Genre: Dystopian
Description:
“A fundamentalist preacher with a misogynous bent gains control of the
Kansas legislature and begins enacting laws to subjugate women. Law student
Stacey Davenport starts a political resistance and begins an affair with an
idealistic, married legislator who is holding out alone against the worst of
these measures.
But as her lover’s passion for her slowly morphs into an uncontrolled
jealousy, his deep-seated urge to control her overpowers all constraints of
politics and religion. Only then does she realize the dysfunctional family she
had scorned and avoided for many years is her only hope.”
Author:
“Thomas Keech has written four previous critically acclaimed novels dealing
with state politics, teenagers entangled in suburban corruption, college
romance, and a predatory physician. He sincerely hopes that this dystopian
novel of fundamentalist madness is not predictive of the future. He currently
lives in a very blue state that has it own problems. He hopes to visit Kansas
some day.”
Appraisal:
In the dystopian country imagined in this story, the US has become
much like two different countries, the red states and the blue states, each set
of states passing laws at the state level that make sense from their partisan
point of view. As might be expected, with many of the reddest among us caring
most about one specific issue, the red states have implemented lots of laws and
regulations to prevent a potential mother from ending her pregnancy early. This
goes so far as requiring a female to have documentation showing she isn’t
pregnant to leave the state. If she forgets, a quick ultrasound at the airport
and, if all goes well, she’ll be on her way.
Our protagonist, a law student in Kansas, takes exception to these
laws. Worse, a religious zealot doesn’t think the laws go far enough and is
aiming to make them even more stringent. Stacey decides to fight back on behalf
of herself and her sisters.
Like all dystopian novels, this takes a current direction some people
are trying to pull the world or, in this case, country in. It then imagines a
slippery slope and what the world would be like if we slid all the way down
that slope. Part of me had a hard time believing the premise. Slippery slope
arguments are, most of the time, fallacious arguments. I wondered whether we’d
ever go this far, even in those states most likely to be willing. But then I pondered
how much more credible 1984 feels to me today than it did just a couple
years ago, and I was suspending my disbelief, at least for purposes of reading
the book. If nothing else, it should get you thinking, which ultimately is the
point.
Format/Typo
Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating: ****
Four Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate
word count: 60-65,000 words
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