The House of the Scorpion

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Set in a depressing future, The House of the Scorpion is an interesting young adult novel dealing with drug production and cloning.  The bulk of the story is set in the country of Opium, which was created between the United States and Mexico.  This country was founded for a variety of reasons.  It is a buffer between the countries, preventing illegal immigration.  This immigration was apparently no longer from Mexico into America, but Americans were crossing the Rio Grande into the booming Mexican economy.  Opium was also established as a place to legally grow opium poppy, fields and fields of it.  The drugs produced here were not to be sold to either American or Mexican citizens, and the widespread availability of the drugs were meant to dissuade people from using them.  If they are everywhere and easy to obtain, fewer people will use them is apparently the logic.

The story follows Matt who was being raised by a cook on the fringes of the palatial grounds of the ruler of Opium, El Patron.  Through a series of events, Matt comes to live in the palace of El Patron, learning that he is a clone of the nearly 200 year-old drug lord.  Matt becomes El Patron’s favorite pet, while all other potential heirs to his throne obviously hate Matt.  El Patron’s health declines and Matt learns he has been grown solely for new organs for El Patron, and seeks to escape before he becomes the next clone to fall victim to El Patron’s failing health.

Even though the country is called Opium and drugs are clearly no longer taboo or illegal, the story doesn’t focus on drug use.  In that sense, I have no qualms about recommending it to readers.  It takes a very subtle look at what a culture like that would be like, where drug lords are given actual political power.  Power plays within El Patron’s family are very much like those in the Corleone family; everyone is out to get a piece of the pie, or in this case, the opium pod.

The ethics of cloning are also under discussion in the novel.  Matt is a clone, and not the first one, whose sole purpose is to provide organs to his ‘father’ when he becomes very sick.  El Patron is close to 200 years old using cloning technology like this.  El Patron treats his clone, who will eventually have to die for him to live, like a favorite pet.  Again, Farmer plays with these issues subtly.  It is never an issue of “Cloning is wrong!”  It is an examination of a world and situation where this is possible.

I highly recommend this book.  It is sort of a futuristic dystopia, but it isn’t so different from our own world that it is daunting.  With the focus on characters and their interactions with such a brave new world, The House of the Scorpions comes highly recommended.