For Us, The Living : A Comedy of Customs

Rating:
Summary: An obvious first book.
Review: I have always been a huge Heinlein fan, but this book is not worth your time.

Heinlein once said that a writer's first obligation was to entertain his readers. He must have been quoting his first editor for this book.

This book is dull, dull, dull, and never gives back for the effort.

Rating:
Summary: An obvious first book.
Review: I miss Robert Anson Heinlein. The first science fiction book I ever read was "Time for the Stars." From that point forward I was hooked on science fiction and my favorite author became and remains Robert A. Heinlein. I purchased this book shortly after it came out, with more than a little trepidation. For better or worse, I agree with the majority of the reviews.

This book is not a book as such. It is more an outline of grander stories that required much more development. In this book you can see many of the seminal ideas that Heinlein used in many of his later books. In a few cases this story could easily have served as an introduction or part of the collection of Heinlein's works, especially for his future history series. Thus, for Heinlein fans, and perhaps, more appropriately, to use the original source of the term "fan," Heinlein fanatics, this book is a treasure of thoughts and concepts.

From a writing viewpoint the book is quite dated, and well away from the polish that Heinlein would apply to his later books. The lead character, Perry Nelson, is gawky and uncomfortable, and it is difficult for us to relate to him. Perry lived too far in our past, and even too far in Heinlein's past. Technology has provided us with a perspective that makes this book a story of another era. And yet, it has charm for those of us who grew up with Heinlein and bought every new book as it was published.

Heinlein was always an interesting writer, even if you disagreed with his philosophy or with his predictions. Heinlein has said himself that the views of his characters are not always his views, which leads me to believe that often his lead characters were philosophical foils, promulgating an idea just to see how it would play out. Though the results were sometimes uneven, and many stories come across as preachy, once upon a time many of the stories he told could only be told and sold as a science fiction story.

Heinlein was a great fan of the future. He believed in traveling to the moon and beyond. He believed that ultimately mankind will raise itself out of the muck to create something greater and grander. He frequently pointed out and predicted that we have and would stumble along the way, but he was perpetually optimistic that we have a great and glorious future, if we will only reach out and touch it. This book is the fuse that started it all; a beginning, and it contains no ends. For the ends you have to read the rest of his books.

For those of you who do not know Heinlein, I beg you not to buy this book. You will not understand it, you will not like it. You will wonder why you didn't spend your money on something more valuable, like mulch for your garden. If you loved Heinlein's books, and you have read all or most of those 40+ books, then I recommend this book to you. You will grok it in fullness. I miss Robert Anson Heinlein.

Rating:
Summary: A Heinlein Outline
Review: I miss Robert Anson Heinlein. The first science fiction book I ever read was "Time for the Stars." From that point forward I was hooked on science fiction and my favorite author became and remains Robert A. Heinlein. I purchased this book shortly after it came out, with more than a little trepidation. For better or worse, I agree with the majority of the reviews.

This book is not a book as such. It is more an outline of grander stories that required much more development. In this book you can see many of the seminal ideas that Heinlein used in many of his later books. In a few cases this story could easily have served as an introduction or part of the collection of Heinlein's works, especially for his future history series. Thus, for Heinlein fans, and perhaps, more appropriately, to use the original source of the term "fan," Heinlein fanatics, this book is a treasure of thoughts and concepts.

From a writing viewpoint the book is quite dated, and well away from the polish that Heinlein would apply to his later books. The lead character, Perry Nelson, is gawky and uncomfortable, and it is difficult for us to relate to him. Perry lived too far in our past, and even too far in Heinlein's past. Technology has provided us with a perspective that makes this book a story of another era. And yet, it has charm for those of us who grew up with Heinlein and bought every new book as it was published.

Heinlein was always an interesting writer, even if you disagreed with his philosophy or with his predictions. Heinlein has said himself that the views of his characters are not always his views, which leads me to believe that often his lead characters were philosophical foils, promulgating an idea just to see how it would play out. Though the results were sometimes uneven, and many stories come across as preachy, once upon a time many of the stories he told could only be told and sold as a science fiction story.

Heinlein was a great fan of the future. He believed in traveling to the moon and beyond. He believed that ultimately mankind will raise itself out of the muck to create something greater and grander. He frequently pointed out and predicted that we have and would stumble along the way, but he was perpetually optimistic that we have a great and glorious future, if we will only reach out and touch it. This book is the fuse that started it all; a beginning, and it contains no ends. For the ends you have to read the rest of his books.

For those of you who do not know Heinlein, I beg you not to buy this book. You will not understand it, you will not like it. You will wonder why you didn't spend your money on something more valuable, like mulch for your garden. If you loved Heinlein's books, and you have read all or most of those 40+ books, then I recommend this book to you. You will grok it in fullness. I miss Robert Anson Heinlein.

Rating:
Summary: Strictly for Heinlein fanatics
Review: I'm a lifelong fan of Robert Heinlein, but nobody but a true fanatic would see this as anything but a poorly told story. Even the Introduction in this book admits that this is not up to Heinlein's standards (which is probably why he never put it on the market even in his later years when sf fans would snap up just about anything he wrote - the man had integrity.) Shallow characterization, vapid plot and long academic digressions all go to show why this book failed to sell. If you aren't familiar with Heinlein or if his books are valuable to you merely as one more bit of entertainment, this book is not for you. That's the source of the two stars in my rating.

But if you are a Heinlein fan, for instance if you bought the 'restored' edition of Stranger in a Strange Land and were able to spot the differences (besides the length) between it and the original published version, you might enjoy this book simply to compare RAH's first attempt at writing a novel to his later work. The editorial remarks that bracket the novel help bring some of the lessons learned and tendencies retained into sharp focus.

