The novel begins hundreds of years in the future in Manhattan, where most of the buildings have been razed and its population, as with the world's, is largely depleted.

Over the years Spofforth has held many important positions, including head of the entire auto industry, which no longer exists, and mayor of St. Louis.

He is now the "dean of faculties" of New York University, As the novel begins, Spofforth climbs to the top of the Empire State Building to attempt suicide.

Anne McCaffrey commented, "I've read other novels extrapolating the dangers of computerization, but Mockingbird stings me, the writer, the hardest.

"[citation needed] When a new edition was published in 1999, with an introduction by Jonathan Lethem, Pat Holt stated that, "The book often feels like a combination 1984 and Brave New World, with a dash of the movie Escape from New York thrown in.

"[1] Reviewing the 1999 edition, James Sallis declared that "Mockingbird collapses the whole of mankind's perverse, self-destructive, indomitable history, cruelty and kindness alike, into its black-humor narrative of a robot's death wish.