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A review by viiemzee
The Power by Naomi Alderman
5.0
Now here’s a dystopian novel I can really get behind.
I love a good dystopian novel. One of my favourite books of all time is 1984. I once considered writing my undergraduate dissertation on dystopian novels (but that idea fell through). Nowadays I just content myself with reading them whenever I can.
This novel I was so pleased with.
I like to think of it as a reverse The Handmaid’s Tale, because the entirety of everything we’ve ever known as a civilization collapses, but it’s the matriarchy that comes forth and takes power rather than the patriarchy. And oh man is it so weird to read about it.
The basic plot of the novel is that women all over the world suddenly develop the power to conduct electricity through their hands. They start to use this for self-defence, for fun, for fighting, and eventually to take power and control. Women all over the world start to rebel against the patriarchy that ruled them previously and take their place as the new leaders. And a new religion starts to form, the religion in which God is a Woman, and a new prophet – Mother Eve – is leading the way.
There are a few main characters in the story – Roxy, the daughter of a mobster; Mother Eve, the leader of the new religion; Margot, an up-and-rising politician in the USA and her daughter Jocelyn; and Tunde, a male journalist who travels the world documenting the rise of this power and the matriarchy. The story is told alternatingly through their different points of view, giving you a good idea of the effect that this new found power has on different people in different parts of society.
What I really enjoyed about this novel is that it shows that things could very easily become ugly for men, which is not what we want if we want to reach equality. A new country forms that starts to control men much in the same way that Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale does – every man must be accompanied by a woman, no man can take a job, no man can leave the country. Men start to be raped and killed and used for pleasure, women letting the power go to their head and using it to not only assert themselves but abuse others. It turns very ugly very quickly – one could say just a matter of months or years – and honestly if you think about it, it’s quite realistic that something like that would happen if the power dynamic were ever to shift.
An extra layer to the story is the fact that at the end (and this really reminds me of The Handmaid’s Tale again), there’s a brief letter exchange between a man, Neil, who has been writing this novel and collecting this information, and his editor/publisher (I admit I’m not sure of the relationship between the two) named Naomi, who is encouraging him to do this. The way that Naomi speaks to Neil is very reflective of the way that men in power speak to their female subordinates at the moment, and it’s quite jarring to see a woman talk to a man like that.
I think this novel should be read by everyone, regardless of your beliefs or your gender. There’s a lot to it that is just incredibly well written, but not only that – the novel isn’t about power as in a super-powered ability, but power as a structure, and how fluid it is and how quickly it can break down if it has to be broken down and changed. Power is a fickle thing, and the novel does a wonderful way of showcasing what we don’t want to happen if the power structure were to change – women treating men in the exact same way that men have treated women for centuries. At the end of the day, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, and we don’t want to turn into the enemy. Speaking for myself, I would like a world that is equal for all and that makes sure the wrongs of the past are righted, but not by using violence and the same tactics that have proven to be harmful in the past.
Final rating? 7/5. It’s just a brilliant read with an amazing storyline and it really makes you think. Any self-respecting fiction reader needs to read this book and appreciate it for how amazingly well written it is, but also how well the story is presented. I know I feel better for having read it now.
I love a good dystopian novel. One of my favourite books of all time is 1984. I once considered writing my undergraduate dissertation on dystopian novels (but that idea fell through). Nowadays I just content myself with reading them whenever I can.
This novel I was so pleased with.
I like to think of it as a reverse The Handmaid’s Tale, because the entirety of everything we’ve ever known as a civilization collapses, but it’s the matriarchy that comes forth and takes power rather than the patriarchy. And oh man is it so weird to read about it.
The basic plot of the novel is that women all over the world suddenly develop the power to conduct electricity through their hands. They start to use this for self-defence, for fun, for fighting, and eventually to take power and control. Women all over the world start to rebel against the patriarchy that ruled them previously and take their place as the new leaders. And a new religion starts to form, the religion in which God is a Woman, and a new prophet – Mother Eve – is leading the way.
There are a few main characters in the story – Roxy, the daughter of a mobster; Mother Eve, the leader of the new religion; Margot, an up-and-rising politician in the USA and her daughter Jocelyn; and Tunde, a male journalist who travels the world documenting the rise of this power and the matriarchy. The story is told alternatingly through their different points of view, giving you a good idea of the effect that this new found power has on different people in different parts of society.
What I really enjoyed about this novel is that it shows that things could very easily become ugly for men, which is not what we want if we want to reach equality. A new country forms that starts to control men much in the same way that Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale does – every man must be accompanied by a woman, no man can take a job, no man can leave the country. Men start to be raped and killed and used for pleasure, women letting the power go to their head and using it to not only assert themselves but abuse others. It turns very ugly very quickly – one could say just a matter of months or years – and honestly if you think about it, it’s quite realistic that something like that would happen if the power dynamic were ever to shift.
An extra layer to the story is the fact that at the end (and this really reminds me of The Handmaid’s Tale again), there’s a brief letter exchange between a man, Neil, who has been writing this novel and collecting this information, and his editor/publisher (I admit I’m not sure of the relationship between the two) named Naomi, who is encouraging him to do this. The way that Naomi speaks to Neil is very reflective of the way that men in power speak to their female subordinates at the moment, and it’s quite jarring to see a woman talk to a man like that.
I think this novel should be read by everyone, regardless of your beliefs or your gender. There’s a lot to it that is just incredibly well written, but not only that – the novel isn’t about power as in a super-powered ability, but power as a structure, and how fluid it is and how quickly it can break down if it has to be broken down and changed. Power is a fickle thing, and the novel does a wonderful way of showcasing what we don’t want to happen if the power structure were to change – women treating men in the exact same way that men have treated women for centuries. At the end of the day, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, and we don’t want to turn into the enemy. Speaking for myself, I would like a world that is equal for all and that makes sure the wrongs of the past are righted, but not by using violence and the same tactics that have proven to be harmful in the past.
Final rating? 7/5. It’s just a brilliant read with an amazing storyline and it really makes you think. Any self-respecting fiction reader needs to read this book and appreciate it for how amazingly well written it is, but also how well the story is presented. I know I feel better for having read it now.