The Power

Naomi Alderman

Historical fiction, written from sometime 5,000 years in the future (which means it is a story of what is about to happen in our time). Written as fiction because from the point of view of future humans, the descriptions of what life is like now is so outside the norm of their reality, that a true history would be seen as crazy and false. The story follows a series of women who are on the forefront of an evolutionary change in humanity where women are born with an electrical skein, or a reservoir of electrical static charge. These women use the ability to change the male/female power dynamic to the point that from the future, the mere idea that men could be soldiers, or violent, or powerful, or leaders is unimaginable. I see that one point of this telling is to turn traditional gender roles on their head so dramatically that the reader begins to think about stereotypes and biases in a new way. What I like is that woven into the story about gender is the more important story of power, and empire. We get to explore the human condition, seeking to understand, regardless of gender, the effects of seeking and finding power. And in that way, it is truly frightening and depressing. Alderman does not have a pleasant view of the truth of humanity and we can only hope that she is wrong in her assessment. A necessary read.

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