Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is a promising first novel. Like other Utopians who have abandoned hope in the notion of distributive justice in this post-socialist period of economic scarcity, Doctorow has postulated a post-scarcity economy, however he does so in a manner significantly more whimsical, albeit less convincingly, than, say, Charles Stross.

The Magic Kingdom to which the title refers is in fact Disney's Magic Kingdom, not a metaphor but still the world's premier theme park even in an age of limited space travel, immortality via body replacement and the complete absence of resource-based money. Well, not quite a complete absence, as the opinion in which one is held by others is the currency of this Bitchun - as in, bitchin!- society. The Down and Out portion of the title addresses the problem faced by one who is poor in a world where poverty as it is traditionally understood no longer exists. While it seems hard to credit that a mildly humorous novel which revolves around the plot of who is running a haunted house at a theme park could be, at heart, a philosophical book, this is in fact the case.

I enjoyed this novel, which is deeper than it might seem at first.

Style: Doctorow's style is light, with a mild dose of cyberfunk terminology which, like the overall tone of the book, tends toward the quirky. He doesn't overdo it, fortunately, and so it works rather well. On the whole, he manages to convey the notion that the idea that the story is set in the reasonably far-off future without sacrificing readability.

Story: This is not a massive epic, but it is an intriguing glimpse into the difficulty of finding purpose in life in a time when the great struggles of life are in the past. It is perhaps slightly less relevant today than it was prior to 9/11, but as we have reached a point in human history where the notion of the death of scarcity can for the first time be at least conceived without sparking howls of ridicule, it is a legitimate and thought-provoking question.

The plot holds one's attention despite the complete absence of world-destroyers, would-be global tyrants or any of the wheezy cliches that are normally used to harness the reader. The romantic angle, while important from a characterization point of view, is almost wholly irrelevant; indeed, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom has more in common with Sartre than Shakespeare. To die or not to die, that is the question that Doctorow poses, and somehow makes a joke of it in the process.

Characters: A good deal of effort is put into the characterizations, and for the most part it pays off. While Doctorow is fairly unsuccessful in convincingly portraying the difference between a centuries-old character of youthful appearance with one who is actually young, he does at least make the attempt. The protagonist's admiring relationship to his older friend is convincing- if it is somewhat inexplicable, well, so are most friendships when one stops to think about it- and the sense of betrayal one feels at a later point is genuine. The "evil" characters are much more human than is the case in most science fiction and if they are driven beyond the point of socially acceptable behavior, they are driven by realistic greed and ambition, not megalomania or insanity.

While it is difficult to overly concern oneself for the fate of an inhabitant of a society where death itself has been banished, not to mention poverty and taxes, the author does an admirable job ensuring that we are not indifferent to either the protagonist or those to whom he is close.

Creativity: It is here that Doctorow is at his best, for his world is a pastiche of the familiar and the logical extreme compounded by the cube. While the notion of a world without economic scarcity is not new, the notion of humanity artficially manufacturing a money-substitute based on pure and quantifiable social status is rather clever. And let's face it, Doctorow's Whuffie has close to the same intrinsic value as does the U.S. dollar in these latter days. I also respected the deft way the author worked in the very serious aesthetic debate about the difference between experiencing the real and the virtual without once becoming didactic. Surprisingly for such a seemingly lightweight novel, I found myself pondering some of the story's implications for some days following my finish of it. I was not terribly surprised to learn that Doctorow hosts a popular web site of some eclectism; he's certainly a man of interesting ideas.

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