The Wall by John Lanchester

“From the wall, to the sea, a cold dystopian adventure”

Overview: Framed against the aftermath of a catastrophic climate disaster known as ‘the Change’, Lanchester paints a deeply compelling picture of a divided nation, committed to defending its walls at all costs. The dark heir of his state-of-the-nation novel Capital, The Wallis a Middle England dystopia for our fractured and uncertain times. A thrillingly apposite allegory of Broken Britain that asks key questions about the choice between personal freedom and national interest.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Although I have vehemently claimed I don’t like first-person books, many dystopian novels are written in first-person so I read them and end up loving them. This was a really interesting story, especially since “The Change” against which the entire world is changed, is never really explained, allowing the reader to come to their own conclusions.

What makes this story so disturbing isn’t just the world the author created, but even more so, the emotions of the main characters. They are mostly helpless pawns navigating a world that their parents’ generation created and controlled.

Anthem by Ayn Rand

“Pronouns can get confusing, but it has a solid message”

Overview: Anthem tells the story of Equality 7-2521, a man living in a time in which the words "I," "my," and "mine" do not exist and each person is assigned a life of toil in a designated vocation at the age of 15.

The book is around 100 pages and a quick read and is impressive in that as a short story it masterfully weaves together the concepts of invention, freedom, conscious thought, and the power of the individual. 

The story at times becomes preachy and heavy-handed, but it doesn't detract from the story. For as controversial as Rand can be, Anthem does a very good job of illustrating a core concept of her ideology with a great deal of brevity. She manages to make a compelling point about the nature of the philosophical debate between individualism and collectivism without overreaching or attempting to explain more than the work is capable of. 

Although the story is dark, it is compelling, and it forces the reader to consider how easily our own society could fall victim to conformity. Whatever you may think of her reasons, Rand could write, and this story has many vivid images you'll remember.