Book Review - Blind Faith by Ben Elton

If ever a book needed to be reviewed on a blog, it is this one!

Ben Elton has been a favourite author of mine for some time, although this is the first book of his I have read in ages. In his usual style, he takes a hot topic of the day and weaves it into an outrageous and hilarious story. Even though you are laughing all the way through the book, there´s a serious message behind it and his point is well made.

In this book, the “hot topic” is religion, or more precisely, the blind faith in religion. I don´t think that Elton is trying to have a go at all religion in his story, but more how it can get taken out of context and stop people from seeing the big picture.

Blind Faith is set in a future dystopia (I learnt that word from you, Cellobella!) which is a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding (dictionary.com). In this future the world as we know it was flooded after the polar ice caps melt and only a fraction of the population remains. The action takes place in an overcrowded and disease ridden London, where the “Temple” is the all-powerful leading body and man´s previous attempts to “pervert the will of God” with things like vaccinations are now illegal. As a consequence diseases such as measles, cholera and mumps frequently sweep through the population, wiping out a majority of the children.

It doesn´t sound particularly hilarious yet does it, but the way Elton presents this society is so ridiculous that you can´t help but laugh. Everyone is encouraged to express every feeling they have and privacy is frowned upon; there are cameras in every home and everyone is linked together via video networks. The thing that made me laugh the most was that everyone was expected to have blog and expected to post every excruciating detail of their lives on it, preferably with video evidence. It was common practice to “tube someone up” by looking up the videos that person had posted on the web. The protagonist of the story is a rebel who pursues his dreams of having some private thoughts and thinking for himself, a risky business that could get him imprisoned or executed.

I actually think the novel is as much a commentary on the effect of technology and social networking on our lives as it is on religion. In this case religion was the very loose framework to hang Elton´s amusingly written satire. Its obvious he has taken the issue to the extreme in order to make his point. At times it was almost too outrageous, like he was trying to pack too many ridiculous exaggerations of modern life into one novel, but on the whole I found it a funny read. I will probably read more of Ben Elton´s novels and I may go back and read some of the ones I missed.