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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

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In the not-too-distant future: The Unit & Anna

21/3/2018

4 Comments

 
Setting a novel in the near future requires two extra decisions. To what extent will this imagined world differ from what’s familiar today? What defines that difference? Although the social, environmental and technological developments or regressions in this fictional landscape are inevitably interlinked, one factor tends to dominate (and perhaps determines the readership to which it most appeals). At least that’s what I’ve been thinking since reading The Unit and Anna back-to-back (as well as recent dabbling in one of the subgenres myself). In the first, a democratic society has agreed (over time) that the lives of economically and socially unproductive citizens can be sacrificed for the common good. In the second, feral children roam a post-apocalyptic world in which adults have been wiped out by a virus and most of the infrastructure by a fire. Tempted? Read on!

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The Unit by Ninni Holnqvist translated by Marlaine Delargy

Dorrit isn’t needed. With no dependents, no long-term cohabiting relationships and a patchy employment record, she’s never been needed. Relishing the freedom to please herself and having ample thinking space for her writing, she was fine with that. Until her fiftieth birthday loomed. Not because she had particular fears about ageing but because at that point she’d be decreed dispensable and obliged to relocate to a community of similarly economically worthless men and women.
 
With attractive apartments, gourmet meals, beautiful gardens and myriad sporting and cultural opportunities, the Unit seems almost utopian. For those accustomed to a degree of financial and social exclusion, it’s heavenly to find themselves in a welcoming community where they want for nothing. But there’s a catch, and it’s a big one. While Dorrit quickly adjusts to the constant surveillance (even when making love or on the toilet), and enjoys participating in a research project on the impact of intense exercise, it’s hard to face the fact that, although healthy, she’s come here to die. However pleasant the Unit, however compassionate the staff, there’s no denying its primary task is providing donor organs for the more deserving community outside its reinforced glass dome.

 
A dystopian novel needs not only to create a convincing alternative society, but provide a mirror to our own. Swedish author Ninni Holnqvist poses the ultimate question in her debut novel when Arnold, Dorrit’s psychologist, asks “What’s the meaning of life?” Her country seems to have decided that “life is capital… to be divided fairly among the people in a way that promotes reproduction and growth, welfare and democracy.” (p 103) For life in the Unit to be bearable, both staff and residents need to believe that some lives can be sacrificed for the greater good.
 
If you have followed my reviews for a while, you’ll know that I wondered about the psychologist. He certainly prioritises his client’s well-being, but he does ask a lot of questions! And of course his practice is constrained by the system, but perhaps ethically that’s not so different from therapy in secure units; under apartheid; for combatants in wartime.
 
Although I found the ending a little rushed, this is an engaging and thought-provoking novel. Thanks to Oneworld Publications for my review copy.

Anna by Niccolò Ammaniti

Anna runs along the motorway, her rucksack bouncing on her back. She’s no need to worry about cars: most of the fuel was swallowed by the fire that raged through Sicily not long after the virus killed all the drivers, and every other grown-up. But packs of feral dogs are a problem, competing with the children for what remains of the food. The gangs of children ruled by half-crazed teenagers peddling redemption are another threat. But, guided by the instructions left by her mother before she too succumbed, Anna is determined to survive. And to protect her younger brother with whatever mix of truth and lies will keep him safe in their crumbling house. At least until she reaches puberty and the virus, that has lain dormant within her, as in every human on the planet, claims her too.
 
The lavish quotes from broadsheet reviews on the back of my copy (courtesy of UK publishers Canongate) raised my expectations, perhaps unduly. For me, this was a simple story of sibling love and survival, simply told. While I’d have welcomed a greater challenge, Niccolò Ammaniti’s sixth novel to appear in English (there’s no mention of a translator for Anna, although it was published first in Italy) is an easy read.
 
If you like the sound of Anna, you might also enjoy Gold, Fame, Citrus and Station Eleven. For my reviews of other novels set in the future, see
this thread.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
4 Comments
Charli Mills
24/3/2018 03:32:45 am

For whatever reason, I recall an earlier grade school teacher who read us dystopian books, but I cannot recall the titles. In high school English, we read many dystopian books like Lord of the Flies, Fahrenheit 451, 1984, Brave New World, Animal Farm. This now makes me wonder if the purpose was to get us thinking about how the present is reflected in the future. I did not find the reading satisfying. Since then, I've read The Road and found it depressing, although brilliantly written. I wondered immediately what you would think of the psychologist character!

Reply
Annecdotist
24/3/2018 06:52:07 am

Thanks, Charli. As I enjoy the dark side, I do have a penchant for dystopian fiction. I think it’s quite a popular subgenre of YA, which is kind of how Anna read to me. That novel has also being compared to The Road (which I confess I haven’t read) and The Lord of the Flies, which was a big part of my team reading.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
25/3/2018 12:03:55 pm

Unlike you and Charli, I'm not real keen on futuristic - either science fiction or dystopian - novels. I don't like bleak and depressing futures. I think there's enough bleakness now without creating more in the future. I'd rather think we could create a better future regardless of how hopeless and dream that may seem. I guess that's my role as a parent and a teacher to have hope for the future, otherwise there'd be no point in either. Having said that, I think The Unit sounds quite interesting.

Reply
Annecdotist
26/3/2018 02:08:11 pm

I didn’t expect you’d like these, Norah, although I’m interested that you thought The Unit might have potential! I thought Charli was saying she also doesn’t care for sci-fi and dystopian novels.
We’ve differed in our perspectives on the future in other discussions. Perhaps I enjoy dystopian novels because unwarranted or false hope is much more frightening to me than no or very low levels of hope.
But I think we are similar in perceiving a responsibility to the future, contributing to making it better if that’s possible. While you see hope as a necessary precursor of this attitude, to me it’s less about emotion and belief but morality and politics.

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