A few weeks ago, I finished Suzanne Collins’s amazing “The Hunger Games”, the first volume in her dystopian trilogy that is about to make it to the big screen. It has been a very long time since I have been so absorbed — obsessed? — with a book. It is, in some ways, a familiar tale of man-hunts-man survival, but Collins gave us a teenaged heroine who is the antidote for the last ten years of princess prettiness. Katniss is clever, bad-tempered, brave and crafty, which helps her to survive the annual “reaping” of youth. I won’t spoil it by telling you more, but suffice it to say that she is not the sole author of her fate. Katniss’s struggle is not only against her fellow sacrificial “tributes” but against a political power that has turned human misery into entertainment and cultural necessity.

What haunts me is the echoes I see in our own culture today. On an Ellen Degeneres rerun, we watched an impoverished mother of three break down in tears when given a family trip, a new car and a $10,000 check from Ellen. A new reality show turns military homecomings into heart-wrenching entertainment. Makeover shows of all kinds feature “deserving” people getting a chance at a decent life, as long as they are willing to let us watch.

No, we aren’t watching adolescents hunt each other down until only one survives, yet. So maybe we aren’t living “The Hunger Games” yet. Just the appetizer.