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My Petition for More Space
Alfred A. Knopf, 1974. Hardcover with dustjacket, 1st edition with $5.95 price on jacket flap. The Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist's tale of an overpopulated future dystopia.
182 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1974
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351 people want to read
About the author
John Hersey
116 books866 followersJohn Richard Hersey, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer, earliest practiced the "new journalism," which fuses storytelling devices of the novel with nonfiction reportage. A 36-member panel under the aegis of journalism department of New York University adjudged account of Hersey of the aftermath of the atomic bomb, dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, as the finest piece of journalism of the 20th century.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
March 16, 2010
i read this because of 90-mile water wall. i found the quote interesting, so i picked it up, and the book - although there's so little really happening - is very captivating. John Hersey is such an engaging and poetic writer. i wonder if Matt Berninger read the entire thing. maybe this inspired his lyrics beyond the 90-mile water wall.
February 3, 2022
Covid-19 somehow made me take this off the 'to be read' shelf. Surprisingly good and pleasantly short dystopic novel – part Orwell, part Kafka, part early Vonnegut, hence funny as well – about a world that is so chock-full of people that everybody lives in buildings that are divided in “spaces” of 7 by 11 foot, measured by chalklines drawn on the floor. Who said ‘privacy’? No social distancing for our hero, who stands in line for half a day with thousands of others, all waiting to hand in a personal petition. As you may guess, the anonymous bureaucrats behind the window are rather reluctant to say ‘yes’.
August 15, 2014
I bought this book used on Amazon marketplace. It's a hardcover first edition from 1974. In it I found a stamp labeled Haywood County Public Library, Waynesville, N.C.. So this book traveled 40 years and at least 4000+ miles before it got to me here in Germany. In 1974 the world population reached a new milestone of 4,000,000,000 people. That's probably the reason why 1974 was officially designated as World Population Year by the then UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. And that's probably also the reason why this book was written in the first place, but I can't be sure.
The obvious main theme of this book is over-population. In the fictional town of New Haven people are entitled to only 85 square foot of living space, marked by lines on the floor, and all privacy has become a thing of the past. Everything is strictly regulated, from reproduction (only few people are allowed with only one child max) up to going to the toilet (6 mins max if I remember right). A man stands in a waiting line to make a petition for - you guessed it - more space, an unimaginable task. Waiting there for hours on end - sardines-style - he gets acquainted with his "touchers", the four people next to him in the waiting line, and the touchers' touchers. He sort of fell for the girl in front of him of whom he could only see half a face in profile. Almost the whole story takes place in this waiting line with strangers talking to each other, while touching, and they're faces only inches apart.
So all in all this is quite an unsettling setting. I can relate a little. At some rock concerts I attended, I had similar feelings. But I knew I could return to my spacious apartment again, with its four opaque walls, an invaluable advantage. I especially liked the formatting of the text in the book, which is totally contrary to the content of the story. It's light and easy to read and it leaves even the claustrophobic reader enough space to breathe. The writing style is also easy and appealing. It's not at all dark as you might think, sometimes poetic, even satirical in parts.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in literal fiction. I plan to read more of this intriguing author, especially his 1946 book Hiroshima which is still in print (in contrast to the book at hand). If you're in or near Waynesville, N.C., please visit the public library and see for me if they still have this book somewhere, and then borrow and read it. The card of dates of issue in my copy is pitifully empty:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The obvious main theme of this book is over-population. In the fictional town of New Haven people are entitled to only 85 square foot of living space, marked by lines on the floor, and all privacy has become a thing of the past. Everything is strictly regulated, from reproduction (only few people are allowed with only one child max) up to going to the toilet (6 mins max if I remember right). A man stands in a waiting line to make a petition for - you guessed it - more space, an unimaginable task. Waiting there for hours on end - sardines-style - he gets acquainted with his "touchers", the four people next to him in the waiting line, and the touchers' touchers. He sort of fell for the girl in front of him of whom he could only see half a face in profile. Almost the whole story takes place in this waiting line with strangers talking to each other, while touching, and they're faces only inches apart.
