The Power by Naomi Alderman: A Review

“These things are happening all at once. These things are one thing. They are the inevitable result of all that went before. The power seeks its outlet. These things have happened before; they will happen again. These things are always happening.” – Naomi Alderman, The Power

It’s not often that you read a book that scares you and makes you laugh and think, “something about this book makes it feel important” all at the same time. The Power is the rare combination of thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining. The story is mainly told through the voices of four main protagonists in the wake of an earth-changing event: teenage girls, and then women, are able to shoot electricity through their hands. Almost overnight, women become more physically powerful than men. There is an almost joyous sense in the beginning of the book as women who have been oppressed and exploited are able to defend and free themselves from the men who victimize them. As their power grows, there are even indications that there may be entire nations led by women, policed by women and free of the old ways of doing business. And then things, well … they kind of take a turn, but I don’t want to spoil it for you.

There are so many things to recommend The Power. It is by turns frightening and sad and thrilling and funny. Alderman is so smart – as someone with an English background, there were times when I would pause and think, “wait, how did she just do that?” and then have to go back and read through the section again. If it sounds like I’m gushing, it’s because I am. The writing has a cinematic quality to it and you can see Alderman’s descriptions unfolding in front of you. Although the novel covers a decade, the pacing is strong and there was never a point where I felt the story lag. What was most compelling to me was how real the alternative present Aldermen created felt. The ability of women to shoot electricity out of their hands aside, everything in the novel felt like it could be happening right now because by and large, it is. Alderman pulls from politics and religion, history and Internet forms, media and academia to hold a mirror up to society. As women grow more powerful in the book, some of them also grow to abuse that power. Scenes where men are attacked or afraid to walk alone at night were terrifying but with the roles were reversed, it also made me realize how desensitized we are to hearing these same stories from women. As the novel progresses it slowly becomes clear that everyone wants the same thing: to be safe; but not everyone can have what they want.

This is not a book about gender wars, nor is it casting blame on one side or another. Through the novel, Alderman seeks to explore what power does to our humanity and ultimately sees power and the desire to wield it as part of what it means to be human.

I normally don’t read a lot of speculative fiction but several people recommended this book to me and I am glad that they did. Sometimes I think as readers we need a nudge out of our comfort zones – it’s easy to run the risk of letting the genre determine what you read and what you avoid. For what it’s worth, I think The Power is worth picking up. Beyond Alderman’s clear abilities as a storyteller, the story she is telling is an important one for our times.

Until next time, happy reading!

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal: A Review

“The pages didn’t really matter. The women could retell them. There were recordings. What Nikki wanted to do was talk to Kulwinder. Explain how these stories came about. Compel her to see that these women who had started one quiet rebellion could come together to fight a bigger injustice.” – Balli Kaur Jaswal, Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows

I have to confess right from the start that this novel really surprised me. Based on what I had heard, I was expecting something light and fun and while it definitely is fun and funny, it also digs into some pretty weighty issues. Set in the Punjabi community in Southall, a part of London, the main character, Nikki, accepts a job teaching Punjabi widows to read and write. Or at least, that is what she is told to do by her conservative boss, Kulwinder. The widows have other ideas. Rather than learning to read and write, they want to tell stories … erotic stories. (Like the kind of erotic stories that will make you blush if you are reading them in public.) What I hadn’t realized before reading this book is that in the Sikh community, if a man dies, his widow is never supposed to remarry. For the women in the writing group, the erotic stories were a way of recapturing a part of their lives that was gone forever, or of attempting to live out fantasies that their marriages had never provided.

The story reveals a lot of the ways the inhabitants of Southall are supported and constricted by their community. Nikki is the daughter of Indian immigrants to England. She is caught between her parents’ culture and that of the London she grew up in. She wants to be a “modern” girl, living apart from her parents, avoiding arranged marriage and choosing a career for herself, but after quitting law school and the death of her father, Nikki is adrift. She sees teaching the writing class as a way to make a difference for the women in her community being oppressed by traditional gender roles. The way the story unfolds juxtaposes notions of modern and traditional, East and West, and the roles of women and men in the community. Jaswal does an excellent job of creating women who feel real – they are kind and generous and backbiting and petty – and as a result, the reader greatly empathizes with their problems. The roles duty and honour play in the Sikh community are closely examined as they are often used to hold the community together and hide its sins. Far from being just chick-lit or a rom com, Jaswal uses the erotic story-writing group as a means of exploring so much about Southall’s Punjabi community in a way that is both fond and critical. One thing that dawned on me only after I read the novel is despite their circumstances, every single female character in this novel is strong. The novel also includes a subplot surrounding the mysterious death of Kulwinder’s daughter that keeps you turning the pages. There is a little bit of everything for readers here: romance, mystery, family drama and coming-of-age.

