Red Clocks

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Oh, gosh. I'm probably the most inattentive person in the world. NOW I get what is depicted on the cover. Ughhhhhh! What for, people? Why do we need to see stylised female parts on a book cover? There some deep motivation behind it? Half the population have these parts. Do men get to publish books with their parts on the cover? (*just an afterthought*) All this makes this book sound like a polemic on reproductive rights but the experience of reading it is much more nuanced character study. It presents the interlinked stories of five very different woman in a world where reproductive choice is restricted. The politics of this is deftly referenced almost as an aside. It is never suggested that one particular path is easier or of less consequence than another but the book does an exceptional job of highlighting the importance of individual choice. The overarching story is a cautionary tale about the things that happen when we're not looking. Through the lens of this fictional world, we're meant to see a glimpse of the real world. There are protests and celebrations as the new laws are enacted, but most people have retreated into their own lives. When most are complacent, the few have the power to make the decisions for the many. As a history teacher, Ro knows "how many horrors are legitimated in public daylight, against the will of most of the people." There are often instances in history where the majority opinion in the United States is out of line with the ruling party's platform. Infighting between those in those in the majority further decreases their voting power. In Dead Center, former congressman Jason Altmire writes about how all but the extremes have disengaged from politics. What does this mean for the country's future? Whatever happens, we all have to deal with the consequences— sometimes in ways we didn't anticipate. My main problem were the characters that often felt underdeveloped and not particularly fleshed-out. As they are often refered to by a descriptor (“the mother”, “the daughter” etc.) this was probably on purpose: these things that are happening do not happen to these women because of who they are but rather because of the way the social structure is set up. Intellectually, I get, emotionally, I did not care for their stories at all. There was a large chunk in the middle that did not work for me because of that distance. I do think that the storylines converged nicely in the end and that the character development if slight did work.

Poetic and terrifying...You'll thrill to Zumas's well-crafted sentences, but prepare to get angry." In this dystopian world Vitro fertilization is banned...and a Personhood Amendment grants rights of life, liberty, and and property to every embryo. Unmarried persons will be legally prohibited from adopting children. In addition to valid marriage licenses, all adoptions will require approval through a federally regulated agency, rendering private transactions criminal.” The structure of the novel is basically perfect. The four women in the book all have lives centered around the central system of the female sex: its ability to bear children. It is the thing that has made patriarchal culture what it is, but it is also something that women have reclaimed and found joy and identity in as feminism has evolved. The way these women relate to pregnancy, birth, abortion, and childrearing stands in stark contrast to one another, but they all felt real and personally relevant. That Zumas allows them to be so different, to envy and dislike each other for their differences, and leaves it all without comment, without choosing any one character to be a moral highground or an arbiter of what is good, is another thing I liked about it so much. The book stays zoomed in on these women's lives, letting us see how they intertwine and react. It doesn't try to make a bigger statement, which is why it makes such an effective statement.Other areas of personal interest that the author explores in the text (not always successfully) include: Disintegration and Reintegration: much of Gin’s medicine is harvested from the unburied body of the woman who raised her; when Eivør dies a passage of Ro’s biography speculates on how her body re-entered the food chain. Keep collections to yourself or inspire other shoppers! Keep in mind that anyone can view public collections - they may also appear in recommendations and other places.

Zumas creates women with lovely endearing individuality and humaneness. I was concerned for their welfare and wanted them to turn out to have happy lives, almost to the degree that I feel about characters in Kent Haruf's novels. On the downside the characters's story arcs were not particularly interesting and their reactions to menstrual-related events never strayed much beyond the obvious, with the exception of the mender, whom I adored. Too bad her dramatic arc was wrapped up in a B movie plot. Overall, I felt the book was more concept and writing than characters and narrative structure. It really depends on what you're looking for, but I would personally expect a book with this intriguing a premise to contain a strong emotional pull and more of a plot. Oh well. I'm sure similar novels will be on the way. This is a dystopian story, but more than anything it seems to be a story that reminds us what can happen when we aren’t actively engaged, voicing our opinions in ways that matter regarding the decisions made by those in power. This is a story of 5 woman there day to day life, their dreams and goals, there desires and struggles. The chapter headings are The Daughter, The Mender, The Wife, The Biographer, The explorer, It shows what they are seems more important that who they are. You only find out their names by other characters in the book using them.Sorry, SF fans, this one isn't SF no matter how it might be billed that way. There is ONE alteration to reality and it's only a legal one. Abortions are outlawed. The rest is, as they say, history. THE BIOGRAPHER (Ro) - A forty-two-year-old high school teacher who desperately wants a child but her time is running out thinks to her own body and the government.

