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[engl2593fall2021]

The Power

[engl2593fall2021]

Book Review : "The Power" by Naomi Alderman

“The Power was on my reading list for months. It sat there while I was unsure whether I should read it or not. It seemed to me it would be too much like this book or this TV show. I was wrong and as I read on it kept on delivering.

One day, the fifteen year old girls of the world realise they have the ability to inflict pain with an electric current they can create from a flick of their hands. Little by little, all female teenagers come into their power and grown women realise they can have it too.

The power is not only the ability the women of the world have awakening in them, the literal power to hurt. It's how from this physical power arise the self confidence and then the political power, the religious power, the power over others and over history. Power begets violence and violence feeds itself from power.

The novel follows four main characters: Allie, a teenager who was abused by her foster family ; Roxy, who is the illegitimate daughter of a London criminal ; Margot, the mayor of an American city and whose daughter Jos comes into her power ; and finally Tunde, a Nigerian young man who reports the events happening all over the world.

These four narrative threads really give scope to the events, because we share them from all over the world, either in a major Western city, from different countries, or within a small community. All four slowly reveal the deep mutations of the society, and like a quilt being sewn, you see how this is going to happen.

"This?" are you asking. Yes, "This". "This" is the twist in the story that happens in the first two pages and that I won't reveal here because it is, I think, what really sets this story apart.

But it makes for a powerful and uncomfortable read, because you end up reading some atrocities, feeling sorry for the men it happens to, before suddenly remembering "Hey! Hang on! This is exactly what is currently happening to women, you know!" And I think that's also where The Power really is successful. The reversal of stereotypical situations and attibutes progresses as the novel progresses and Alderman is to be praised for how she fully exploited the architecture of her story by letting us know, from the beginning, how it would all end. History belongs to the winners.

It also makes for a morally complex read. After all, haven't women had to bear with violence and fear and shaming all their lives? Is the reversal acceptable? The novel gives a clear answer to that, though with a bleak view of humanity, whether you're male or female or intersex/queer.

What I was afraid of when picking the book was that it would be Buffy season 8 - alternate version (1). It's not (not at all, like really not). It's more of how a turned on its head Handmaid's Tale came to happen mixed with a turned on its head Parable of the Sower. It also reminds strongly of In the Mothers' Land by Elisabeth Vonarburg. The Power picks up the conversation held in feminist scifi novels for decades and adds its stone to the whole. It is the continuity of it.

Nonetheless it is different and original thanks to those four first pages that announces a tragedy that you will see unfolding, a bit in the way of a Greek tragedy, while the writing maintains a sustained and gripping pace. And the last pages will have any woman who has had to face a patronizing man chuckling (or sobbing of despair).

The Power will very probably end up being a classic feminist scifi novel. Alderman wrote a gripping tale that any SF reader who likes its genre to deal with social and political themes will love.”

-author unknown

http://www.themiddleshelf.org/reviews/naomi-alderman-the-power

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The Reverse of Cultural Norms in “The Power” by Naomi Alderman

Naomi Alderman’s “The Power” specifically challenges typical normalities that lie within a patriarchal society. Typically, men are deemed more powerful due to their ability to have the upper hand when it comes to physical imposition. In her novel, the narrative unfolds in a way that allows women to gain leverage over this typicality. While this leverage comes from a fictional force that is the electrical network women have to inflict violence among their abusers, it is certainly a great way for readers to evaluate what the world would look like if the narrative over gender supremacy were to be flipped. Women stepping into dominant roles leads to discrimination among men. This reversal allows readers a chance to consider what normalized violence towards men would look like and shows the societal reactions under this new dynamic. Authorities begin warning boys and men to stay inside for their safety and to be alert during their interactions with women as it could lead them to be harmed. This is an example of the warning statements women receive growing up in regards to their interactions with men. There are many parallels presented throughout the novel comparing this alternate world to that which we live in today, only with a roles reversed point of view. Another example is when in the town of Bessapara, women place restrictions on men and their freedoms. While exaggeration is ever-present throughout these parallels, the latter is true for many womens’ freedoms in some countries even to this day. The story becomes even more aligned with these power and gender dynamics when she dives into sexual encounters and dominance between the sexes. Especially in Bessapara, where women were held captive in sexual slavery for long periods of time, we see how women begin reciprocating the harm done to them by men in order to feel a sense of revenge. The reciprocity of these violent acts forces men to consider the intense brutalization that women endure and put themselves in the shoes of women's experiences. Reading something so graphic about men being in a position of victimization by the entire female population is very curiosity-provoking. Although a bit troubling to read at points, Alderman’s novel is a great analysis of understanding what it may be like to exist as a woman. The forced reversal of gender ideologies and power systems is an effective eye-opener to the harsh reality we live in with men deemed as more powerful.