On January 14, the Scarsdale Library hosted a virtual book talk by renowned novelist and Scarsdale alumna Gish Jen with Scarsdale High School’s English teacher, Jennifer Rosenzweig, to guide the conversation. Throughout her career, Gish Jen has written eight books and won prestigious awards such as the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction. Her latest novel, The Resisters, is an acclaimed baseball dystopia that confronts race, class, and climate change in America. Inspired by her daughter’s departure to college, Jen wrote the book to answer what the future holds. “I was sitting down for [my daughter’s] freshman orientation, and it was [just] future, future, future,” said Jen. “I thought, maybe I should…take risks and have fun too. I didn’t write about girls running off to Paris with […] handsome young men. Instead, I wrote about a family and a daughter going off into the world, and it is very much about the future.”

Throughout the event, Jen continued to talk about issues that she addressed in her book. AutoAmerica, a futuristic version of the United States, is a country that the AI network dubbed “Aunt Nettie” carefully watches under surveillance. The AI concept takes inspiration from George Orwell and 1984, and the book alludes to the idea of invasive screening and data collection. In the book, the government uses Aunt Nettie to track and control the population, especially lower-class citizens.

Artificial Intelligence is already starting to appear in modern-day America. “[AI is] not fifty years away,” said Jen. “You can have your computer write your emails, and people can’t tell if it’s from the computer or from you. Already, that’s today, and there’s plenty to be concerned about.” Like modern-day Americans, characters in the book will happily hand over their data for AI services. “When we give our data over willingly, we assume that our government is friendly… that that data won’t be used against us. I think that’s a very dangerous assumption.”

In the book, Jen uses baseball as a method of resistance against the state. Although she has never played baseball, the sport was a big part of her childhood. From a young age, Jen attended baseball games with her parents to cheer on their favorite teams. For her Chinese immigrant parents, baseball was part of their American experience that represented an even playing field for all players where everyone got their chance at-bat. “You get this feeling of possibility. That’s why we’re there at the ball game because anything can happen[…]that [the] whole idea embodies the American Dream,” she said. 

The Resisters captures many future problems that affect American society. It’s a must-read for any fans of dystopian fiction looking for a light page-turner. “The novel should be required reading for the country, both as a cautionary tale and because it is a stone-cold masterpiece. [This novel] is Gish Jen’s moment. She has pitched a perfect game, ” said best-selling author Anne Patchett.