Page-turner

Various people kept telling me to read a trilogy of books called The Hunger Games.  They were supposedly about a post-apocalyptic world in which the Capitol of 12 districts demands a tribute of two children from each one to do battle to the death in a public arena.  I was dubious- maybe it's because it's so taboo to show the murder of a child on TV, but their battling to the death seemed really unrealistic.  Now I am obsessed.  The books are so well-written, so fast-paced, I stayed up through the night to read the second one. 

Now I am on the third and final book, and I was thinking about how the author, Suzanne Collins, must have come up with this idea.  I don't think it is giving anything away to say that it almost seems to be modeled on the story in Casablanca- the love triangle, the oppressive occupation of the districts, the rebellious spirit of the people.  The Capitol Peacekeepers have all the qualities of Nazis to me, so maybe that's why a story that sounds so fantastical in a two-sentence description actually reads quite realistically.  Whatever it is, I highly suggest that you pick up a copy.

LXX
(from The Book of Questions)

What forced labor
does Hitler do in hell?

Does he paint walls or cadavers?
Does he sniff the fumes of the dead?

Do they feed him the ashes
of so many burnt children?

Or, since his death, have they given him
blood to drink from a funnel?

Or do they hammer into his mouth
the pulled gold teeth?

-Pablo Neruda