Blog post on Rush by Pete Hautman

Miles Mukamal

     Rush is about a teenage boy named Bo who lives in the future. In the future many things are banned such as football and french fries. Bo has a hard time handling his temperment and often gets into fights. This is even more of a problem then how it is today because small things in the future will get you in work camps for a long time. 24% of all males are in jail/work camps. For Bo, it is a real struggle to keep out of the work camps, where is brother and father already are in.

     Bo has a rival named Karlohs and a friend named Maddy. Karlohs does things to get Bo in trouble because he knows Bo has anger management issues. For example Karlohs tells some of the people on Bo's track team that Bo's running strategy was to pretend a bear was chasing him in a attempt to embarrass Bo. Bo then later calls him a "Dog anus" and gets in deep trouble. Additionally, Karlohs, knowing that he is allergic to rosemary cream, puts some on and then blames Bo saying that he gave him the red spots on his face. Bo then punched Karlohs on a fit of rage, and soon was arrested. 

     Bo was sent to a work camp that makes frozen pizzas and had to work 16 hours a day. Soon he was promoted after judged on how he played the illegal sport of football. Being promoted meant less work, and better food. But this meant all of the "Goldshirts" as they were called had to play football for 2-3 hours a day, without protection. There were so many injuries that almost everyone had a trip to the infirmary every week. Bo has to learn how to survive in the work camp risking injuries and death. Because the head of the camp is so hard on the workers, when Bo failed to catch a ball which then bounced over the fence. As soon as he got over, a polar bear attacked him and Bo barely escaped with his life after getting the ball. 

     The camp was breaking many laws and including a illegal football game between Bo's camp and another camp which was really a fight purposely setup for the heads of the two camps to watch as entertainment. When Bo was finally released after his lawyer who was Bo's school robot that transformed into a webghost got him out by threatening to shut down the camp for forcing them to play football unless he let Bo out, they forced him to walk the 26 miles till the closest town instead of flying him home. Bo was again chased by a polar bear until a tour guild saved him.

    This book connects to the real world because there are people who are jailed or forced to work for very minor or no law breaking. It also shows how anger management and other illnesses are very hard for the people who are diagnosed with them. This book touches on some very important issues in our lives, even though it is set in the future.