arrest, New York, Harper Collins, 2020.
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