As a novel, however, it's okay. I might have liked it better if the more fascinating Biographer had an actual name. A lot of the details of the characters' lives were more interesting than their Roles would have them be. Is it on purpose? Undoubtedly. Did it work the way it should have? Not sure, but I'm leaning toward no. Well, good. It’s a hard world.”“We are the dinosaurs, marching, marching.“We are the dinosaurs. We make the earth flat!” The women in this suspenseful book resist.They will not be circumscribed. The effect on the reader is cathartic.” I went to find this book review for a news article link, but the entire review had been wiped! Maybe it was too long? I pieced it together again from Netgalley and a draft with quotes. I'm going to try to put my link section in the comments instead) Children raised by single mothers are more liable to rape/murder/drug-take/score low on standardized tests.This is getting billed as a dystopian novel to cash in on Handmaid hysteria, but it's really not that much of a stretch from our current environment, given that abortion access is being so severely curtailed in many states. The leaders of Zumas' world, though, have taken it a step farther and banned in-vitro fertilization and are about to ban adoption by single parents. These three laws complicate the lives of four women in rural Oregon: Ro, an unmarried biographer and high school teacher desperate to have a child despite her potential infertility; Mattie, a teenager who is stunned and frightened to realize that she is pregnant; Susan, the unhappy housewife and mother of two ill-behaved young children; and Gin, a natural healer who is looked at with skepticism by the townspeople who think of her as a witch. Opinion: Pregnant, and No Civil Rights (New York Times: 2014) Related to the creation of an unlikely class of criminals. The "i-would-nevers" sometimes find us in unexpected ways. Abortion is an understandably emotional issue, but it's important to objectively think about all the implications of laws. Are the trade-offs worth it? Are there better ways to reach the intended goals? Zumas experiments with different styles that change as we jump from one character to another. The narrative is fractured and messy - definitely more about experimental writing than telling a compelling and/or important story. I appreciate that this will be better suited to the kind of reader I am not. Wry and urgent, defiant and stylish, Zumas's braided tale follows the intertwined fates of four women whose lives this law irrevocably alters." Enter into a novel about vaginas. Names are missing because it's popular to write about real people as only their roles.

Leni Zumas’s fierce, well-formed, hilarious, and blisteringly intelligent novel [is] squarely a piece of Trump-era art." Witches – Gin’s trial is a modern version of a Salem Witch trials. Apparently at one stage pre-editing the link was going to be much stronger (with actual transcripts used) but even still I found some elements a little unbelievably given the near alternative future in which the world was set – for example a large part of the hostility to Gin seems to stem from her being blamed for the reappearance of some harmful-to-fishing seaweed. The only people working their ass off - NOT COMPLACENT- were people fighting like hell to make ‘sure’ gays would ‘not’ be allowed to marry.It was never yours." - As much as it hurts to admit, Ro has to learn she isn't entitled to something no matter how badly she wants it. Other characters realize that their children are their own people, not just an extension so them: "The girl is continuing herself." On January fifteenth—in less than three months—this law, also known as Every Child Needs Two, takes effect. Its mission: to restore dignity, strength, and prosperity to American families. Unmarried persons will be legally prohibited from adopting children. In addition to valid marriage licenses, all adoptions will require approval through a federally regulated agency, rendering private transactions criminal. (c) Mainly, we follow these women through vignettes of their lives, as they grapple with difficult choices based on their gender, or sexuality.