Book Review: The Power « neverimitate

“Some fought with other girls; some are still fighting here. One had done the thing to a boy because he asked her to: this story holds much interest for the girls. Could it be that boys like it? Is it possible they want it? Some of them have found internet forums that suggest that this is the case.”

The Power, by Naomi Alderman, is set in a time when the world has changed. Adolescent girls are discovering they have the ability to generate electricity, to create what is effectively a small bolt of lightning from their hands. They learn to control this, to give small shocks or to kill.

Men are afraid of what this means to the established patriarchy and their ability to suppress female rebellion, including within family. If women are no longer afraid of men how can they retain subjugation – the demands they make of females who they believe they have rights over? A man may love a woman, exalting her femininity, but he still wishes to dominate. There are men who believe a woman’s purpose is to make him feel powerful.

The idea behind this story is enticing but not executed with sufficient engagement. There are plenty of moments that work, that cleverly draw attention to the way things have been allowed to continue for generations – how absurd the ingrained imbalance between the sexes is. Nevertheless, plot development soon became repetitive and derivative. As governments were overthrown and wars became inevitable the tale took on the themes of Orwell’s Animal Farm rather than anything more original.

Everything had changed and yet nothing had changed. Angry, entitled men feeling hard done by would do anything to lift themselves up, to be the ones back in charge, especially if damage inflicted was only on women – theirs to be used as men saw fit. Depressingly, the women who succeeded in establishing a recognised power base  were generally no better than the men had been in the various roles explored. The author may have turned entrenched ideas on their head but nothing was better.

I wasn’t keen on the religious undertones and wondered if this was to pander to an American audience. I also found the widespread drug use off-putting.

It was difficult to fathom how women would simply invert a system that had clearly been deeply unfair – could they not come up with a better way to coexist with men, one that did not rely on cruelty and repression? Of course, the men may have seen this as weakness, as presenting an opportunity to plot a return to how things had always been previously. It would have sat better with me if the women had at least tried to improve the world for all, not just treating men as unjustly as they had been treated.

I was unconvinced by the framing, again it felt based on ideas from elsewhere, although it did allow for a powerful final line.

The slow and repetitive plot progression alongside the depressing world building meant this was not a book I enjoyed reading. I am amazed it proved so popular when first published.

The Power is published by Penguin.