This is an excellent novel. I love books that allow you a glimpse into the lives of people in a way your real life would never let you experience and Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows definitely ticks that box. Jaswal surrounds all the issues she confronts in the book with great storytelling. It’s funny and thought-provoking and ultimately uplifting so I guess what I’m saying is, you really should read it. If you do, let me know what you think. Until next time, happy reading!

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones: A Review

“Someone always pays. Bullet don’t have nobody’s name on it, that’s what people say. I think the same is true for vengeance. Maybe even for love. It’s out there, random and deadly, like a tornado.” – Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

This is an incredible novel. It is told through the voices of Roy, Celestial and Andre. Celestial and Andre are childhood best friends who grew up in a black, middle class neighborhood in Atlanta. In college, Andre introduces Celestial to Roy, a young man from rural Louisiana with a lot of ambition. When the novel opens, Celestial and Roy are already newlyweds; there are indications of cracks forming in their marriage. Then Roy is convicted of a violent crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison for twelve years.

The story becomes a love triangle between Celestial and Roy, who try to hold their relationship together, and Celestial and Andre, the best friend she turns to when she can no longer fit her life dreams inside her role of being an inmate’s wife. Five years into his jail term, when Roy’s sentence is overturned and he is unexpectedly released, he heads back to Atlanta to see what, if anything, remains of his marriage. Celestial is left to choose between her husband and the man who has always been there for her. The love story is heartbreaking in its complexity. Through their voices, Jones’s depicts the strengths and flaws of her characters so that they read like real people. Jones’s use first-person narration for each character means that their desires and motivations are stripped raw – the reader understands the events unfolding from all three perspectives and this heightens the emotional tensions Jones creates. Jones has crafted the three narrator’s voices together so seamlessly in places that it is almost like you are able to understand the obstacles that confront the characters through a layering of perspective that resonates in terms of its complexity. It creates a strong sense of what each stands to lose or gain – but even the gains will come at the expense of each other and there is no easy path out.

Jones’s examination of the impact of race, class and gender roles on the black community in the American south runs like a harmony beneath the love story. So many of the decisions the characters make are informed by what is expected of someone who is black, or female, or wealthy. They are never free of those expectations and choosing to buck them comes with consequence. Celestial’s marriage becomes political even within her own family – her father sees her choice to begin a relationship with Andre as a betrayal not only of her marriage vows, but of her community. Roy is a wrongfully convicted black man in a state and a country that disproportionately convicts people of African descent. To her father, Celestial’s decision means turning her back on the injustices that black men face in America and on her role as a black woman where the expectation is to support her man despite the personal cost. The book is a powerful reminder about the vulnerability of people in a society where race and class can determine your fate and the system doesn’t protect you.

If I had to describe this novel in one word it would be powerful. At times the emotional suffering of the characters weighs heavy but Jones’s writing is so compelling and the characters she creates are so real that pacing never slows. I read this book really quickly. I think if you like Celeste Ng’s novels, then Jones is likely an author who will speak to you.

Have you read An American Marriage? Drop me a line and let me know. Until next week, happy reading!

February Line Up

Since it’s February, the theme this month will be “love” in honor of Valentine’s Day but before you go breaking out the Harlequins, you should know that I am not exactly a roses and chocolates kind of gal so I tried to choose books that would avoid all the cliched bodice ripping and come at the theme in unique ways.

February 9, 2019: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

This book appeared on just about every “best of 2018” list I came across. Set in contemporary Atlanta, it is the story of newlyweds Celestial and Roy. While their marriage is troubled from the beginning, they seem passionately in love. Then Roy is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. After five years, Roy’s sentence is overturned and he is free but when he returns, it is uncertain whether Celestial still considers herself his wife. Her career as an artist has taken off and she is in a relationship with her childhood best friend, Andre. When Roy arrives on her doorstep a free man, Celestial is left to choose between continuing to build a life with Andre, or trying to save her marriage.

February 16, 2019: Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

This novel is about a group of women who join a writing class in London’s Punjabi community. The main character, Nikki, realizes that her students, mostly Sikh widows, have a wealth of memories and fantasies to share and their little community begins to express their creativity and secrets within the confines of the class. But a group called the Brothers threatens to expose their scandalous stories in reaction to what they see as the failings of the women’s morality. The book speaks to the power of women’s communities and stories while remaining heart-warming and funny.

February 23, 2019: The Power by Naomi Alderman

This is another book that made a lot of “best of” lists when it was published in 2016. The Power is a little nod to those of you who might be looking for something a little anti-Valentine’s to read this February. It was recommended to me by a couple of friends who said they couldn’t get through it fast enough. Set in a world that seems like ours, a new force emerges – women and teenage girls have suddenly developed incredible strength and they can cause pain or even death with only the slightest effort. With this one change, everything we recognize shifts drastically. I find speculative fiction like this interesting because in inventing a new world, it often provokes questions about our own.

So here they are, the February reads for 2019 and not a Danielle Steele to be seen. If you are planning to read any of these, or have already beat me to them, I would love to hear your thoughts. Until next time, happy reading!