The Power by Naomi Alderman

The Power by Naomi Alderman.

Some slight spoilers, nothing major

What a thought provoking read! Woman in control of men!

I have to say I really enjoyed this book. It gave me plenty to think about. To start with, the author seems to think that eventually nothing would change if women had the upper hand in politics, business etc. Apart from birth giving very little would change at all, one half of the species would be dominated by the other half. Now none of us ‘educated’ people really wants it to be this way but sadly it is and I have to say I see nothing wrong with everyone being equal. Afterall we are all human…...aren’t we?

Then there is the religious aspect. For the most part the author blames (if that’s the right word) religion for many of the problems that women faced before the cataclysm. I think she could easily be right too. I can’t think of any modern religion where women head the respected high positions. She then turns this on it’s head so that religion is still the major mover and motivator in her society yet now men are the ones who are mutilated or killed at birth as being seen as unwanted and undervalued. Not a totally different society, just a society run totally opposite to the one before the cataclysm.

I enjoyed how the book was presented in terms of short excerpts from the characters lives but each excerpt was an important part of them coming to terms with the new society. Allie, the abused teenager becoming a ‘messiah’. Roxy, a child that had seen her mother murdered, whose father was a gangster and how she had been drawn into the underworld but eventually saw how everything she was doing was wrong and benefited no one. The others also went through life changing moments.

The finale was a little surprising, I suppose the cataclysm did have to happen and society did have to rebuild from the stone age. I imagine it could never really happen any other way.

A definite read in my humble opinion.