BOOK REVIEW: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin is a classic dystopian novel written in 1920-21 that was translated and published worldwide at the time, but banned in Russia until 1988. It was the inspiration for George Orwell’s 1984.

The novel is set in a future world on earth, after a 200-year war that changed society completely. People now live in a world made of nearly indestructible glass, their lives on public display. (They are under surveillance by "guardians.") They live according to rigid schedules, everyone rising, working, eating, taking a walk in the square at the same time, even chewing according to regulation. Sex is permitted only when a person receives a pink ticket to "lower the blinds" of their apartment for an hour. The partner is assigned. People are not named, but numbered. Nonconformity is swiftly, and publicly, punished by death.

The protagonist, D-503, is a mathematician, one of the chief builders of Integral, a spaceship designed to spread their ideal society to other planets. He is fully indoctrinated into this totalitarian society, ruled by the Benefactor. He believes himself completely happy.

And then I-330 enters his life. She makes him very uncomfortable. He dislikes her at first, but is sexually attracted to her and she exploits this, leading him to break rules and become reluctantly complicit in hiding her noncomformity. I-330 is one of the leaders of the resistance. Their goal is to hijack Integral and use it to smash the barriers of their glass world. They want to start a revolution that will return freedom to the people.

There is nothing heroic about D-503. He wants to remain in his bubble. But he also wants I-330. He discovers, to his dismay, that he has a soul and imagination. With all these upheavals, his life is a torment.

The resistance permeates society to a greater degree than D-503 realizes. But the state is strong and has a new weapon – an operation that can remove human imagination. Which will prove stronger?

The stark philosophies of the characters provide interesting food for thought. D-503's fear of freedom and his contrasting comfort with the highly intrusive state are chilling. The novel does come across as somewhat dated, since dystopias are now so numerous with much more explicit sex and violence and more in-depth characterizations. D-503 thinks mathematically and is confused much of the time, which makes it a tough read. Nevertheless, it’s fascinating to see how many of the issues are still relevant and likely always will be.

BOOK REVIEW: Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

Our book group’s latest book was Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. This journalistic historical account of the Osage murders of the 1920s is a fast-paced, detailed narrative of yet another shameful event in the long history of the exploitation of Native Americans.

In Oklahoma, members of the Osage Nation became (theoretically) extraordinarily wealthy when oil was discovered in their territory. Although the land had been ceded to the government, mineral rights had not, and anyone wishing to drill for oil had to pay the Osage.

In practice, although some of the Osage did acquire mansions and servants, they were not allowed to spend their own money without the permission of government-appointed guardians. Deemed incompetent by the government, the Osages’assigned guardians exploited them through various schemes that made the whites much more wealthy than their wards. But bleeding their wards dry was not quick enough for some of the guardians, who wanted more of the money and more direct control.

Members of the Osage Nation began to die, some of outright murder and others more insidiously under suspicious circumstances. Local law enforcement investigated half-heartedly and backed off quickly under threat of violence. Corruption ran deep. As the death count rose, the Osage had nowhere safe to turn.

At this point, the Federal Government stepped in. The newly created FBI, under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover, was called upon to find out what was going on. Hoover assigned a former Texas Ranger, the incorruptible Tom White, to head the investigation.

White proceeds with determination and intelligence to uncover a widespread conspiracy of greed, racism, and utter moral bankruptcy that is horrifying and, unfortunately, not at all surprising.

The book is well-researched and provides a crisp, clear, devastating story.