I must confess that I’m generally not a fan of dystopian novels. They make me uncomfortable and jittery. Readers generally live in the worlds they are reading about and a dystopian world is not usually one I want to inhabit. But I have also not shied away from the genre completely since people keep recommending their favorites to me. Over time, I must have read over a dozen of these books including the popular Animal Farm by George Orwell and Brave New World By Aldous Huxley. While I’ve not enjoyed most of them, there have been some that I couldn’t get out of my head. I have even reread several of those and this week I thought I’d recommend three of my favorites.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood is one of my favorite authors and so there was no chance I wouldn’t read anything she wrote, though I was initially skeptical about The Handmaid’s Tale. But I read it and was completely captivated by the unusual story. Published in 1985, the story is about a heavily structured totalitarian society of Gilead which is based on extreme ideas of Christianity. The society is however plagued with infertility and the founders of the Gilead come up with a solution: A few privileged men are made commanders and their wives run the household. Each couple is given a handmaid—a fertile woman forced to become the surrogate mother. After the handmaid delivers a child, she is passed on to a new commander. It’s a horrifying idea but Atwood executes it with perfection and manages to evoke empathy and make us really care about the characters, even the flawed ones. There is a 2017 television series by the same name starring Elizabeth Moss that you could watch after reading the book.
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
Revenge, a collection of short stories, by Yoko Ogawa is one book that I’m always recommending to people, especially those who love horror and gore. The Memory Police was shortlisted by the 2020 Booker Prize. It tells a daunting dystopian tale about an island that is controlled by the memory police. They are in charge of what people remember and what they forget. They are also responsible for the things—including plants and beings—that keep disappearing on the island. But there are some people who don’t forget. The Memory Police paints a picture of a frightening society where people’s minds are controlled by external forces. It’s kind of reminiscent of 1984 by George Orwell. The story is more plot than character driven despite there being parts where things move quite slowly. But all in all, there’s a dark atmosphere to the setting that doesn’t let you put the book down.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Road is perhaps my favorite dystopian novel of all time. I have reread it countless times and every time I shudder and feel really scared. The first time I read it, I drew the curtains tight at night and actually slept with a small light on. I will never forget that feeling. It’s brilliantly written and evokes such strong emotions. In this stunning post-apocalyptic novel published in 2006, a father and son make a difficult journey to cross a landscape that has been destroyed by an unidentified cataclysmic event. Their destination is the coast but they don’t know if there is anything there. They only have a single pistol to defend themselves and a cart of food that they have to ration along the way. The Road has many edge-of-the-seat moments. The setting is dark and dreary. It’s a terrifying book with many tender father-son moments that will make you want to hide under the covers as well as shed a tear or two.
