The Book of the Unnamed Midwife (The Road to Nowhere, #1) in Beyond Reality

Jul 23, 2017 Katy rated it liked it

This is a rough book to read, but it kept my interest. There were times when the scenes reminded me vividly of some from The Stand by Stephen King. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 08, 2016 Tomislav rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, net-galley

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife won the Philip K. Dick award for best original SF paperback published in the US in 2014. Originally, paperback original publication was an indication of a less proven writer, one who does not guarantee a return to the publisher, or one who might take risks in writing style. Philip K. Dick was such a writer, and hence the award is named for him. In these days of ebooks, perhaps paperback original falls into a middle ground with regard to cost of publication. Unname The Book of the Unnamed Midwife won the Philip K. Dick award for best original SF paperback published in the US in 2014. Originally, paperback original publication was an indication of a less proven writer, one who does not guarantee a return to the publisher, or one who might take risks in writing style. Philip K. Dick was such a writer, and hence the award is named for him. In these days of ebooks, perhaps paperback original falls into a middle ground with regard to cost of publication. Unnamed Midwife was published in a small press paperback, and only this year (2016) republished in ebook. I received a kindle format ebook at no cost, prior to ebook publication, in return for publishing an honest review.

The setting is dystopic near future where a not-understood disease has wiped out most of the human population, but especially women and children. The main character is a physician’s assistant and midwife from San Francisco, who survives the plague and the immediate social breakdown, and who lives disguised as a man. While she uses several assumed names, her actual name is never given, nor is a physical description of her.

This book was presented to me as similar to Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, but truthfully the tone has more in common with Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale - except that the feminist tropes were more original 30 years ago in The Handmaid’s Tale than they are now. Rape and slavery of women is the norm among survivors, except in isolated communities where women are reduced to their reproductive capabilities. Birth control is the only possible last defense of women’s autonomy. A large portion of the narrative involves a setting in a surviving LDS (Mormon) community in Utah, and Elison demonstrates a high awareness of that culture, using it to call out and condemn aspects of American society in general.

The travelling unnamed midwife is able to enter and explore various social patterns that are emerging in isolated locations across America, some of which are certain to collapse, and others of which may survive. The frame of the story is from a more distant future, when the journal of the unnamed midwife is a historical document. In these emerging societies, the role of women seems polarized into either the top or the bottom rung with regard to the larger male population. One such society is patterned after a hive, with a central queen and a number of drones and sexual partners. I’m not sure how sustainable this would actually be, and that is definitely not explored in any depth. It’s just presented as an accomplished fact, at which the reader can marvel.

Still, the plot is engaging, with tension especially in survival and sexuality. The secondary characters are as fascinating as the unnamed midwife herself, with their own personalities and perspectives which go beyond simply decorating the main character. I have read that a sequel is being written, which focuses on a very minor character from near the end of the book. Since I felt that minor character was very much a poorly developed stereotype, I am not inclined to pursue the sequel. But I could be wrong. In any case, this is a strong first novel, and I recommend it.
...more

1 like · Like · see review