The overpopulation is the main theme of this novel written in 1962, which title came from a folksong refrain.
In Anthony
Burgess's futuristic vision, Greater London has expanded to the Channel, homosexuality is officially encouraged ('It's Sapiens to be Homo' say the posters) and voluntary castrati (called Castros) earn the higher government appointments.
Food rations are being reduced, there are strikes and riots, and cannibalism becomes a solution to starvation.
Jim Grimshaw, the hero, discovers that men are fighting women (who are responsible for generating new life) and that the cadavers are being shipped for processing into canned meat.
'Everyone has a right to be born, but no one has a right to live': this is the sad truth disclaimed by The Wanting Seed .
About the Author:
In the early sixties Anthony Burgess was diagnosed with a terminal brain desease. Writing like a demon he cranked out several novels in two years thinking he's need to support his wife after he passed on. He had been mis-diagnosed, but as a result he wrote a series of novels that are really his best works and some of the best works of the twentieth century. The Wanting Seed is one of these books.