Mania

In 2011, the Mental Parity Movement is born in the United States. It posits that everyone is just as intelligent as everyone else. Words like “stupid” and “dumb” become profanities. Schools dispense with tests and grades because they are discriminatory. Businesses and government can’t consider the qualifications of job applicants, nor can they fire employees for not doing their jobs or for doing them poorly. Pearson’s very bright children are taunted at school, and she struggles to teach English literature at the local college, where stories containing offensive words or ideas about intelligence are forbidden. As the world around her begins to crumble, Pearson publicly lashes out against the Movement. In the aftermath, she loses her job and Child Protective Services puts her children in foster care. She bides her time until the pendulum of social norms swings back to center and then, alarmingly, continues on to fascism. While Shriver’s (Abominations) story is fiction, it comes close enough to today’s reality to be disturbing. This cautionary satire is compelling and, one hopes, repelling. Abby Craden voices Pearson’s confusion and anger to perfection.