Make Room! Make Room!: The Classic Novel of an Overpopulated Future

"Make Room! Make Room!" is an excellent sci-fi novel which envisions our overcrowded future. It is a very entertaining read, with vivid characters and a neat premise. The book will make you realize how much you take simple things like drinking water and living with only your family members rather than strangers. I think this book needs to be reprinted, and am saddened that more books of this nature aren't written today.

This book comes from a time when the environmental movement was just getting under way, and Paul Ehrlich's "The Population Bomb" enjoyed pride of place on the bookshelves of environmentalists everywhere. It was also a time when it was easier to discuss overpopulation without drawing charges of racism. In the book (presumably), and in the 1973 movie Soylent Green (definitely), most of the characters and people seen in the street are white, as they would have been in 1966 and 1973. Hence there was no need to discuss issues of immigration and demographic shift, which are closely linked to America's soaring population today. As a result, in both the book and the movie, the issue of overpopulation is completely de-ethnicized, which makes it a universal, human problem. For that reason alone everyone should either read the book or see the movie.

Harry Harrison is normally a funny writer so reading this book from him was a bit of a shock. It's not funny at all and rather depressing actually, the ending isn't all that happy and nothing has changed, society keeps plugging along on the same path to oblivion, people have lived and died and in the end it's all the same. No wonder why it was taken out of print. But by the same token, it'll be one of the best books you've ever read. For those who watch movies, the film Soylent Green was based on this but the main point of that movie doesn't even come into play here. If anything it's a love story disguised as a mystery story, showing how people still try to live and love with too many people crammed into too many creaking, cold and leaky apartment buildings, the measures the police have to do to survive along with everyone and it submerges you completely in this world that makes you glad that you can go outside and not have to withstand the crush of millions of people. One of the best books in this line of reasoning, a very similar and probably better examination of this (though not by much) would be Thomas Disch's 334 and for a wider look at the entire planet with too many people try John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar. All three form some of the keystone books of thought on the matter of overpopulation in fiction and if you want to do even more exploring, look for The World Inside by Robert Silverberg, which I haven't read but I think deals with the same issues. Make room for it on your shelf today.

The book starts off a little slow, but if you keep with it, you will find it is worth it. A great book even for thoes who don't like Sci-Fi. For thoes of you who say the movie (Soylent Green)Don't Be Fooled! The movie is NOTHING like the book! The book has great attention to detail and keeps you involved!Although this book is hard to find,it is well worth the time it takes to find it! For great suspense, real characters, and an exciting plot...READ... MAKE ROOM! MAKE ROOM!

Originally written back in 1966, the book has been put on the big screen with actor Charlton Heston as "Soylent Green". But whereas the movie told a terrible crime story of a government creating "food" from corpses, the book is basically a love story between young cop Andrew and top callgirl Shirl. Andrew lives in the cruel world of an over-populated New York with 35 million inhabitants, whereas Shirl uses her exceptional beauty to live with the "upper class". Both are led together by the assassination of Shirls "lover", that Andrew has to investigate, and they fall in love with each other. But love is luxury in an over-crowded world that isn't affordable anymore... Basically, a very sad and pessimistic story, but definitely a milestone in non-technical SF.