Chip (real name: Li RM35M4419) lives in a world where the people are fed, housed, assigned occupations, and given periodic injections to keep them docile. They also must touch scanners that keep track of their location. Their deaths will come at age 62, no matter how good their health.Chip's grandfather gave his family members nicknames, which isn't normal in a world where there are only 4 or 5 names used for each gender. Even more unusual, his grandfather–in spite of having worked on UniComp, the computer system that keeps everything humming along–seems to dislike UniComp, although he doesn't actually say so with words. Likely because of his grandfather's influence, Chip wonders what kind of assignment he would choose, if he could choose. When he voices his thoughts about this, he's considered ill and sent for an extra treatment. As Chip grows older, one of his goals is to find other people who think like him, but to do so in a way to avoid notice and thus extra treatments.
This is the first dystopian novel I ever read, quite a while back. I hadn't realized until recently that Ira Levin is also the author of Rosemary's Baby, The Stepford Wives, The Boys From Brazil and many more.
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