Word: fiction
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...FICTION...
...cliché of U.S. fiction that the lust for power, fame and money destroys the integrity of anyone scrambling to the top, especially in the entertainment world. The heroine of Morris Renek's strong second novel seems, at first glance, to be formfitted to the cliché. Sexy, bright and beautiful, she is determined to make it big as a popular singer any way she can. She succeeds. What is more extraordinary, so does Renek, somehow using a sentimental and unpromising plot to explore the nature of power, the exploitation of sex and some of the redeeming qualities...
...memorable heroine. Unflinchingly viewing the psychology behind the glamor industry's power plays without seeming to drown in the uglier aspects of human behavior, interlacing his pathos with satiric toughness, Author Renek proves that you can write a nuanced novel in the harsh shadow cast by formularized fiction...
...Andromeda Strain is more than just a biological tug-of-war, though. To judge by Crichton's example, the role that the clipper ship used to play in 19th century fiction now is handled by the space program (both novelistically and cinematically, for Kubrick's 2001 held much the same appeal). Where Melville and Dana used to fascinate their readers with descriptions of rigging and trade routes, Crichton delivers mini-lectures on space research, micro-biology, and biochemistry. Meanwhile, names like Wald and DeBakey weave in and out of the narrative. Most of this material is, of course, quite elementary...
This novel's other basic appeal is much more telling. The Andromeda Strain is not really science-fiction in any strict sense. The "science" it treats is too commonplace--even if sophisticated--and it isn't really that speculative. Instead, this book represents a kind of "government-fiction"--the most recent development in the genre of the Washington Novel...