Social Distortion

Yes, rising health care costs have left the American worker with declining services and less take-home pay. But consider the truly horrific alternative in Ishiguro's masterful Never Let Me Go. Here, he has conjured a future where human clones are created, raised and tended to as second-class citizens all for the purposes of having their organs harvested to keep the "real" humans healthy. In a twist few novelists could pull off, Ishiguro... narrates this novel from a clone's perspective, giving us a singular, dramatic coming-of-age story that speaks to far more than the evils of genetic engineering run amok. This gripping novel is one of Ishiguro's best, a tragic tale of an impossible search for one's future.

DeWitt's novel about a terrible "solution" to sexual harassment is just what satire should be: a madcap premise managed with perfect aplomb that makes sharp commentaries on our society. A down-on-his-luck salesman decides to outfit every office in America with what amounts to a bathroom glory hole, where high-powered men who Get Things Done can sate their sexual desires in lieu of hitting on their secretaries and risking expensive lawsuits. This awful... idea catches on like wildfire, with DeWitt imagining a world where this solution has become an institution. Ably playing both sides of the gender divide, DeWitt spares no one, showing how opportunistic women eagerly abuse this opportunity for empowerment. Lightning Rods' hilarious prose and giddy inventions are not to be missed.

In this sci-fi novel from the queen of Canadian letters, massive, quasi-governmental corporations with their own militaries have solved problems like malnutrition and medicine by engineering Frankenstein-like critters. (Atwood's ChickieNobs Nubbins – made from "chickens" that grow like potatoes – are a truly disgusting, not far-off extrapolation of the current factory-farm model.) Of particular appeal here is that Atwood bases all of her creations on things corporate scientists are currently working on,... creating an out-of-control adspeak reality that feels eerily appropriate to our own hyper-capitalist, technology-ridden society. In typical fashion, Atwood bitterly lambasts and punishes society's excesses, taking her vision all the way through the apocalypse, where humankind's creations gain the upper hand.

Dick's dreadful solution to crime makes our current overcrowded prisons and high recidivism rates look good by comparison. Taking a cue from George Orwell, he blends thoughtcrime with mad science and throws in a little fantasy, creating a strangely prescient future where mutant seers punish ordinary people for crimes they have yet to commit. When the police commissioner himself comes under suspicion for a predicted murder, things get dicey. Dick's riveting plot... questions our ideas of past, present and future while contemplating the question of free will. With the U.S. government currently assassinating would-be terrorists without trial via unmanned aerial drones, this particular vision of our future is uncomfortably close already.

Promising to end partisan strife, bulldoze gridlock and solve America's economic depression, Sen. Buzz Windrip is elected president in celebrated progressive Sinclair's defining work – then promptly dissolves Congress and becomes a dictator. Published in 1935, before Hitler's regime had completely demolished the political ideal of a fascist government and when many Americans advocated exactly those radical solutions, Sinclair's novel remains just as fresh today as it was when it was published....

Modeling Windrip on Sen. Huey Long, a real-life politician of the time who flirted dangerously with fascism, Sinclair's depiction of American politics and its inflamed rhetoric feels completely applicable to our election season, giving us sobering proof why we should always be wary of politicians promising fixes that sound too good to be true.

With Americans consistently ranking behind other nations in math and science skills, you might think the education system is a mess, but the genetically rigged "evolving" in Lethem's first novel leaves much to be desired. Blending William Gibson with Dashiell Hammett, Lethem delivers a remarkably well-imagined, pitch-black future where genetic engineering has given us an underclass of hyper-intelligent babies that perform menial tasks and have their own bars, as well as animals... that walk upright and talk – just a few of the "improvements" that have scrambled society beyond all recognition. (No wonder Lethem's people take "forgettol.") Over-the-hill detective Conrad Metcalf runs into all kinds of absurd trouble (his girlfriend, for instance, ran off with his genitals) as he tries to solve an inordinately complex case in Lethem's quirky dystopia, but ends up just trying to survive. This exceedingly bizarre take on the noir detective novel (don't miss the mafia's kangaroo sharpshooter!) is Lethem at his rawest and strangest.

For a massive collection of awful solutions to a panoply of American problems, try Wallace's inordinately entertaining Infinite Jest. This comprehensive look at U.S. dysfunction tackles everything from terrorism to boredom to the deficit and even waste management, offering ingeniously awful solutions to each. This masterpiece pulls no punches in showing us just how bad we can be, but Wallace's over-the-top satires have a purpose – first to make us laugh at... our foibles, then to offer us reasons for redemption.