sodden vests? sounds uncomfortable...

June 8, 2008 9:47 PM

please help identify this "young adults" sci-fi-ish novel - "I'm an Est, for Ests are best, down to their sodding woollen vests"...

read back in the '80s, set in a near-ish future UK in which everyone gets the same education but are streamed into their future lives based on their final exam results... if you score poorly you become a Prole and face a life of manual labour or service industry work... score well and you become an Est (presumably "Establishment"), and go into business or whatever... the rhyme above the fold is sung by kids in school, because, hell, who wouldn't want to be an Est...

4 main characters in their final year of school, exam results posted, one fails and is destined for Prole-hood, 2 pass and will become Ests, the last (smartest of the 4) has no result posted but a "please come see the principal" note... he goes to see the principal and is informed that since he scored 100% he's obviously not a team player and therefore unsuited to be an Est, so please leave with these men in white coats... turns out that a perfect score gets you streamed as a Tech, but the general public doesn't know about them because... ummm... something I don't remember...

oddly enough, I was reminded of this by cortex and TheOnlyCoolTim's comments in MeTa...

posted by russm to writing & language (8 answers total)

That sounds extremely familiar. I don't think it was a novel, though, I think it was a short story. A novella, at most. I feel like it was an Asimov story, but I could be wrong about that. It could also be Bradbury or Zelazny, or Orson Scott Card, or Harlan Ellison. I can't remember for sure, and unfortunately I don't remember the name of the story, either.

This was probably zero help. Sorry.
posted by Caduceus at 10:34 PM on June 8, 2008

Theo quote doesn't bring anything up on google book search.
posted by delmoi at 10:42 PM on June 8, 2008

Futuretrack 5, Robert Westall.
posted by zamboni at 10:49 PM on June 8, 2008

bingo! thanks, zamboni...

out of curiosity, was that from memory, or via. some sort of search?
posted by russm at 10:54 PM on June 8, 2008

Maybe I was just thinking of a similar plot line, because I sure never read that...
posted by Caduceus at 10:58 PM on June 8, 2008

Caduceus - I suspect "geeky teenage outsider uncovers the Big Secret" is a pretty common theme in books read by geeky teenage outsiders...
posted by russm at 11:04 PM on June 8, 2008 [2 favorites]

Caduceus - it does indeed have some super-common themes - perhaps the "super-smart kid who's pulled out of school to participate in a secret organization" reminded you of Ender's Game, for example.
posted by muddgirl at 5:42 AM on June 9, 2008

> out of curiosity, was that from memory, or via. some sort of search?

Memory, having read the book a few times in primary school. My clearest recollection of the book is the extended meditation on the correct method for brewing tea. That, and the motorbike races.
posted by zamboni at 1:13 PM on June 9, 2008