Gateway - Frederik Pohl
It's the distant future, and things suck - what's new? Mankind has mostly strip-mined the Earth, mostly, of its natural resources, overpopulation is a huge problem, and everyday-normal life is hard and expensive. Our last, and only, hope lies in a strange alien planetoid called, Gateway: a wondrous and mysterious artifact left from a vanished race known as the Heechee. Gateway serves as a launching point for space prospectors who gamble it all in hopes of striking it rich while exploring the uncharted regions of the universe on ships programmed with cryptic, predetermined trajectories.
Before reading Frederik Pohl's Hugo award winning novel, I had a completely different picture of it in my mind. The above synopsis, while accurate, does not truthfully convey the actual thrust of the narrative. I imagined that Gateway would be a grand and epic space opera filled of alien planets, mystery and discovery, and while these things are touched upon, it is a different beast altogether. Set within the boundaries of a fantastic premise and the conventions of the science fiction genre, Gateway is, in fact, a nuanced character study using its genre trappings as an imaginative springboard. While reading this, I was constantly reminded of Joe Haldeman's The Forever War; the two novels wonderfully compliment each other. While Pohl doesn't directly reference the Vietnam War like Haldeman does, he examines many of the same problems plaguing the Vietnam Vets upon their homecoming.
The narrative is presented through present day conversations between Robinette “Bob” Broadhead and his mechanical shrink (jokingly referred to as Sigfried), and flashbacks detailing Bob's time as a prospector. During the therapy sessions, Sigfried guides Bob along a journey plagued with deep rooted feelings of guilt and sexual confusion. The flashbacks focus on Bob's time in Gateway and his unhealthy relationship with a woman named, Klara. The two quickly find themselves drowning in asea of apathy, lacking the necessary courage to embark on any of the prospecting trips, and so they lounge around, drinking at the bar and gambling away their savings while their lives fall apart. Once they finally do take off in the Heechee ships, things go from bad to worse.
I've read complaints from some readers saying that Bob is whiny and apathetic, and therefor unlikable and uninteresting. While I don't disagree, he is whiny and apathetic, I don't see this as negative. He is a deeply conflicted individual, and Pohl writes him in a believable and convincing manner. By creating an honest and unflinching portrayal, it becomes clear that Pohl truly respects his creation. Bob's idiosyncrasies, quirks and problems are not simple contrivances on which Pohl hangs his story - they are the story! The Heechee, the ships, the lost treasures, these are all just Macguffins used to develop Bob's character and his own intense personal journey. I'll be honest: while reading this, I wanted more space exploration, more answers, and, yes, more excitement. I wanted things to open up into an incredible and fascinating vista of breathtaking proportions. I was a tad bit disappointed at the time. But, after letting the narrative sink in for a few days, I have grown to appreciate it more for what it offers.
What is most surprising is how interesting the book is given the fact that it is rather static; not a lot happens within its 250-pages. Bob and Klara sit around, drink, gamble, have sex, float around in zero-G, do some gardening, and throw and attend parties for prospectors soon leaving or recently returned. Oh yeah, and sometimes Bob is sitting around talking to a mechanical shrink about how his idea of love was having his mother hold him while a thermometer was shoved up his butt. He gets mad, cries, throws a fit and acts like a jerk. At times I hated Bob, at times I wanted to throttle him, at times I wanted him to get off his ass and do something. I don't know if I ever really liked Bob, but I'll be damned if Pohl doesn't create a character and put him into situations that aroused a response in me. Through Bob, Pohl drew me into his world, and for a few hours I was living in a place that I would never even want to visit.
This is powerful writing.