So all in all this is quite an unsettling setting. I can relate a little. At some rock concerts I attended, I had similar feelings. But I knew I could return to my spacious apartment again, with its four opaque walls, an invaluable advantage. I especially liked the formatting of the text in the book, which is totally contrary to the content of the story. It's light and easy to read and it leaves even the claustrophobic reader enough space to breathe. The writing style is also easy and appealing. It's not at all dark as you might think, sometimes poetic, even satirical in parts.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in literal fiction. I plan to read more of this intriguing author, especially his 1946 book Hiroshima which is still in print (in contrast to the book at hand). If you're in or near Waynesville, N.C., please visit the public library and see for me if they still have this book somewhere, and then borrow and read it. The card of dates of issue in my copy is pitifully empty:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
November 4, 2007
Conceptually a great idea. The entire story takes place in a madly overpopulated future within a giant queue where the author is attempting to quixotically file a petition for a few more square feet of living space.
October 3, 2023
There should be more of everything. But there is not more of everything. That is the first fact of existence.
-p47
Sam is waiting in line. He cannot see the people around, behind or in front of him, and all are packed like sardines, shoulder to shoulder, stomach to back. The line is thousands of people long. Sam thinks it will take five hours to reach the front. Intimacy, physical or conversational, is outlawed. He woke at 4:32am, got in line at 5:00am. Work starts at 10:30am. He thinks there is enough time. He is optimistic about reaching the front and having a chance to have his petition heard.
We are in a post-apocalyptic New Haven. There is no privacy. There are few possessions. There is a nameless, faceless authority. One generation prior, there were private homes and private cars. No longer.
Bureaucracy attracts such mediocre people; we are in the hands of imbeciles.
-p33
Sam lives in a housing unit. There are no walls between dwellings. His space is 7’ x 11’, marked by a white line on the floor. Adjacent to others’ living space. He has divested himself of most possessions. Others hoard televisions and rocking horses and negotiate great piles of objects in their rectangles.
Sam’s petition: for more space.
The entire narrative is revealed through conversations he has in line. He does develop intimacy with some, a roiling dislike for others. He reminisces about his childhood, his wife, and about a possible future.
I came into possession of the facts of life when I was seven, my informant an older man of nine.
-p106
This is an Orwellian story, narrow in scope, preposterous (is it?) but relatable. This can be read and enjoyed by anyone who has ever thought they were special, ever stole a glance at a stranger, ever waited interminably, ever felt the depredations of the Man.
We have tacitly agreed to try and be alone together in this crowd. To my right is a janitor. To my left, a grandmother, a retired circuitry printer. I have come to know them. I do not wish to know the man behind me.
-p4
-p47
Sam is waiting in line. He cannot see the people around, behind or in front of him, and all are packed like sardines, shoulder to shoulder, stomach to back. The line is thousands of people long. Sam thinks it will take five hours to reach the front. Intimacy, physical or conversational, is outlawed. He woke at 4:32am, got in line at 5:00am. Work starts at 10:30am. He thinks there is enough time. He is optimistic about reaching the front and having a chance to have his petition heard.
We are in a post-apocalyptic New Haven. There is no privacy. There are few possessions. There is a nameless, faceless authority. One generation prior, there were private homes and private cars. No longer.
Bureaucracy attracts such mediocre people; we are in the hands of imbeciles.
-p33
Sam lives in a housing unit. There are no walls between dwellings. His space is 7’ x 11’, marked by a white line on the floor. Adjacent to others’ living space. He has divested himself of most possessions. Others hoard televisions and rocking horses and negotiate great piles of objects in their rectangles.
Sam’s petition: for more space.
The entire narrative is revealed through conversations he has in line. He does develop intimacy with some, a roiling dislike for others. He reminisces about his childhood, his wife, and about a possible future.
I came into possession of the facts of life when I was seven, my informant an older man of nine.
-p106
This is an Orwellian story, narrow in scope, preposterous (is it?) but relatable. This can be read and enjoyed by anyone who has ever thought they were special, ever stole a glance at a stranger, ever waited interminably, ever felt the depredations of the Man.
We have tacitly agreed to try and be alone together in this crowd. To my right is a janitor. To my left, a grandmother, a retired circuitry printer. I have come to know them. I do not wish to know the man behind me.
-p4
June 17, 2025
Allegorical treatise on cramped-ness, agency, the venn diagram of space and time, how parenting and love become impossible in a world where time and space has gone amuck, and General Yearning. The industrial revolution was a helluva drug man. If I had read this book in 2022 I would’ve been escorted out of the Westminster public library in handcuffs
dropped
August 9, 2023Nah, dnf’d at 5% satire is just not my thing at all((
April 8, 2020
If I had more space, then I would have more time.
May 1, 2015
Hersey's masterful writing takes something as simple as waiting in line and using it as a metaphor for existence. In this quiet, gentle book, our hero and the people he stands in line with are adrift in a future of cramped living and working spaces, all controlled by an uncaring government. It is a miserable experience. Sound familiar? There's no soma, no rat cages, just an uncomfortable existence that the reader will find timeless and accessible. And a little prescient.