Rating:
Summary: Only for die-hard Heinlein fans
Review: I've read nearly all of Heinlein's work (and really liked most of it) and this is clearly the worst of his novels. Positively a first novel...no plot, little characterization and page after plodding page of his libertarian rantings. Interesting if you're a died-in-the-wool-he-can-do-no-wrong-and-he's-the-best-writer-of-the-20th-century Fan (with a capital F), but otherwise get it out of your local library and save your money.

Rating:
Summary: Fans Only
Review: If you are a Heinlein completist -- as I am -- then you may enjoy this book -- as I did -- even if it causes you to wince at its amateurishness.
This particular editon would be much, much improved without Spider Robinson's overwrought and obnoxiously fannish introduction.

Rating:
Summary: Only for rabid fans -- but instructive for writers/artists
Review: If you're so much of a Heinlein fan that you've read every word he wrote, then skip this review; you're going to read the book anyway, simply because you want to see the well of backstory that Heinlein had developed even in 1939.

If you're a general fan of Heinlein, I gently submit that you should probably read everything else he wrote first. By any standard of fiction, this is not a great novel, and it may sour you on Heinlein's later work. Reading _For Us, The Living_ will be like looking at your favorite beautiful actress before she's put on makeup, possibly after a very bad night of drinking. (Yours *or* hers.)

However, for one group of people this book is a no-brainer: anyone who's a budding author. Or creative artist of any nature, I suspect. The lack of "makeup" is itself instructive, because you see how he put it on; the book shows the artist's work before he honed and finished it.

This was the novel Heinlein wrote before he submitted "Lifeline" (his first short story), two years later; two years after that (according to Spider Robinson's introduction), Heinlein was guest of honor at the Denver SF WorldCon. FUTL demonstrates how much even a master has to learn -- and what's really astonishing is how fast Heinlein learned it. (Four years from this to the WorldCon?!)

If you're a writer, FUTL will reassure you that it's possible for a bad writer to get better. You'll also cheer at the points where the "real" Heinlein comes through (amusingly enough, the brightest moments of his voice show up in describing what a cat does - go figure). Think of this book as the "before" in a before-and-after exercise, and you'll enjoy it immensely.

Rating:
Summary: not a good novel, but interesting for fans
Review: It is pedantic and full of lectures. It's a mildly interesting short story that has been stretched to a novel. It's even harder to understand the character motivations than his later works.

HOWEVER as the review says, it has a lot of the threads of his later works, and as such is interesting. If you have not read his "Tramp Royale" and understanding more about Heinlein is of interest, read Tramp first. It's a travelogue of a trip he took around the work in 1953 and it benefits from better writing and a more interesting storyline.

Rating:
Summary: Heinlein's Utopia of Libertarian Social Credit
Review: It's possible to enjoy this book if you go into it knowing what to expect. The comparisons to Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward" are quite apt, and the basic concept behind this book is the same. Contemporary man (late 19th century for Bellamy, mid 20th century for Heinlein) finds himself more than a century in the future, where work, poverty, and violence have all been greatly lessened if not eliminated. The man from our time doesn't understand it at first, but after a series of lectures from the people of the new era, he learns to adjust.

The lectures are really the point of this book. Many of Bellamy's economic ideas are present in Heinlein: everyone gets an allowance from the government for basic living, nobody has to work but most people do, either to earn more money or for the satisfaction of doing something they enjoy. Heinlein goes a lot deeper into the underpinnings of this economy, spending a good couple of chapters explaining the theory of "Social Credit".

Like many economic theories, Social Credit looks good on paper. And like many economic theories, it probably has flaws that would become evident if it were implemented in the real world. It's necessary to put the concept in perspective as a reaction to the Great Depression of the 1930's, which was not yet over when this book was written. Most people saw the American banking system as one of the primary culprits for the Depression (a not entirely incorrect assessment), so it isn't surprising that the central feature of Heinlein's economic utopia is a complete gutting and replacement of the banks as they existed in 1939.

The second major feature of this utopian society is a different set of moral conventions. The social norms of this society spring from a form of libertarianism that includes a complete separation of people's public and private lives. One corollary of this is much more liberal sexual behavior -- "marriage" and "divorce" per se are just ceremonial formalities, and most people don't even bother with the formalities. Heinlein does a good job of discussing the evolutionary and societal pressures towards monogamy, and notes that the physical and economic realities of the 21st century (or even Heinlen's own 1939) allow people to live differently if they so choose. Like most proposed alternatives to monogamy, though, it fails to come up with an adequate solution to the "how do you raise the children" issue. (Heinlein proposes that children can begin supporting themselves at any age on their national stipend. Did he seriously think that most children would be able to make wise decisions on how to do this, or that people wouldn't find subtle ways to exploit these emancipated children?)

At any rate, Heinlein's point in writing this utopia was to show that social conventions are never "absolute truth", but are defined by the environment and the will of the majority. This theme was treated in "Stranger in a Strange Land" with more entertaining results.

In fact, as other reviewers have commented, this entire book contains raw material that was used in many of Heinlein's well-regarded later works. You will most enjoy this book if 1) you are already familiar with Heinlein's major works of fiction, particularly the "Future History" canon, and 2) you enjoy reading utopias. With these caveats, I found it well worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: RAH, RAH, RAH!
Review: Newcomers to RAH should start elsewhere...Time Enough For Love is my favorite, but there is a lot to choose from so have fun. For the rest of us who grew up devouring his every word...5 stars! No one in the SF genre makes you examine your society, your culture, your beliefs, and what it means to be human like RAH. I'd read this guy's grocery list.