Dystopian Novels.....Female writers rule !

All my absolute favs were written by women: Doris Lessing (but not the Campos ones, the earlier ones), PD James (Children of Men), Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx & Crake, The Year of the Flood) and now, 'The Unit' by Ninni Holmqvist.



Moreso that any of my other favs, "the Unit' does, as one critic said (I read some reviews after not before, I read the novel) ...'create a mental condition and a geographical place.' And, moreso than any of the others, it incorporates the essential gender bias towards the 'longer productivity' of men over women in the marketplace...But more harrowing is the definitive line drawn between the 'dispensable' people (both male and female) and the 'necessary' ones.



If this book had not been written in Swedish, by a Swede, and only recently translated into English and sold in English edition, I would suspect it to have been a fictional commentary the 'logical extensions' of the right/conservative agenda .... but it is much grander in sweep....and therefore much more politically inclusive, focusing as it does on 'what it really takes' when a country and its society take action to ensure that resources and policies focus on achieving productive results.



Read it (Amazon has it on Kindle and paperback) and wonder....even if you can classify yourself among the 'necessary ones' ...if you're willing to go there....or to live in a country that does.