May 19, 2017
This is an exemplary dystopian novel. I don't know why this hasn't had more critical acclaim. I picked it up because I read Hiroshima, but I would recommend it to anyone.
September 21, 2020
This is a surprisingly charming little story that I happened to pick up for $1 at a used bookstore, and I’m so glad I found it. I thoroughly enjoyed diving into the main character’s internal musings and external interactions as he waited in a crowded line of people. Despite the small page count, the author managed to tap into some deep philosophical issues and convincingly built up the suspense right up until the end. I can’t say the ending was all that satisfying, but it really fit the story and kind of brought things full circle back to the beginning, so I guess I can say I appreciated the ending, even though I may not have liked it. ;)
In the back of my mind, this book felt like the kind of book that you’d be required to read in high school and forced to dissect until it was beyond recognition and over-analyzed to the point that you’d probably end up making wrong assumptions about the author’s original meaning anyway, BUT, it’s not one of those books. And I for one am thankful that it will be preserved as a little gem, complete and unspoiled by English teachers looking for deeper meanings where there just needs to be unadulterated enjoyment of a story for what it is, waiting for someone else to walk through a used bookstore and take a chance on a little book because it only costs $1.
In the back of my mind, this book felt like the kind of book that you’d be required to read in high school and forced to dissect until it was beyond recognition and over-analyzed to the point that you’d probably end up making wrong assumptions about the author’s original meaning anyway, BUT, it’s not one of those books. And I for one am thankful that it will be preserved as a little gem, complete and unspoiled by English teachers looking for deeper meanings where there just needs to be unadulterated enjoyment of a story for what it is, waiting for someone else to walk through a used bookstore and take a chance on a little book because it only costs $1.
March 15, 2020
Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
"John Hersey’s My Petition for More Space (1974) is a quiet novel where the horror of the overpopulated future world sends only occasional currents of dread to surface. My Petition is also a deceptively simple novel with a crystalline structure—the vast majority of the story takes place in dialogue form, with interior thoughts, between characters waiting [...]"
"John Hersey’s My Petition for More Space (1974) is a quiet novel where the horror of the overpopulated future world sends only occasional currents of dread to surface. My Petition is also a deceptively simple novel with a crystalline structure—the vast majority of the story takes place in dialogue form, with interior thoughts, between characters waiting [...]"
September 26, 2021
That last line bumped this from a 4 star to a 5. Such a poignant and effective commentary on the human spirit and how easy it is to let other people(read: the government) take away our personal freedom if we let them. It didn't really talk that much about overpopulation than I thought it would've. It's a great short read. I can't imagine the bad day John had at the DMV to be inspired to write a very realistic dystopian(if we can call a slightly exaggerated reality that).
February 23, 2021
Nearly thrown out of line, has the hots for the girl in front of him who ditches him, and then he fumbles his whole pitch only to realize maybe he should have asked for more time to do his work in the day. That was why this book was recommended to me - I mentioned that it might be be nice if you could control time and add two hours to my own day and leave everyone else with the same hours.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
April 10, 2025 "You're like a character in a novel: I have to create your face for myself."
"But then when you see me..."
"You'll be in the movie made from the book."
"You won't like seeing a different face from the one you've made up."
"If it's a good movie it won't matter."
"Even realists dream sometimes."
"But then when you see me..."
"You'll be in the movie made from the book."
"You won't like seeing a different face from the one you've made up."
"If it's a good movie it won't matter."
"Even realists dream sometimes."
December 31, 2023
Sam waits for hours in a line, tightly packed in on all sides, to present his petition for more space.
A simple premise, a few hours of time, and a short novel of thoughts and experiences, dystopian and universal.
A good intriguing read.
A simple premise, a few hours of time, and a short novel of thoughts and experiences, dystopian and universal.
A good intriguing read.
June 18, 2024
short book, but took me a loooong time. though we are not in a dystopian society in which we are all packed like sardines, i also sometimes would like to petition for more space. also bureaucracy being tedious and slow and mind numbing and aggravating??? who woulda thunk!
November 4, 2018
The best novel ever set in my hometown. Yale might as well not exist. When this novel came out, it was a plausible take on our future.
October 16, 2022
Revisit every few years
November 18, 2025
Nothing happens, and I loved it. Fastest I've ever read a book; couldn't put it down
September 8, 2021
The meta-metamorphosis Kant style epic drama of the mundane but no roach just PETITION. New favorite found on the side of the road.
