What followed was a typical escapee’s tale; before the war, the southern states had disapproved of the Free States, but did not adjudicate their citizens’ movements through the nation. After the war, however, and the south’s subsequent secession from the Union, it became illegal for those in the Free States to travel to the south, now renamed the United Colonies, or for the Colonists to travel north.
In a way, this book is really three novellas as much as it is one novel. In fact, one of the unifying elements found in most critiques of the book, whether negative or positive, is that the three distinctly separate stories fail to connect. This quote is taken from the first section of the book which is set in a reimagined America in which everything following the Civil War is quite different. This is an idea pursued throughout the “Washington Square” story, but which does not follow through in the other two sections.
“FOUR YEARS.” AN ANNIVERSARY
BY DAVID BINGHAM-GRIFFITH
This year is the fourth anniversary of the discovery of NiVid-50, more commonly known as Lombok syndrome, and the most serious pandemic in history since AIDS in the last century. It has killed 88,895 people in New York City alone. It is also the fourth anniversary of the death of civil rights and the beginning of a fascist state spreading misinformation to people who want to believe anything they’re told by the government.
Book III does take place in an imagined American, but rather one in the past which everything is unfamiliar, it is a dystopic vision of the future. Though, admittedly, one which at the time of publication did not look to be taking place in an-all-that-distant future. Interestingly, the author commenced this story before the arrival of Covd-19 in reality. In one of those amazing coincidences, the book does present a story that can be easily interpreted as being about what was going on in real life even though it was written before those events. In some ways, the dark future of America presented here is prescient while in other ways it seems almost to be commentary on the very recent past. As recent as yesterday. This is a fascinating aspect of the novel that may continue to be experienced for some time to come.
Yes, he said. Right. I’m David Bingham.
The middle section of the book takes place in the 1990’s in the real world of America at the time. The AIDS epidemic is life miserable for many and inciting hatred and disgust among others. And at the center of it all is the character of David Bingham. Except that this is not the same David Bingham-Griffith who writes “Four Years” in the future. Nor it is the same David Bingham who lives in the reimagined New York of the 19th century. Multiple characters populate the three stories making up the novel that share the same name. They are not necessarily related to each other in any other way, however. Although, they do often coalesce characteristics that might allow them to be viewed as archetypes rather than simply individuals.
