Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins

This six weeks, I decided to read Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins. It was first published in 2009, as the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy. It is a fictional book, based on a dystopian society set in the future United States.  It has some very obvious similarities to today's society as well as some very wild and dangerous ideas about the possibilities of how things could turn out in the future, depending on how citizens choose to behave.  Reading this book, requires an open mind, like many of the other books we are reading.  The story takes off from where the first book, The Hunger Games ended, where Katniss and Petah, from District 12, come home as the first ever joint-victors of the annual games. They are at home in their area of the country, District 12, trying to find their way forward.  Katniss is the heroine of the book and it is written from her point of view.  It is a limited perspective though because we only get to see what's going on from her point of view.  The plot revolves around the Capitol's way of managing the people in the districts to keep the country in order. The 12 districts, for 75 years now, are organized by their key natural resources and economic contribution to the Capitol.  From fishing to farming to mining and logging and engineering you see that people from each region only have exposure to what their district has as resources. The Capitol area differs from the districts in that live there revolves around government and entertainment; it is a sort of Hollywood-Washington DC hybrid.

The Capitol, which is where the country and its 12 districts are "managed" from, has just announced the next year's games will have a new and exciting twist for all the district participants because it is the 75th anniversary of the Hunger Games.  Every 25 years, they have a "Quarter Quell" Hunger Games, and this 75th anniversary will be the 3rd quarter quell, and the Capitol has something very special cooked up for the citizenry.  Katniss is on pins and needles as are Petah and Haymitch.  Haymitch is a previous Hunger Games winner with his own Demons which he battles daily through the bottle (alcohol).  Petah has continued to be a saint, baking and painting and living in his little house in the Victors Village area of District 12.  Petah, Haymitch and Katniss all live in the Victors Village houses in this second book.  Katniss has her mother and sister, Prim, living with her; while Haymitch and Petah each live alone.  Petah and Katniss and Haymitch find out that two victors (a male and a female) from each district will be going back into the arena for this 75th games.  Katniss is the only female, so she knows she's going back -- she is distressed and afraid and in usual Katniss style heads out into the woods to "think" about what this means for her and her family and all those she holds dear.  She decides that this year's games will be about keeping Petah or Haymitch alive, that is all.

I think the book really made an impression on me because it shows how too much control in the government can undermine the quality of people's lives (the pursuit of happiness which we take for granted today) and overall, can undermine how society interacts with one another.  The Hunger Games were established by the government to make people remember their wars of the past - between themselves and who had the most power -- and how they made each district sacrifice annually, one male and one female from each district to annual games that were a fight to the death.  Instead of keeping people in line by incentivizing good behavior, the book illustrates how the current Capitol's strategy to keep peace through recurring violence as punishment, despite good behavior, ultimately fails over time.  Basically, the book illustrates how overuse of "the stick" vs "the carrot" is an unsustainable way to keep a country in order and how excessive "the carrot" life, experienced by those in the Capitol who never suffer for anything, ultimately are rudderless and entertainment focused, until they have experience some hardships themselves.  

I really enjoyed the book, cannot wait for the movie to come out in November, and have enjoyed the third book, The Mockingjay, very much also.

This book has a great ending, which I will not spoil and is highly recommended by readers of all ages. (My grandfather even read the series.  He loved it too!)