July 1, 2024
(17 March, 2021)
Waiting in line is just a fact of life in this horrifying, demoralising tale. Just as in Sorokin's excellent 'The Queue' we are drip-fed hints, by the people in line, of the general state of things. But this world is much worse than anything a totalitarian regime is capable of.
So much of what is divulged is difficult to imagine (something akin to the Star Trek episode 'The Mark Of Gideon'). Privacy is a thing of the past, individual houses and cars are non-existent and there is so little room freedom of movement is severely curtailed. Hersey continually reminds us of the insufferable atmosphere resultant from rampant overpopulation, it is so crushing to read I felt oppressed by my own walls!
The ending is the most frightening of all: Sam, the protagonist, reacts exactly as Winston Smith does at the end of Orwell's masterpiece 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' - the system always wins...
Waiting in line is just a fact of life in this horrifying, demoralising tale. Just as in Sorokin's excellent 'The Queue' we are drip-fed hints, by the people in line, of the general state of things. But this world is much worse than anything a totalitarian regime is capable of.
So much of what is divulged is difficult to imagine (something akin to the Star Trek episode 'The Mark Of Gideon'). Privacy is a thing of the past, individual houses and cars are non-existent and there is so little room freedom of movement is severely curtailed. Hersey continually reminds us of the insufferable atmosphere resultant from rampant overpopulation, it is so crushing to read I felt oppressed by my own walls!
The ending is the most frightening of all: Sam, the protagonist, reacts exactly as Winston Smith does at the end of Orwell's masterpiece 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' - the system always wins...
December 16, 2010
Bizarre little book about overpopulation. Speculative fiction. Set in New Haven where there is no free space whatsoever left. There is a caged-in green with some grass and trees and birds that you can look at through the windows but you have to wait in line literally pressed up against people like sardines. Interesting consideration of how sex would be if one was always forced to have it in public. There is absolutely no privacy available because there is no physical space. A single person gets a space in a sleeping hall 7by4 feet (I think) marked off by lines on the floor. There is a six minute bathroom time limit. Etc. I haven't given everything away so read it!
March 26, 2013
Awfully self-conscious and literary at times--and an aristocratic sort of voice that doesn't really seem to go with the matter at hand. Full of vague unfathomable lines like "[Indoors] is that same light from the center of a drop of amber, from the center of a sexual wish" and "I must learn from the whole texture of sound around me." Also must say I didn't find the setting and circumstances too convincing--the sci-fi usually produced by a mainstream writer slumming. And then at the end there didn't seem much point either. Much ado about nothing. Still, there was one good line: "This is what makes authority so infuriating. It always hides its eyes."
February 2, 2008
In an overly crowded world, what gives one the right to make a request for more space? Hersey weaves an interesting futuristic story around a self-righteous man that arrogantly and boldly makes his way to the petition "window" to declare why he deserves more space than others. It is an interesting story of him and his "touchers" as they seek to find a better life. The reader is bombarded by the singlemindedness of the characters being fixated on their petty problems (i.e. a couple of feet of living space) and should make one ask: What do I really need to be content?
April 13, 2015
The premise of this story is interesting, but it's very much a one-idea book. The description of a mildly coercive society where people have to queue to beg for anything ( a die at with more protein, a change of jobs, permission to have a child, the right to learn to read etc) is reasonably successful, but the idyll between the narrator and the pretty girl ahead of him in the line never gets off the ground. Definitely not in the same league as "1984".
July 15, 2020
I heard the quote from the book in 90 mile water wall, so I decided to read it. As soon as I started it I realized I'm pretty sure I had already read this, or at least part of it, in high school. Because I know it read it once before. And that it was a long time ago because it was so familiar to me and I remembered as I read, but I couldn't remember what happened in the end. Reading it as an adult I realize how awesome it is.
October 4, 2010
don't recall when i read this one...1910 perhaps...story of the future, guy standing in line w/his petition...heh heh! i don't recall if he ever made it to the end of the line. anyone ever have someone scream in their ear nutt-to-butt! don't believe that was in the story...but i did fall asleep in a line one time....we were going to chow, to chow dee down.
March 29, 2014
This was an amazing read. The concepts were thought provoking and entertaining. I loved that I read this book in four hours, which is about how long the main character was standing in line. I could easily relate to him and understand him. I was very happy that I purchased this. It will definitely be something that I pick up again.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews