Mr. Adam

Mr. Adam. Pat Frank. 1947. 184 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: I suppose it is up to me to tell the story in its entirety, because I broke it in the first place, and I lived with it from then on, and I grew to know Mr. Adam. My name is Stephen Decatur Smith, and before I got involved in the most important story in the world I was a feature writer on the New York staff of AP.

Premise/plot: What if all the men in the world—minus one Homer Adam—were sterile?! Stephen Smith stumbles into a story with global implications. The lead he follows—there are no births scheduled after June 22 in New York City hospitals. Why? Is this true only in New York? Only in the North? Only in the U.S.? Only in the Northern hemisphere? Will any babies ever be conceived again? Is the human race doomed to die out? Many months go by, and then...a baby is born—a baby girl. Turns out that one man at least has not been effected by the nuclear disaster that has completely eradicated the state of Mississippi. His life will never be the same again. Everyone wants to own Mr. Adam and control him. Everyone wants to have a say in how the world is to be repopulated or populated. Not really differing in how—AI. Is artificial insemination the only hope for the human race?

My thoughts: Mr. Adam is a comedy written in 1946. Yes, it’s about a serious subject—the short term and long term effects of nuclear experimentation and use. Will the development of nuclear power and nuclear bombs lead to man’s extinction? Is sterilization a just consequence of man’s rashness or stupidity? At the time it was written, it was assumed that all women wanted to be mothers and that motherhood was the sole way women could lead satisfying or happy lives. Another assumption is that men don’t really care one way or another if they ever have children or not. Fatherhood is not that big a deal. Men don’t need babies in the same way that women do.

The novel is set in an unspecified future year. Frank probably could not have foreseen how AI would actually change the world giving barren couples hope. It was new and experimental, uncertain and controversial. Was it ethical? Should doctors and scientists be “playing God”? Wasn’t conception in God’s hands?

One thing is timeless about the novel—politics and politicians.

© 2019 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews