The Power by Naomi Alderman

"Gender is a shell game. What is a man? Whatever a woman isn't. What is a woman? Whatever a man is not. Tap on it and it's hollow. Look under the shells; it's not there."

I first came across Naomi Alderman's, The Power on a few different "best of 2017" lists. The synopsis of the book immediately intrigued me, and when President Obama named it one of his personal favorite reads of the year, that clinched it. I had to read this novel. I got it as a Christmas present from my mom, and then, like so many other books I am excited to read, I stuck it on my shelf and never got around to picking it up. It was a very easy decision to include it in my Finally in 2019 challenge this year, as this title has never really left my mind. Since I've been in the zone lately with making my way down my Finally list, I decided to sate my curiosity about The Power and give it a try.

The plot of the novel explores a world in which women suddenly develop the power to deliver powerful electric shocks through their hands. Their new abilities are biological; they are the result of exposure to a chemical put into the water during WWII and somewhat mirror the abilities of an electric eel. At first, these powers emerge in uncontrolled bursts; women end up shocking others (usually men) in moments of extreme stress. Eventually, however, women learn to harness and control their electricity. They are no longer the weaker sex, and the men of the world start to get very nervous. Told from a variety of different perspectives the eventually weave together, the story examines what happens when the balance of power between men and women is completely flipped on its head.

This novel was very enjoyable, and a big part of my enjoyment was the multiple perspectives approach. Most of the chapters alternate between four different characters, each offering a unique perspective on how the emergence of the power affects them. The first character we meet is Roxy, the daughter of a powerful crime boss. She uses her abilities to settle scores with other gangsters and cement her role in the family business. She works on the development of drugs that can be used to enhance women's powers, and takes the lead on manufacturing and importing the drug into countries around the world. Her rise shows the potential for illegal activities in this new reality, but navigating the criminal underworld doesn't come without its share of danger and heartbreak.

The next character, Tunde, is a young, male reporter. He catches some of the early instances of women using their powers on his phone and is vaulted to prominence when he starts uploading his videos onto YouTube. Soon, he is following the development of the power all around the world, and capturing the conflicts that occur as women start rising up in countries where they had limited, or no rights at all. He offers us the perspective of a man in a woman's world, and his growing fear of the opposite sex mirrors women's general fear and caution of men in our world today. Before long, he is afraid to be outside alone, and is always on the lookout for women looking to commit sexual violence against him, as that is now possible with the use of their electricity applied to the right places. As one of the women he captures on film shouts out, "Now [men] will know...that they are the ones who should not walk out of their houses at night. They are the ones who should be afraid."

Another character, Margot, is a small town politician. She uses her powers to climb the political ladder and become a powerful world leader.Out of all the characters that the novel follows, I found her to be the least compelling, but her story was still interesting to read. One part of the novel that struck me in particular was a conversation Margot was having with another politician in her city. She realizes, while listening to him arrogantly yammer on about something, that nothing he has to say is very important because she could kill him easily at any moment if she wanted to. She thinks that, "it doesn't matter that she shouldn't, that she never would [hurt him]. What matters is that she could if she wanted. The power to hurt is a kind of wealth." It made me wonder if a man's confidence now actually springs from this knowledge that they are physically more powerful than most women. Maybe. I'd probably feel more confident too if I knew I was the strongest person in a conversation.

The last major character, Allie, starts out as an orphan in the foster system. She first uses her power to escape an abusive foster home. Then, following the instructions of a mysterious voice in her head, she goes on to form a religious cult around the power. She becomes a living goddess among her followers and founds a powerful church that spreads around the world. She figures out how to use her electricity to cure certain maladies and becomes a faith healer to promote her vision. Eventually, she is able to use her influence to rewrite Christianity, changing parts of the scripture and editing religious iconography to reflect a woman-centered view.

As these women's stories eventually cross paths, a powerful narrative is formed around the corrupting influence of an unbalanced power structure. The strong come to dominate the weak, in ways both big and small. The comparisons to modern day gender relations are obvious, and it was very illuminating to consider how close the fictional events in The Power resembled the real-life injustices women have had to endure at the hands of men over the years. It was very engaging to see these concepts flipped around with women as the aggressors and men as the victims.

I was really into this story throughout the entire text, but the cleverness of the ending was what really made this a five star read for me. I had seen a couple of reviewers say that they were disappointed with the ending, so I was curious to see how I would feel. This isn't a happy story, and I didn't expect the ending to be light and fluffy. It wasn't, and I was fine with that. What I really did enjoy though, was the way the author ended the framing of the novel. At the start of the story, we get a series of letters between a male writer and a female publisher. The writer, Adam, is submitting the text of The Power in the hopes of getting it published as a historical novel, to explain the events leading up to an event called The Cataclysm that happened 5,000 years ago. At the end of the novel, the letters between these two return, and the way they discuss the story's believability and publication was just so smart and satisfying. I absolutely loved the last few paragraphs.

So, The Power was definitely a winner for me. I really enjoyed spotting the parallels to our present day culture and exploring the possibilities of what could happen in a world where gender roles were suddenly reversed. There is a lot of smart, clever writing in this novel and it feels like an important read for women, along the lines of The Handmaid's Tale. This is one of those books that earns the time you put in to read it. It's not a story for idle enjoyment--it's one that will stick with you for a while and make you think of the world differently. Anyone in the mood for a thought-provoking read should give The Power a try.

Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 5/6 Books Read

Total Books Read in 2019: 11