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A review by jessdone
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison
4.0
I love post apocalypse dystopian future books, and "The Book of the Unnamed Midwife" is no exception. I feel there's very little I could talk about in the review without spoiling the book, and this is a book that benefits greatly from the sense that the reader doesn't know what's going to happen next.
The writing itself is solid. It is plain, direct, and straight. All things that one expects in a world where society has crumbled. Long prose and flower description just doesn't belong in this world.
One "issue" I had with the book was that I didn't necessarily buy the human reaction to a plague that seems to target women and children. Some of the reversion, strikes me as false in this book as it did in "Lord of the Flies". Intentionally reveling in the basest most grotesque aspect of man in a manner that I don't think resonates to modern day American society, even as we'd see it in a collapse of all major systems. Some of the descriptions of people after I found stereotypical and biological reductive in a way that I just don't think would happen. I also felt that sometimes Elison cherry picked elements of a group so that she could paint the worst in them without ever really seeing or understand their strengths and how they would rise above said challenges.
While I found it troubling, I do think it's a great conversation starter on how men perceive women and treat them both in modern society and in more extreme environments. And my experience/perceptions aren't the end all be all of the world.
I liked that the catalyst for the world going to shit was beyond human control. Dystopia comes along because humans suck, so we expect the worst in them. In this care the end came from a disease, which at least allowed for us to see how humanity "at it's best" would react to the world's destruction.
I also enjoyed how unlike so much in the genre Elison isn't offering a "warning" or a "solution". While I often revel those elements of post apocalyptic settings ("1984" is an all time favorite in part because of it's messaging with "The Handmaiden's Tale" a close second), they can be tiresome, particularly with the rash of YA dystopias flooding the market. "The Book of the Unnamed Midwife" was a refreshing break. It gently opens conversation without ever preaching. It has a tense, interesting story without ever bordering into what is "wrong" or "right". In many ways it shows compassion and empathy for the human condition in the multiple ways one may deal with the destruction of one's world.
For my taste, the book actually wraps a little too much up. There are many characters introduced and then leaving the main protagonist, and *spoilers* we learn about the life and death of each of these characters in an aside. My sense of completion appreciated "knowing" what happened, but part of me was disappointed. In these kind of books, I like not knowing what happens to characters who leave the protagonist's group. That lingering worry and sense of not knowing, never knowing hangs large and troubling over both the protagonist and the reader. Also some of the endings are waaaaay waaaaaay too much coincidence for my taste, and it would be a stronger story without all that neat bundling.
Still I really liked the intensity and over all story. Would recommend to most anyone a fan of this genre. It's offers a new and interesting experience without straying too far from the post apocalypse genre.
The writing itself is solid. It is plain, direct, and straight. All things that one expects in a world where society has crumbled. Long prose and flower description just doesn't belong in this world.
One "issue" I had with the book was that I didn't necessarily buy the human reaction to a plague that seems to target women and children. Some of the reversion, strikes me as false in this book as it did in "Lord of the Flies". Intentionally reveling in the basest most grotesque aspect of man in a manner that I don't think resonates to modern day American society, even as we'd see it in a collapse of all major systems. Some of the descriptions of people after I found stereotypical and biological reductive in a way that I just don't think would happen. I also felt that sometimes Elison cherry picked elements of a group so that she could paint the worst in them without ever really seeing or understand their strengths and how they would rise above said challenges.
While I found it troubling, I do think it's a great conversation starter on how men perceive women and treat them both in modern society and in more extreme environments. And my experience/perceptions aren't the end all be all of the world.
I liked that the catalyst for the world going to shit was beyond human control. Dystopia comes along because humans suck, so we expect the worst in them. In this care the end came from a disease, which at least allowed for us to see how humanity "at it's best" would react to the world's destruction.
I also enjoyed how unlike so much in the genre Elison isn't offering a "warning" or a "solution". While I often revel those elements of post apocalyptic settings ("1984" is an all time favorite in part because of it's messaging with "The Handmaiden's Tale" a close second), they can be tiresome, particularly with the rash of YA dystopias flooding the market. "The Book of the Unnamed Midwife" was a refreshing break. It gently opens conversation without ever preaching. It has a tense, interesting story without ever bordering into what is "wrong" or "right". In many ways it shows compassion and empathy for the human condition in the multiple ways one may deal with the destruction of one's world.
For my taste, the book actually wraps a little too much up. There are many characters introduced and then leaving the main protagonist, and *spoilers* we learn about the life and death of each of these characters in an aside. My sense of completion appreciated "knowing" what happened, but part of me was disappointed. In these kind of books, I like not knowing what happens to characters who leave the protagonist's group. That lingering worry and sense of not knowing, never knowing hangs large and troubling over both the protagonist and the reader. Also some of the endings are waaaaay waaaaaay too much coincidence for my taste, and it would be a stronger story without all that neat bundling.
Still I really liked the intensity and over all story. Would recommend to most anyone a fan of this genre. It's offers a new and interesting experience without straying too far from the post apocalypse genre.