A pleasant read with deceptively simple storytelling that poses some big questions. (I'm writing this after my second read of the book. The first time, I breezed through it, set it aside and then was surprised how it lingered. This time, I gave it a closer read.)
The narrator Dorrit Weger describes life in a world where at age 50, for women, and 60, for men, people who have not had children or made "needed" attachments become "dispensable." They are moved to group homes where they take part in research experiments and then donate organs (until their final gift) for the benefit of society.
The story takes place in the utopian confines of the dispensable Unit, a windowless luxury shopping mall where everything is free and Dorrit is free to spend her time eating, exercising, writing, and forming loving relationships with the other dispensables. There's exploration, not action. Our protagonist is passive, partly how she became dispensable.
At the same time, she's threatened by a sinister dystopia, imprisoned by distant laws and bureaucracy, and under constant surveillance. Over time, dispensables sicken and display the wounds of the experiments they must take part it. Dorrit's friends disappear as they make their final donations. The dispensable are constantly aware that their worth lies in their monetary value to their more "needed" counterparts in outside world. Their lives, attachments, arts, and pleasures have no value otherwise.
Far from being didactic, the novel lends itself to interpretation and offers itself up for questioning. Recommended for book clubs.
Pairs well with: Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go"
The narrator Dorrit Weger describes life in a world where at age 50, for women, and 60, for men, people who have not had children or made "needed" attachments become "dispensable." They are moved to group homes where they take part in research experiments and then donate organs (until their final gift) for the benefit of society.
The story takes place in the utopian confines of the dispensable Unit, a windowless luxury shopping mall where everything is free and Dorrit is free to spend her time eating, exercising, writing, and forming loving relationships with the other dispensables. There's exploration, not action. Our protagonist is passive, partly how she became dispensable.
At the same time, she's threatened by a sinister dystopia, imprisoned by distant laws and bureaucracy, and under constant surveillance. Over time, dispensables sicken and display the wounds of the experiments they must take part it. Dorrit's friends disappear as they make their final donations. The dispensable are constantly aware that their worth lies in their monetary value to their more "needed" counterparts in outside world. Their lives, attachments, arts, and pleasures have no value otherwise.
Far from being didactic, the novel lends itself to interpretation and offers itself up for questioning. Recommended for book clubs.
Pairs well with: Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go"
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