book review: the power by naomi alderman

imo, the main idea of this book is that if the power hierarchy was reversed between women and men, the disparate social outcomes based on gender would exist in reverse. in summation, i actually was quite disappointed that this seemed to be the main point. the work the book does, though, is pretty incredible. it employs a fascinating mechanism, literal electrical power, to explore how the power dynamic would flip over 5-10 years. it also does deep imaginative work in questioning the idea that men have always been on top of the gender hierarchy.

if i implemented one idea from the book right now, it would be to explore what non-hierarchical power relationships look like. given that the author seems to believe that’s what would happen if things flipped right now, i want to be knowledable about how to have a different outcome (especially given that i’m working to shift power relationships in the world!).

i would describe this book to a friend as a sci-fi horror novel with deep imagination about gender, power, institution-building, and history. i would also say that while it is fascinating, it’s not particularly practical towards building a new world. but not everything needs to be.

reminder: book review structure

words / writing / post-processing
161w / ?min / 2min