Of fungi and algae, feminism, and old age

If you discovered a substance that delayed the ageing process, would you make it known immediately? I won't. We live longer lives now anyway than people who were around in the last century. And besides, adding years to our existence just might prove detrimental to the planet, considering that we have been f**king ever since.

In John Wyndham's excellent 1960 novel, Trouble with Lichen, that particular substance can be found in lichen, an organism that exists from the symbiotic relationship of a fungus and an alga. This relationship is ironic, as it's discovered separately by Francis Saxover and Diana Brackley, whose relatioship is anything but.

Saxover seems to be the passive character in the novel. Even though he owns the scientific company that isolated this substance, he doesn't make the breakthrough public, choosing instead to administer it just to himself and to his daughter and son. Brackley, on the other hand, an employee of Saxover, takes it upon herself to give the substance to as many women as possible.

Brackley, soon after she found that active substance in the lichen, resigns from Saxover's company and opens up her own beauty salon. For her, it's the only way to spread it to women without them knowing it. It's also her own radical way of subverting society's patriarchal dominance which she feels has inhibited women's roles in the world. She's the perfect feminist—one who has both beauty and brains.

Of course, as soon as people find out about this lichen, chaos breaks out. The inevitable issues are also brought up. Should this drug be made available to everyone? There's not enough lichen to produce it, so who should get it first? What about resources? Does the world have enough to sustain individuals who will live up to 200 or 300 years?

Trouble with Lichen is different from the other novels by Wyndham. For one, it's very political and philosophical. There are whole chapters exploring the arguments of both Brackley (who's for  the drug's immediate distribution) and Saxover (who's against it). The science fiction element in Trouble with Lichen isn't even the dominant theme. There's no space travel, no heavy techie stuff. What we have are mass riots and demonstrations, oily journalists out for a story, crafty wives and boyfriends, to name a few.

The novel is still very much enjoyable though. It doesn't have the scope of The Chrysalids and The Day of the Triffids nor the macabre factor of The Midwich Cuckoos. It doesn't play the paranoia game more effectively than Chocky. But Trouble with Lichen's plot is still ingenious, and I can't help but think that it somehow inspired a whole lot of sci-fi novelists to write books with similar stories.

Read this book if:

1. You'll read anything by John Wyndham.
2. You know that living up to 200 years just looks good on paper.
3. You love classic science fiction.

An adventure in a tree

Toby Alone by Timothée de Fombelle is a beautiful book for young adults. From the clean, white book paper to the wonderful illustrations of François Place that can be found in many pages, it makes a wonderful addition to one's bookshelves. The cover by itself is simply a work of art. The story, though, is another matter.

The main character of Toby Alone is Toby Lolness, your average 13-year-old thrown into difficult circumstances. Toby and his family live in a huge oak tree, with the upper echelons of society living in the treetop. You see, Toby and the rest of the tree people are only a millimeter tall; the tree they live in is their world. And this world is threatened by one Joe Mitch, an oily character whose only concern is to build huge housing projects by boring through the oak using weevils. When Toby's father, the esteemed scientist Sim Lolness, declares to everyone that the tree is a living thing and that its sap is the "lifeblood" of the mighty oak, the family is forced to live in exile in the Lower Branches.

Toby's adventure begins when his parents are forced to go to prison for not revealing the secret of the tree's sap. Alone and apparently betrayed by his closest friends and neighbors, Toby decides to go rescue his parents. Along the way, he encounters different characters -- a reclusive mother and daughter who provides shelter and companionship, the henchmen of Joe Mitch, just to name a few. Toby also meets the feared Grass People, a race who live on the ground underneath the mighty oak.

Timothée de Fombelle's style of storytelling in Toby Alone is to shift constantly between the past and the present, a technique that can sometimes befuddle readers, especially young adults. And his characters usually appear to be one-dimensional -- either good or bad. The effects renders his narrative to be a bit condescending to his readers. Still, some of the situations that his characters find themselves in are fascinating. His descriptions of pools of water formed by the rains along tree branches are so vivid and captivating. And by writing a cliffhanger for an ending, de Fombelle sets his stage to explore more themes in his second novel.

François Place's illustrations remind one of the beautiful comic strips during the '50s. Even though they're not as detailed as the artworks of today, they remain complementary to de Fombelle's text. It's good that Place's illustrations occur often in the book (about every 3 or 4 pages); they boost de Fombelle's story which can seem flat and uninteresting at certain points.

Toby Alone is another attempt to instill environmental awareness among today's young adults. The idea of the tree as one separate world/community is something that may appeal to children. After all, trees are environment indicators, right? The fewer trees we have, the worse our environment appears to be. But what Toby Alone fails to communicate is that trees are part of a bigger ecosystem -- it's not self-sustaining at all. The characters of Toby Alone may take it upon themselves to save their tree so that they can survive, but they should also learn how their tree plays a role in a much bigger world. Hopefully, this interconnectedness will be explored in the second book, which I'm looking forward to just to find out what happens to Toby.

Read this book if:

1. You have a tree that you're particularly attached to.
2. You love novels that tackle environment issues.
3. You're a closeted tree-hugger.