| Make Room Make Room |  | Author: Harry Harrison
Publisher: Berkley
Category: Book
Buy Used: $2.00
New (1) Used (21) Collectible (1) from $2.00
Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 1058817
Media: Paperback
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7 x 5 x 1
ISBN: 0425023907
EAN: 9780425023907
ASIN: 0425023907
Publication Date: June 6, 1973
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Movie cover version of Make Room! Make Room!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
Not like the movie February 22, 2009
Alric Knebel (Biloxi, MS)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Soylent Green is one of those milestone films marking a shift in Hollywood's attitude toward science fiction. The new prestige was evident by the presence of Charleton Heston, Edward G. Robinson, and Joseph Cotten, all very heavy hitters in their day, renowned for dramatic performances in classic films. The end result was a new classic worthy of their names. I never bothered to read the novel until just recently, and based on the proverbial wisdom regarding literary adaptations, I expected the novel to be much better. That wasn't the case. It's a good enough book, for sure, but not particularly better than the movie. In this case, the novel and the film are two entirely different creatures, with the novel's focus on overpopulation serving as a jumping off point for the film's now iconic conspiracy. They concur only on less significant points, in that several character's names were retained (but not the central character); there's a subsistence diet manufactured from seaweed or soy bean, the production and distribution of which is managed by the government; there are riots and protests; a detective becomes involved with a beautiful woman who's provider was murdered; the murder weapon was a crow bar; and there's a scarcity of everything so that the concept of comfort is relative.
A major difference which changes the entire course of events and the impetus of the novel is that the murder was NOT the result of a contract killing to cover-up industrial cannibalism. Cannibalism isn't even a feature of this story at all, and was invented solely for the screenplay. I'm not giving anything away here by stating that the murder was incidental, a burglary gone wrong because a Chinese street urchin believed the apartment was empty. This is revealed early one, and because the victim was a man with some questionable associations, City Hall feared the possibility that a mobster could be expanding his territory. The powers-that-be then put pressure on the police force to solve the crime, to prepare themselves for a territorial war. That's the setup. In my opinion, the movie's plot was more layered, covering all of Harrison's points, and then some.
As a stand-alone read, it's a good book. The author has a fluid vivid style, and Harrison kept the tone relentlessly bleak. Little things are thrown in, in passing, such as the moment Detective Rusch contemplates buying a new razor -- IN THE FALL -- suggesting the numb acceptance of penury in every detail of existence. The investigations by the detective and the experiences of the young Chinese fugitive provide situations in which Harrison can detail the magnitude of displacement. He gives a lot of thought to the ramifications of shortages on different segments of the social order, especially the underbelly employing stinted resources in a constant hardscrabble. Existence is an endurance test most people are passing with a D minus. The novel drags you right down into it, and the closest the reader ever gets to peace is a sense of melancholy. Any disappointment I felt with the book was the result of my anticipation that the story would intersect in more important points with the film. But by the end, it didn't matter, and I'm glad I read it.
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 One of the Worst Novels I've Ever Read January 22, 2009
John B. Erthein (Erie, PA United States)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
The movie Soylent Green (1973) was adapted from this truly dreadful novel written in 1966. The movie was actually much better than the novel, which reflected the dreary ethos of panic about "overpopulation" and so on, and angry rants against anyone who opposed artificial birth control (the author probably threw himself down and started chewing the carpet when Humanae Vitae was published in 1968).
Weirdly, the novel posited that life in the US would be unbearable at the dawn of the new millenium because population had reached 365 million. But let's look at some facts. Since 1966, US population has increased dramatically, rising from under 200 million to over 300 million. And yet we have more food, a cleaner environment, and much greater wealth today even counting the current recession. We can easily sustain 365 million people if it comes to that.
Strangely, the novel also posited that NYC would have a population of 35 million by 2000. That would represent nearly 10% of America's total projected population! Why so many people would flock to NYC is never explained. In 1966, NYC contained about 4% of America's total population. Today, NYC contains about ... 3% of America's population.
The novel was so ridiculously bad that even a pulpy sci-fi movie was a vast improvement. But I suppose the book is helpful in that it gives the reader a look at how otherwise intelligent people panic in the face of population growth.
MAKE ROOM! MAKE ROOM! by Harry Harrison November 14, 2008
Gandhi the Vile (Tulsa, OK)
Make Room! Make Room! is a 1966 science fiction novel by Harry Harrison. Set in a vastly overpopulated New York City of the future, it is, on the surface, a whodunit, although it has particularly more to do with overpopulation, lack of resources, and the societal effects of such developments.
Harrison's writing is well-paced, his world is immersive, and his characters are well done, although it's awfully convenient how often they happen to run into each other in a city of 35 million people. His tone is fairly bleak, and it's obvious he's got a message to communicate. And his concerns about the amount of resources the U.S. consumes are still relevant.
To those familiar with Soylent Green, the film this novel inspired, know that that movie's creators went in an entirely different direction thematically. Charlton Heston's classic Soylent Green moment is nowhere to be found here. Harrison's theme is population control, specifically through birth control and sustainable development. Harrison bludgeons the reader over the head with this toward the end of the book, when the main character's roommate launches into a rather lengthy soliloquy on the birds and the bees, in which he sings the praises of preventative birth control. This is rather out of place, and reminiscent of the way Upton Sinclair presented his socialist propaganda at the end of The Jungle.
Make Room! Make Room! is a solid, entertaining science fiction novel, with a still-relevant social message
 nothing wrong with the story . . . . August 22, 2008
Heather L. Baker
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
My less than stellar review is based on the ridiculous number of spelling and other editing errors. I don't know it is exclusively in the Kindle edition, but there was even a passage that made no sense, and then that same phrase showed up a paragraph later where it was supposed to be. I know the book was not expensive, but I still question if it was worth the money for such a poor quality edition.
A good read April 22, 2008
Adam Judge (Near DC, hot air capital of the world)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I like this book , I like the movie Soylent Green, too -- which tells a very different story. They complement one another, but they are by no means the same.
Harrison gives us a gritty tour through a believable overcrowded New York in a run-down world that could have been. Still could be.....
I bought the Orb edition currently on sale at Amazon. Funny thing - the plot turns on a murder that happens somewhere between pages 64 and 97. Those pages are missing from my book, and 97-123 are printed twice. And the book was still compelling enough to hold my interest. That's good writing. So I recommend it...but maybe you want to wait for the second edition from this publisher.
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