A review by goblinhearted
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

5.0

 

[I]f no direction is taken, if one goes nowhere, no change will occur. One’s freedom to choose and to change will be unused, exactly as if one were in jail, a jail of one’s own building, a maze in which no one way is better than any other.

A physicist born and raised on an anarchist planet travels to a capitalist planet for his work and experiences the culture shock of a lifetime.

This is quite honestly one of my favorite books of all time. That being said, it is incredibly intimidating to write a review that I feel could possibly do this book justice - so I’ll keep it basic.

Annares is a planet with a society without the concept of ownership or possession, a society which discourages excess.

“Excess is exrement. Excrement retained in the body is a poison.”

Shevek’s work as a physicist leads him to attempt to visit Annares’ “twin moon”, known as Urras. On Urras, society values not only property and ownership but gratuitous excess to an extent that results in sharp economic inequality.

I enjoyed every last chapter of this book. While Annares is the so-called “utopia”, Le Guin approaches this concept more on the side of realism than idealism. I saw so much of Earth in Urras.

Like always, Le Guin creates multifaceted and nuanced characters set against rich backdrops. Everything I have read by her has been, at least in some way, a very real and sharp reflection of the human experience - and this novel is certainly no exception.

This is an amazing pick for a book club. It will foster lively discussion and spark complex interpretations about the various events that unfold within.

What drives people crazy is trying to live outside reality. Reality is terrible. It can kill you. Given time, it will certainly kill you. The reality is pain– you said that! But it’s the lies, the evasions of reality, that drive you crazy. It’s the lies that make you want to kill yourself.

With certainty, I will return to this book again in the future for a re-read.