We - by Yevgeny Zamayatin (Fiction)
Whoa. Whoa! Whoa!
Lemme tell you folks, I've been batting a thousand lately on the book front (albeit with a list of ringers). "We" is no exception. Somebody might have recommended it here? Thanks.
We is a flat out masterpiece. period, full stop. We also sits at the top (if not on top then very, very near) of the dis-topian/sci-fi genre. What makes it even more remarkable is that it predates most of the genre's greatest works by quite some time. By way of comparison, We was written in 1923, whereas the closely related work 1984 (2 books down on my reading/re-reading list BTW) wasn't written until 1948 (completed then IIRC).
Even though it is a translation the power comes through although the poetry & meter is obviously lost. The style is quite different from most works of fiction and while in the end I ended up at ease with it and enjoying the style, at first I found it moderately difficult to get my head into its gear (just a warning).
Set in the far distant future, and written as a memoir of sorts by D-503, We chronicles a strikingly well rendered authoritarian distopian society (ruled by the Benefactor (the only named character), a none-too-subtle Stalin figure, think of him as a gauzier/iron Big Brother) that starts coming apart at the seams. Basically, all aspects of an "individual's" life are regulated and coordinated broken down into chunks of time by their table of the hours (based on an ancient railroad schedule no less). D-503 begins as a quite earnest and eloquent proponent of their system and gets sucked into a conspiratorial world that he's not even guessed at by a domineering I-330 pseudo "love" interest. Don't want to get too into the plot, it is good.
Basically, Zamayatin gets Stalinist Russia pegged way early on as to its goals and methods.
About the only "negative" criticism I have is that in many ways he has a great ability to imagine technology far into the future (flying cars, "glass" building materials that can be darkened at the push of a button, a listening membrane, space ship etc...) but seems unable to fit them into the story as more than mere baubles.
This is certainly a "dark" book. It is not one wholly without optimism but it is not uplifting. Stark, probing, insightful but not fun.
Really, a great read. If you've already read 1984/Brave New World you owe it to yourself to read We as well. If you haven't read 1984/BNW, it is time to get cracking and We is a great (but not an easy) start.
We gets three out of four lemons, the only demerits come from it being a) a translation and b) the technology criticism.
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A note on the Lemon Scale. 3/4 is high praise indeed. Four Lemons are reserved for those works that truly transcend this world. A one Lemon book is still completely readable (I figure why waste time reviewing for you books that are less than that so the "bottom" of the scale is still quite high).
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Next up? Harvest of Sorrow by Robert Conquest (Non-Fiction). Teaser: I've just started and know that this is going to be a "good" one. Black, awful, painful to read but good.
If you aren't paying attention you'll miss the sucker punch in the intro:
"We may perhaps put this in perspective in the present case by saying that in the actions here recorded about twenty human lives were lost for, not every word, but every letter, in this book." Page 1.
Note, it is neither a thin book nor does it have large printing.
