Take a photo of a barcode or cover
ethanrstories 's review for:
The Dispossessed
by Ursula K. Le Guin
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The Dispossessed is a very well-written novel. This is my first Ursula K. Le Guin read and I have to say I'm impressed. The premise of the two planets—Urras and Anarres, the former a capitalist planet under government rule with nations, beautiful grass, mountains, hills and oceans almost reminiscent of Earth, and the latter a desolate desert world with a utopian anarcho-communist establishment under a lack of any government and minimal private property—is an intriguing one not only because of the dynamics between them, but also because their situation reveals itself to be increasingly middling as the book goes on. Anarres is imperfect and Urras has amazing qualities to it, regardless of what the natives to each planet will tell you. While Anarres is suffering a drought, most in Urras will never die of hunger or thirst, and while Anarres is mostly free of greed and violence, millions are locked away in Urrasti prisons. The novel handles nuance well.
I do have a couple issues with the book, and I think the strongest is that this book doesn't feel like it has an incredibly strong central plot. This issue in my mind is intertwined with the pacing, which is at times strange and flip-floppy. It begins with our main character Shevek boarding a ship to go to Urras, describing the wall of the port he leaves from as something along the lines of "the most important division in the world for the past 150 years," and while once you get far enough into it is sufficiently clear why it is so, there are no more scenes at this port and it is only mentioned once or twice after that. Next, Shevek leaves, and once he arrives, the book flashes back to his childhood for a couple chapters to bring us up to speed, which is bumpy since we barely know who he is at this point but it ends up alright. I enjoyed this section a lot, but I think it should have been saved for later, or maybe even broken up and returned to in single chapters if Le Guin would like to lean into this book's habit of flipping between times and locations at the start of chapters. Most of these flips are bumpy to start, but good when they get going. A couple of them will make you wonder what planet he's on or something of the sort, but they quickly answer the question. The larger problem, to me, is that the conflict resolutions feel extremely half-done and are sometimes barely explored. Things he spends half the book doing are finished and then almost forgotten about a couple chapters later. It feels at several points like there's no real endpoint, just a bunch of things that happen and then stop happening. While this is not an inherently bad idea, I do not think it's intentional, nor is it great.
One thing about this book that left me kind of bewildered is—Trigger warning for mentions of SA— Shevek gets drunk on Urras and harasses a woman for sex when she explicitly states she will not do it with him. The necessity of this scene is absolutely beyond me, and I see absolutely no purpose for it. It is easily the worst part of the entire book.
Lastly I'd like to say that the book has a lot of fantastic writing and its to-the-point prose style don't make pretty imagery off-limits. There were several points where I filled entire sticky notes with singular quotes because I had to write down the long, yet well-written and intelligent passages. The Dispossessed is a book whose premise sets it up for success, an expectation it delivers on with impressive writing and real-feeling worlds, though there are bumps along the way.
I do have a couple issues with the book, and I think the strongest is that this book doesn't feel like it has an incredibly strong central plot. This issue in my mind is intertwined with the pacing, which is at times strange and flip-floppy. It begins with our main character Shevek boarding a ship to go to Urras, describing the wall of the port he leaves from as something along the lines of "the most important division in the world for the past 150 years," and while once you get far enough into it is sufficiently clear why it is so, there are no more scenes at this port and it is only mentioned once or twice after that. Next, Shevek leaves, and once he arrives, the book flashes back to his childhood for a couple chapters to bring us up to speed, which is bumpy since we barely know who he is at this point but it ends up alright. I enjoyed this section a lot, but I think it should have been saved for later, or maybe even broken up and returned to in single chapters if Le Guin would like to lean into this book's habit of flipping between times and locations at the start of chapters. Most of these flips are bumpy to start, but good when they get going. A couple of them will make you wonder what planet he's on or something of the sort, but they quickly answer the question. The larger problem, to me, is that the conflict resolutions feel extremely half-done and are sometimes barely explored. Things he spends half the book doing are finished and then almost forgotten about a couple chapters later. It feels at several points like there's no real endpoint, just a bunch of things that happen and then stop happening. While this is not an inherently bad idea, I do not think it's intentional, nor is it great.
One thing about this book that left me kind of bewildered is—Trigger warning for mentions of SA— Shevek gets drunk on Urras and harasses a woman for sex when she explicitly states she will not do it with him. The necessity of this scene is absolutely beyond me, and I see absolutely no purpose for it. It is easily the worst part of the entire book.
Lastly I'd like to say that the book has a lot of fantastic writing and its to-the-point prose style don't make pretty imagery off-limits. There were several points where I filled entire sticky notes with singular quotes because I had to write down the long, yet well-written and intelligent passages. The Dispossessed is a book whose premise sets it up for success, an expectation it delivers on with impressive writing and real-feeling worlds, though there are bumps along the way.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault