X Marks The Pedwalk

I discovered this deliciously grim short story during my now-annual Project Gutenberg hunt for a book title starting with X to complete my Alphabet Soup reading challenge. (Last year I picked out Xingu by Edith Wharton.) Leiber's tale is set in a futuristic American city where people are no longer divided by political affiliation, but by whether they get around on foot or by wheel. The animosity has grown so intense between the two groups and violent aggression so frequent that mowing down little old ladies on pedestrian crossings is now only illegal if one fails to honk one's horn beforehand! X Marks The Pedwalk is outrageously shocking, even more so perhaps because of its brevity. It's a chilling snapshot of an intolerant society with disturbing parallels in the present day situation.