Years ago I read The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. The truth of that fiction novel seems to be coming alive in society now. I feel the same way about Celeste Ng's dystopian science fiction novel called Our Missing Hearts. The story is about a 12 year old boy named Bird. He now lives with his father, a former professor of linguists, now a librarian on a college campus. Bird's mother moved away from the family 5 years ago. His father warns his son to make no mention of his mother, to pretend he didn't agree with her political views, and to blend into society without drawing attention to himself. Bird gets a cryptic note. The American society is following the PACT act. PACT stands for Preserving American Culture and Traditions. Families who do not follow PACT, or who protest against PACT, end up with their children taken away from their families and never seen again. Bird's mother, who was of Chinese descent, did not protest PACT. She did write a book of poems when Bird was first born. One of those poems was adopted by the PACT protesters. The poem has the phrase our missing hearts. This is all a story but there is a ring of truth to it that scares me just a little.
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