Number games
Number Games is a novel which scrutinises our present-day value system by transplanting us into a word of the future. Dwyer plays with current attitudes towards a range of issues ranging from sexism to capitalism by reversing the current status quo in his fictitious future. For example, China is the dominant world power while the US is a third-world, war ravaged backwater. The world is run, not by middle-aged white men, but by elderly Chinese females. Organised into triumvirates, these women operate from the safety of their forbidden cities. Women, without exception, control society, while men stay at home, mind children and interact with soaps on 3-D television. Poverty is ghettoised and hidden from view. We are introduced to Li, the novel’s main character and narrator as a ‘boy-slapper’ who is trying to make a career for himself in a female centric world. Though involved with his boss’s daughter Emily and on track for the life he craves, engrained male weaknesses are dragging him down. At every opportunity he is making out with ‘uggos’ (brutal, unattractive and predatory women) and getting high.
Dwyer, who is a prize-winning short story writer as well as a novelist says that it was the themes that attracted him to the subject: ‘Although I started writing the book before the Harvey Weinstein and Paddy Jackson episodes, the debate they generated fits in very well with the novel. I never really understood what women went through at the hands of sexual predators and I don’t think men in general do. A lot of men will say things like, she must have been asking for it, or, if she went to his hotel room what did she expect? and so on. A lot of us have become desensitised to the crime of sexual abuse because we hear about it so much. It wasn’t until I flipped the roles of men and women and created a female chauvinist society that I began to understand the level of humiliation and degradation victims of sexual abuse suffer. By having a man as the victim, I could isolate and examine the crime – see its true brutality. See how it strips the victim of their dignity, even their humanity. It really brought home how puerile statements like (s)he must have been asking for it were. Asking for it and experiencing it are two completely different things.’
Despite the seriousness of its themes, Number Games manages to be an enormously funny book, full of intriguing characters and engaging plot twists. Dwyer takes his influence from sources ranging from David Mitchell and Martin Amis to Johnathan Swift. He thinks Gulliver’s Travels is still ahead of its time today. ‘It’s [Gulliver’s Travels] a remarkable piece of satire which gives a unique perspective on the human condition. Though no one can ever emulate a book like that, I was happy to draw inspiration from it.’ Dwyer admits he doesn’t read much Science Fiction. ‘I’m not really into Science Fiction myself but I do think it’s fascinating to draw a line from the past, through the present then try to imagine where it will go.’
In terms of style, Number Games is rich in descriptive imagery, which manages to capture the atmosphere and zeitgeist of its future world. Because it is so well written we are engaged from page one and are drawn into a mythical world with real problems. And in this mythical world, a mirror is held up to present day society. If the past is a foreign country, the future is a different planet, where the same things are being done to different people.
Dwyer, who is a prize-winning short story writer as well as a novelist says that it was the themes that attracted him to the subject: ‘Although I started writing the book before the Harvey Weinstein and Paddy Jackson episodes, the debate they generated fits in very well with the novel. I never really understood what women went through at the hands of sexual predators and I don’t think men in general do. A lot of men will say things like, she must have been asking for it, or, if she went to his hotel room what did she expect? and so on. A lot of us have become desensitised to the crime of sexual abuse because we hear about it so much. It wasn’t until I flipped the roles of men and women and created a female chauvinist society that I began to understand the level of humiliation and degradation victims of sexual abuse suffer. By having a man as the victim, I could isolate and examine the crime – see its true brutality. See how it strips the victim of their dignity, even their humanity. It really brought home how puerile statements like (s)he must have been asking for it were. Asking for it and experiencing it are two completely different things.’
Despite the seriousness of its themes, Number Games manages to be an enormously funny book, full of intriguing characters and engaging plot twists. Dwyer takes his influence from sources ranging from David Mitchell and Martin Amis to Johnathan Swift. He thinks Gulliver’s Travels is still ahead of its time today. ‘It’s [Gulliver’s Travels] a remarkable piece of satire which gives a unique perspective on the human condition. Though no one can ever emulate a book like that, I was happy to draw inspiration from it.’ Dwyer admits he doesn’t read much Science Fiction. ‘I’m not really into Science Fiction myself but I do think it’s fascinating to draw a line from the past, through the present then try to imagine where it will go.’
In terms of style, Number Games is rich in descriptive imagery, which manages to capture the atmosphere and zeitgeist of its future world. Because it is so well written we are engaged from page one and are drawn into a mythical world with real problems. And in this mythical world, a mirror is held up to present day society. If the past is a foreign country, the future is a different planet, where the same things are being done to different people.