Subject: REVIEW: Beggars in Spain

From: "Mariann T. Woodward" <[email-masked]>
Date: 02 Mar 1999 17:51:25 -0500

Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress
	Review Copyright 1999 Mariann T. Woodward

What would you do if you never needed to sleep?  If you never got tired?
How many of us say, when overwhelmed with life and its activities, "If
only I had an extra so-many hours...?"  For Leisha Camden, the question
begets an obvious answer: Apply oneself to become the best and brightest
in everything.

Such is the premise of Nancy Kress' novel, BEGGARS IN SPAIN.  In this
imaginary world, genetic manipulation has spawned considerable interest in
creating the perfect child.  From physical characteristics such as hair
and eye color to mental characteristics such as intelligence or giftedness
in a particular academic area, expectant parents pay for a custom-made
child.  One such family, the Camdens, opt to pursue a secretive, highly
experimental and ethically debated characteristic for their unborn
daughter: sleeplessness.  The goal, as Roger sees it, it to produce a
perfect individual with literally all the time in the world to read,
write, study, learn, and apply herself to be the best she can be.

Leisha is the result of her father's determination and her mother's
reluctance, but so is her fraternal twin, another girl.  Alice is not a
sleepless like her sister; she is a normal, reasonably healthy child, yet
she struggles for her family's acceptance.  As their mother grows
increasingly unstable, the twins quickly learn that only Leisha is deemed
special in their father's eyes.  Despite Leisha's assertions that her
sister could and would be just as special, but in a different way, Alice
is, after all, just a sleeper.  In Leisha's light, Alice simply fades away
into darkness.

As childhood disappears and Leisha becomes an adult with numerous
dysfunctional relationships with friends, lovers, and family, so begins
the trouble for other people like her in Kress' world.  Normal people are,
of course, threatened by the sleepless and their abilities.  By not having
to sleep eight to ten hours a day, the sleepless use the extra time to
study and practice until they perfect and master a skill or lesson.  As
Leisha moves further into adulthood, segregation and restrictions become
prevalent as protest groups form to tear down the sleepless' dominance.
The sleepless retreat into their own world, first on private property,
then orbiting the planet on a space station.  What began as a parent's
desire to see a child have all that is possible becomes, quite simply, a
war between the haves and the have-nots.  The beggars.

"Beggars" connect both the title and the subject matter in Kress' novel.
The sleepless believe that they are so superior to others that to share
their abilities, skills, discoveries, and finances would be detrimental to
the overall development of a new species of human being.  If they give to
one sleeper, more will demand a contribution.  Overwhelmed by beggars, the
sleepless would fail when they should and could thrive.

Closely paralleling struggles between cultures and races, BEGGARS IN SPAIN
is also a commentary on the developing influence of technology on our
lives.  It's more than just computers in the classroom or familiarity with
an operating system or software package -- it's the intrusion of
technology on that which is most intimate, most personal, most primal of
human beings: conception, creation, and development of life.  At what
point do we become so greedy that we allow technology to change us?

I found the premise of BEGGARS IN SPAIN to be intriguing.  As a graduate
student of literature, I pursue interests that focus on the role of
technology in the writing and literature classroom.  Here was a unique
situation where technology created the child; the parents only contributed
the genetic materials and a shopping list of attributes.  Kress builds on
the potential that technology promises -- the end of disease and
malformation -- with genetic testing of our children before they are even
born.  But where is the potential for man to excel and develop of his own
accord?  Would technology ever give us another DaVinci?  Another Hawking?
In this world, who knows.

Where BEGGARS IN SPAIN fails is in its scope.  Kress began this work as a
novella, then expanded it into a novel, later following it with two
additional novels in the series.  I haven't read the sequels yet, but as I
look at the one I have read, I wonder what kind of story we might have had
if Kress had the vision and scope -- a la Babylon 5's creator, J. Michael
Straczynski -- to really explore the culture, issues, and consequences of
her created world.  Perhaps I will be surprised and pleased with the two
remaining novels.  Kress certainly has a vivid imagination, and her
"science" is eerily close to what reality is working on now.  In any case,
BEGGARS IN SPAIN is an enjoyable read and an intriguing concept to watch
for the future.

Grade:  B
Recommended

%T Beggars in Spain
%A Nancy Kress
%I Avon
%D 1994
%G ISBN 038071-8774
%P 438 pages
%O List Price:  $6.99

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