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phoenix_7 's review for:
Red Clocks
by Leni Zumas
This was a perfectly okay piece of realism that demonstrates how a set of people can have very different perspectives of the same issue, but I can't say anything amazing about it. It certainly isn't "ferociously imaginative," as the cover claims. The "ferociously imaginative" world in which abortion is illegal feels like...tomorrow? Even the multi-perspective structure -- 4 women in contemporary Oregon and 1 19th century explorer whose story has been lost -- isn't super clever. The women's lives are entangled because they live in the same small coastal town, and the Biographer's interaction with the explorer's diary isn't profoundly affective to anyone but herself (and even that is debatable, in a way).
Ultimately the story asks each of these women to think about what makes a good life, while the world they live in asks (as the cover states) "what is a woman for?" It paints a portrait of how women can nurture and poison each other, how women's bodies are used to figuratively and literally feed others, and it doesn't settle on any one-sized-fits-all moral answer.
Again, as a piece of realism, that is a little too close for comfort at the moment, it's fine -- just not the type of fiction I'm interested in.
Ultimately the story asks each of these women to think about what makes a good life, while the world they live in asks (as the cover states) "what is a woman for?" It paints a portrait of how women can nurture and poison each other, how women's bodies are used to figuratively and literally feed others, and it doesn't settle on any one-sized-fits-all moral answer.
Again, as a piece of realism, that is a little too close for comfort at the moment, it's fine -- just not the type of fiction I'm interested in.