Review: For Us, The Living

Think you've read everything sci-fi written by the grand master, Robert A. Heinlein? So did I, until recently, browsing my favorite section in the library, I ran across a totally unfamilar title: For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs. Why had I never seen it before? Although RAH died in 1988, this book wasn't published until 2003 -- and it was written around late 1938/early 1939, shortly before his first sci-fi short story, "Lifeline", and at least eight years before his first published novel, Rocket Ship Galileo.

In short, this was both Heinlein's first science fiction novel, and his last.

The story begins in 1939, as Army pilot Perry Nelson has a car accident that should have killed him, but he regains consciousness... in 2086. If you've ever read any Heinlein beyond his early juveniles, it will come as no surprise that (a) he is found by a gorgeous woman named Diana, who takes him home to recover; (b) they fall in love; and (c) a great deal of casual nudity, free sex, and long-winded (a two and a half page footnote is a bit over the top even for Heinlein) exposition ensue. The rest of the book details Perry being brought up to speed both on the history he's missed and on late 21st-century society and customs, including some extended "rehabilitation" after he punches out Diana's ex-lover in a fit of jealousy (an emotion that is, to put it mildly, frowned upon in 2086).

This may be the most difficult of Heinlein's books to assign a rating to. Ostensibly, it's a novel; certainly, that's how he tried -- unsuccessfully -- to sell it to several publishers in 1939. But as a novel, it leaves a great deal to be desired; the plot is thin to the point of anorexia, and to call the characters "two-dimensional" would be about half a dimension too generous. Nelson's instantaneous transport to nearly 150 years in the future is never explained beyond some brief handwaving (it appears that he somehow "reincarnated" into a body that had been left in hibernation without a resident personality) and seems to be dismissed by everyone, even Nelson, as unimportant.

No, the important thing is that pompous, erudite experts get to expound at length to a 20th-century barbarian on the economic, political, and social superiority of the utopian society of the 21st century, and how foolish and misguided the barbarian's society and customs (i.e., ours) had been. The relentless pushing of socioeconomic theories is often mind-numbingly boring, and no doubt a major reason for the book being rejected for publication in 1939: it's much more a treatise than a novel. (Although the Heinlein Society claims that it was rejected primarily due to its "racy" content and that "in the 1930s the book could not even have been legally shipped through the US mail".) This would be an extraordinarily bad introduction for a complete newcomer to the Heinlein canon. From this point of view, I'd have to rate it an F.

On the other hand, the well-read Heinlein fan will be thrilled to discover here the genesis of many of the themes explored (or in some cases, beaten to death) in his later books: the afore-mentioned nudity and free sex, time travel, rolling roads, Coventry, federal service as a prerequisite to the right to vote, even Nehemiah Scudder. Perry's history lessons show Heinlein's predictive abilities to be somewhat erratic at this early juncture: on the one hand, he uncannily foresees a united Europe with a common currency, while on the other, in this 2086 man has not yet landed on the moon (ironic, given that a moon landing was the theme of his first published novel). Even the afterword, describing how this "lost" manuscript was discovered and published, holds its own fascination. From the fan's point of view, I'd rate the book anywhere from an A to a B-, depending on just how much of a Heinlein fan you are.

My recommendations: If you've never read anything by Heinlein, do not start with For Us, The Living. I'll guarantee that it would scare you off forever, and that would be a pity, because you would miss out on a lot of truly excellent science fiction classics. However, if you've already read, and generally enjoyed, a selection of his work, I think you'll enjoy this for its historical interest, and you can skim the boring parts. And of course, if you're a rabid Heinlein completist... well, then you probably already read it when it was finally published back in 2003.