We – Yevgeny Zamyatin

Rating: 5 stars

When I started We, I was reminded much of Nadja by André Breton. Both written around the same time, they are hard to read. In fact, I never finished Nadja. Reading We was often a slog, and I don’t blame the translator whatsoever. I think it was that the writer had more desire for his concept than readability or fluency. Ideas often jumble together, and you have little idea of when things are literal, metaphorical, symbolic or a postmodern mixing of emotions and reality.

That’s most of the negative, so now I’ll go onto the positive. I really like golden age Sci-Fi, or that’s what I call Philip K. Dick and Asimov. I didn’t read much Heinlein or others so I guess I can’t comment as to them. I like big ideas that are creative or foresee the future. The writing isn’t as important, but it makes my life easier. It flies in the face of people casually enjoying books and whatnot, but I have particular tastes.

The book was written in 1920-21 (that’s what the introduction tells me) and predates 1984, Stalinism, Nazism and World War 2 but describes a world of emotional purity, neighbors fearing neighbors like the Inquisition or the Gestapo, authoritarianism reminiscent of Brazil (uh, the movie), 1984, Logan’s Run and whatnot and weird Sci-Fi abstractions that feel more developed than Zardoz and other weirdness. I did purposefully mention postmodernism because a lot of the book has parts that reminded me of Brazil, where emotions are much of the story. This isn’t 1984 where the truth is knowable (at least that’s the impression I got). It was just written 64-65 years before Brazil!

So despite the flaws (mostly that you have to pay a lot of attention and be ready to be punished for it), this is worth a read. Like most great Russian literature, you have to settle down and be serious about it. Know this is not pulp fiction. Do it when you’re ready and appreciate what you have in front of you.